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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

Migration of virtual distributed switches for upgrade to version 6.5

I contacted support and they informed me that I cannot migrate my virtual distributed switches to version 6.5 but that i would have to change them to standard switches, migrate to 6.5 and then change them back to virtual distributed switches. Any one else have to go through that process? I would be curious to know the ups and downs of this process, with my environment it looks pretty ugly.

26 Replies
daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Yes, this is a common procedure when moving to a different vCenter (and therefore not upgrading your current one). To disjoin ESXi hosts from a vCenter with vDS, you must first migrate them to vSSs. The process is straightforward as long as you have multiple vmnic uplinks per service type.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

Yes that will be an issue my new servers only came with two 10GB nic ports, the old one have 4. Just curious what the issue is behind the virtual distributed switches not migrating. What happens?

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

The vDS is a vCenter-only entity. It does not exist without vCenter and is tied to it, and you cannot disconnect hosts from a vCenter if they're currently joined to one.

Are you purposefully migrating to a new vCenter as opposed to doing an in-place upgrade?

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

I am trying to move from a windows server to an appliance, so I don't think an in place upgrade is an option unless I want to stay on windows

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

You don't need to do this, then. The appliance migrator will move the entire identity and settings of your Windows vCenter to the appliance, including the vDS. So you'd be wasting your time migrating to a vSS and then back again. The vCSA migration wizard takes care of all of this for you.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

Well I had a call with vmware support and they told me I had to change them to standard from VDS

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

They probably were under the impression you were going to swing hosts from Windows to vCSA, and that would be true in that case. But you can "upgrade" your Windows vCenter to the appliance using the migration wizard built-in, and this is not necessary. Read this blog and check the link at the bottom for more details.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

Yes I reviewed the link you are talking about with wmware support and they do  know that I am going from a Windows vcenter 5.5 to an appliance 6.5.  I had support remote in and look at my current vcenter server and configuration. I am confused by your use of "upprade" the blog lists it as a migration

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

It is both an upgrade and migration. It's an upgrade in the sense that you're from a version of vCenter prior 6.5 and moving to version 6.5. It's a migration in the sense that you're changing platforms from Windows to the vCenter Server Appliance (Linux-based). I'm not sure why they told you what they did unless they were confused as to what you wanted to do.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

Here is the title of my ticket I submitted - guess I can open a ticket that is specifically about my virtual distributed switches

I want to upgrade my vCenter server from a windows vcenter 5.5 to 6.5 appliance

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

Open whatever ticket you like, but all I'm saying is when using the built-in migration wizard in the vCSA 6.5, it will upgrade AND migrate your existing vCenter identity, all the settings, and all the data (including the vDS) to the vCSA.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

I hope you are correct it would be alot easier, but I do need to verify it before I move forward

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

So is the migration assistant what makes possible to migrate VDS now where in the past it was not possible?

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

It has been possible to combo upgrade-migrate to the vCSA and keep your vDS since 6.0.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

so what changed to make it possible to do it

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

The introduction of the migration wizard beginning in vCSA 6.0.

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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

Alright I have a comment to someone that has tried the process and it failed

it's not that it can't migrate the VDS.  It sounds like that would work ok.  The problem is that during the migration routine, when it goes to start configuring the system, i would lose connectivity and it could not finish it's wizard, until I changed the system to connect to a standard switch.  The bigger issue is that I manually had to change network configuration after the wizard ran, but you cannot select a VDS network when you're connected directly to a host, and vcenter is down during the migration, so you have no other choice than to use a standard switch, or have no network.  Again this may not be the intent and it may work for others, but that was my experience consistently over the 10-20 times I attempted the process

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daphnissov
Immortal
Immortal

You will need to do a couple things when deploying the vCSA.

  1. Turn off DRS so it doesn't move the newly-deployed appliance around.
  2. Configure at least one vDS port group as ephemeral binding. An ephemeral binding port group can be seen by the installer and used to deploy the appliance. This is why distributed port groups are not showing up as an option.
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jprovine7
Expert
Expert

I will have him check it out and see if it works for him. You must have done this alot, you really seemed to know what you are doing, this is my first time. vmware is only a fraction of the areas I cover, so goes the saying jack of all trades master of none

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