We have a dead vCenter. Utterly dead. I'm rebuilding vCenter and will add the hosts into the new vCenter. The complication comes in with the distributed virtual switch with iSCSI vmks. Each host has a proxy switch (the offline copy of the vds), so the hosts can see its iSCSI storage. We wont be able to export the DVS config from the dead vCenter, so I will have to migrate each hosts networking and iSCSI storage adapter to a standard switch, build a new DVS, and migrate the hosts over to that. All without the hosts losing network or storage connectivity. Each host has two iSCSI VMKs with a NIC associated with each on the DVS
This is my plan:
- Add a standard switch to each host.
- Remove one of the iSCSI VMKs from the iSCSI storage adapter
- Remove the associated nic from the DVS
- Add that NIC to the standard switch
- Migrate the iSCSI VMK that I removed from the storage adapter to the standard switch
- Add the iSCSI VMK on the standard switch to the iSCSI storage adapter
Once I confirm that the new VMK on the standard switch has a path to storage I should be able to do the same for the remaining iSCSI vmk on the host proxy switch (VDS).
Does this sound like it will work? I've never migrated iSCSI between standard and distributed switches. These are old 5.0 hosts so I really want to avoid an APD event.
Anyone know a better way of migrating a ghost host proxy switch from a dead vCenter to a new vcenter?
