Upgrade considerations from 5.5U1 to either 5.5U3 or 6.5a

[Sangokan]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for some guidance.

We have a small datacenter in a region running VCenter on a Windows Server 2012 version is 5.5U1, there are 2 ESXi hosts running 5.5 U1, they both replicate to a Vsphere replication appliance running on a third ESXi hosts on 5.5 U1 (VA is 5.8.0.1 Build 2170514)

There is no HA setup, we are running Essentials so we are planning on some downtime.

We need to upgrade the ESXi hosts at least to 5.5 U3 because of a problem we encounter where a virtual server is stuck at Loading https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=20928...

What would consider the best approach:

Upgrade vcenter to 5.5U3 then all the ESXi hosts (eventually upgrade later VA)

Upgrade vcenter to 6.5 a then all the ESXi hosts (eventually upgrade later VA)

Or another scenario

Would VA work at it scurrent version if i upgrade vCenter and ESXi hosts?

[a_p_]

Assuming that your hardware (and any 3rd-party applications, like backup) is supported, both versions are basically ok.

However, if you want to move to vSphere 6.5, you'll need to find a way to upgrade the replication part. I posted a question about such an upgrade a while ago (see Upgrade vRA from 5.8 to 6.5) but didn't get a reply so far.

Regarding the issue you mentioned. adding monitor_control.enable_softResetClearTSC = TRUE to the VM's settings worked perfectly for me in the past.

André

[Sangokan]

Thanks, i have decided to go to 5.5U3 first, i already upgraded vCenter and the ESXi host where the faulty VM is.

Now all the replicated VM have a warning that disks need to be consolidated.

Will this affect the replication? Or it will resume normally after disk reconsolidation?

[a_p_]

Did you upgrade vSphere Replication to a supported version too (e.g. 5.8.1 in this case) after upgrading vCenter Server?

see Update sequence for vSphere 5.5 and its compatible VMware products (2057795) | VMware KB and http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php?#interop&2=792&83=

André

[Sangokan]

Cheers.

Yes i did upgrade the VRA to 5.8.1 but realized the replication shows as enabled (not accessible) in the Vi Client

Restarted the VA replication appliance but no luck, found this KB https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=20846...

And checked the ovfEnv.xml file in the appliance and it's empty

Dunno what to do next

[Sangokan]

replying to myself actually i just stumbled a post talking about the same issue.

I was restarting the VRA after upgarde and the trick was to shut it down then start (reboot doesn't update xml fil;e from what i understood)

[Sangokan]

So upgraded to 5.5U3 and set monitor_control.enable_softResetClearTSC = TRUE

Still after rebooting the server, it is stucked at the loading screen

:smileyconfused:

[a_p_]

In this case, the issue might be caused by something else. I did install dozens of Windows 2012 Servers in the past, and didn't have such an issue. Installations were done on ESXi hosts prior to U3 (with the mentioned setting), and U3 hosts without this setting.

Do you experience this issue only with reboots, or also when powering on a VM after a graceful shutdown?

André