2 sites/ 4vcenters per site - need to go to vsphere 6

[tdubb123]

I got 2 physical sites.

each site has 4 vcenters running 5.5

each vcenter has it own sso installed and vcenter all in one box.

all 4 vcenters are in linked mode and can access all 4 vcenters via thick client.

any suggestion on how to upgrade or new install of vcenter 6?

can i upgrade the vcenter from 5.5 to 6.0 and move psc to external? or will it have to stay on same box?

open to setting up new VMs for vcenter 6. but I think prefer the upgrade path

suggestions?

[Nick_Andreev]

Linked-mode between vCenters with embedded PSC is not a recommended topology in vSphere 6: List of recommended topologies for VMware vSphere 6.0.x (2108548)

If you have vCenters with embedded SSO, then during the upgrade the only option is to upgrade to an embedded PSC. Good news is, starting from vSphere 6 Update 1 you can now repoint vCenter from an embedded to an external Platform Services Controller. Refer to this KB article: Repointing the VMware vCenter Server 6.0 between External Platform Services Controllers within a Sit...

[tdubb123]

what topology is best to use?

single psc/vcenter or multiple psc behind lb

[Nick_Andreev]

If you have multiple sites, you will still need at least one PSC per site. Then if you want to add redundancy on top of that, you can deploy a second PSC per site and put them behind a load balancer. Look at the 5th topology under the "Recommended topologies" section.

[tdubb123]

My current 4 vcenters are all in linked mode.

do I need to put them into the same sso domain/site inorder to have enhanced linked mode?

[tdubb123]

under what conditions do you define a new site?

when you have vcenters in different physical location?

[Nick_Andreev]

1. Yes, you need all vCenters in one SSO domain to be able to have a single pain of glass interface across all of them.
2. And yes, new site is typically a geographically distant physical location. You can have one SSO server for multiple vCenters within one site. But if you're adding a new site, it's recommended to install another SSO server on that site, to avoid latency issues when authenticating.

[tdubb123]

if all my vcenters servers each has an embedded sso, if I upgraded to vcenter6, then I would have 4 different pscs? how would that work?

[MattiasN81]

Correct, if you upgrade a vCenter with an embedded SSO the installer will upgrade to vCenter 6 with embedded PSC, and as stated earlier in this thread that topology is deprecated for multisite deployments.

[Nick_Andreev]

You can think of PSC as a new SSO. You have eight SSO servers now. In the same way you can have eight PSCs.

What VMware suggest, though, is to have PSCs installed as separate VMs. Multi-site configuration with embedded PSCs is not a valid topology.

What I would also suggest is to have one PSC per-site. Which would reduce the number of PSCs from eight to two and significantly simplify the upgrade process.

[tdubb123]

Hi

Is it possible to break off sso to another server while upgrading to vsphere 5.5 update 3b? This is in preparation for vsphere 6 so that I dont have to have psc embedded.

[Nick_Andreev]

No, only before or after the upgrade.

[tdubb123]

hi

I am trying to find the least dusruptive way to get to vsphere6

so this is my plan:

1. Build out Highly available PSC environment using PSC appliances behind F5 loadbalancer - probably use 4 PSC appliances behind the F5 per site

2. upgrade all existing vcenters with (embeded sso) to vsphere 6. All PSC will be embedded after upgrade and a deprecated configuration

3. repoint PSC to the PSC VIP

do you see any issues with this?

1. What will happen to existing linked mode vcenters after vcenter gets upgraded to 6.0?

2. What will happen to the vcenter with the PSC being repointed to the VIP during that time?

suggestions?

[MattiasN81]

The only issue i see with the plan is no 1.

VMware states in the documentation that only one PSC is allowed during repoint.

If you install vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller, you can convert it to vCenter Server, and repoint it to an external Platform Services Controller within the same domain.

Important

You can create snapshots of the vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller and the external Platform Services Controller, so you can revert to the snapshots if the reconfiguration fails.

Prerequisites

■

Verify that you have only one external Platform Services Controller installed.

■

Verify that the external Platform Services Controller is in the same vCenter Single Sign-On domain as the embedded Platform Services Controller.

It may work to install all PCS and the repoint but i have never tried that, i usally starts with just one external PSC and then expand.

1. After upgrade to v6 all vcenters will still be in linked mode, if all vcenters are in the same SSO domain they will automatically be in linked mode, one of the nice new features in v6

2. You can repoint a vCenter to a different PSC live, however if you move the vcenter to another PSC site "container" you need to restart the services, still i would not do this kinda upgrade on normal hours, too many "Murphys" along the way

[Nick_Andreev]

If you're running a big mission-critical production environment by all means also take the time to test it in a lab to get familiar with the process. Last thing you want is to be sitting and figuring things out while your vCenter is down and no one can connect.

[tdubb123]

what does only one PSC mean? The exposed PSC is a PSC VIP.  that should be a single PSC known to vmware wouldnt it?

[tdubb123]

‌hi

thinking  migration existing 5.5 sso off the existing vcenter prior to upgrading to 6

thoughts  on this

http://www.virtually-limitless.com/vsphere-6-0/upgrading-from-embedded-sso-5-5-to-external-sso-psc-6...

[13thDisciple]

Set up new boxes!

architectural changes made from the 5.x series to 6.x would run around in the back of my mind and drive me crazier. . . . I mean crazy!