Migration from Windows VCenter 6.0 U3 to VCSA 6.7 U1b with external PSC isn´t working like we wanted

[acpzehetal]

We have a midsize VMware Vsphere Infrastructure with one vCenter, several clusters with 4 to 6 hosts in two datacenters. Summarizing all togehter not real big environment. In the last week we have decided to migrate our Windows vCenter 6.0 U3 with external windows PSC  to a VCSA 6.7 topology. The first step with migrating the PSC was working allright and we were really happy. In the following we tried to migrate the Windows vCenter VM to the VCSA, but we were struggling with the problem that we could only use x-Large deployment with the GUI installer. Unfortunately we didn´t have enough physical ressources to go on with that sizing and actually it is to big for our environment.

We were searching the internet and google about the issue. We found some articles that we have to do some cleaning with the databases and the inventory, but nothing helped. Then we hav a look about at an article that we should use the cli-based installer with vcsa deploy and use a "prepared migration" template to migrate the vCenter. We did a lot of work about customizing the vCSA Migration template and did a lot of prechecks. All of the prechecks failed with nearly the same error: the "hostname" Value is missing in the "vc_win" variable.

We have checked the file several times, and it seems to work until it reaches the last part were the values for "vc_win" is placed. It looks like it can´t read anymore what is written in there afterwards.

We were using the following template:

...

{

    "__version": "2.13.0",

    "__comments": "Sample template to migrate a Windows installation of vCenter Server 6.0 with an external Platform Services Controller to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 with an external Platform Services Controller on a vCenter Server instance.",

    "new_vcsa": {

        "vc": {

            "__comments": [

                "'datacenter' must end with a datacenter name, and only with a datacenter name. ",

                "'target' must end with an ESXi hostname, a cluster name, or a resource pool name. ",

                "The item 'Resources' must precede the resource pool name. ",

                "All names are case-sensitive. ",

                "For details and examples, refer to template help, i.e. vcsa-deploy {install|upgrade|migrate} --template-help"

            ],

            "hostname": "<FQDN or IP address of the vCenter Server instance>",

            "username": "<The user name of a user with administrative privileges or the Single Sign-On administrator on vCenter.>",

            "password": "<The password of a user with administrative privileges or the Single Sign-On administrator on vCenter. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>",

            "deployment_network": "VM Network",

            "datacenter": [

                "Folder 1 (parent of Folder 2)",

                "Folder 2 (parent of Your Datacenter)",

                "Your Datacenter"

            ],

            "datastore": "<A specific datastore accessible to the ESXi host or DRS cluster in the 'target' path.>",

            "target": [

                "Folder A (parent of Folder B)",

                "Folder B (parent of Your ESXi Host, or Cluster)",

                "Your ESXi Host, or Cluster"

            ]

        },

        "appliance": {

            "__comments": [

                "You must provide the 'deployment_option' key with a value, which will affect the VCSA's configuration parameters, such as the VCSA's number of vCPUs, the memory size, the storage size, and the maximum numbers of ESXi hosts and VMs which can be managed. For a list of acceptable values, run the supported deployment sizes help, i.e. vcsa-deploy --supported-deployment-sizes"

            ],

            "thin_disk_mode": true,

            "deployment_option": "management-small",

            "name": "vCenter-Server-Appliance"

        },

        "os": {

            "password": "<Appliance root password; refer to --template-help for password policy. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>",

            "ssh_enable": false

        },

        "temporary_network": {

            "ip_family": "<ipv4 or ipv6>",

            "mode": "static",

            "ip": "<Static IP address. Remove this if using dhcp.>",

            "dns_servers": [

                "<DNS Server IP Address. Remove this if using dhcp.>"

            ],

            "prefix": "<Network prefix length. Use only when the mode is 'static'. Remove if the mode is 'dhcp'. This is the number of bits set in the subnet mask; for instance, if the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, there are 24 bits in the binary version of the subnet mask, so the prefix length is 24. If used, the values must be in the inclusive range of 0 to 32 for IPv4 and 0 to 128 for IPv6.>",

            "gateway": "<Gateway IP address. Remove this if using dhcp.>"

        },

        "user_options": {

            "vcdb_migrateSet": "<Set the data migration option. Available options are 'core', 'all', 'core_events_tasks', 'transfer_events_tasks_after_upgrade', and  'transfer_stats_events_tasks_after_upgrade'. Note that the last two options, 'transfer_events_tasks_after_upgrade', and 'transfer_stats_events_tasks_after_upgrade', are available only if the database for the source VCSA (the VCSA to be upgraded) is external.>"

        }

    },

    "source_vc": {

        "description": {

            "__comments": [

                "This section describes the source Windows vCenter that you want to migrate.",

                "For vCenter running on a virtual machine, you can automate the installation and launching of",

                "the Migration Assistant by including the 'run_migration_assistant' section.",

                "For vCenter running on a physical machine, or if you are running Migration Assistant manually",

                "on the Windows vCenter, copy and paste the thumbprint value from the Migration Assistant",

                "console output on the source vCenter to the 'migration_ssl_thumbprint' key in the 'vc_win'",

                "section, and remove the 'run_migration_assistant' section. You can read more about",

                "'migration_ssl_thumbprint' in template help, i.e. vcsa-deploy migrate --template-help"

            ]

        },

        "vc_win": {

            "hostname": "<FQDN or IP address of the source vCenter Server instance>",

            "username": "administrator@<SSO domain name>",

            "password": "<vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>",

            "active_directory_domain": "<The name of the Active Directory domain to which the source Windows installation is joined. Remove this if your Windows is not in a domain.>",

            "active_directory_username": "<Administrator user name of the Active Directory domain to which the source Windows installation is joined. Remove this if your Windows is not in a domain.>",

            "active_directory_password": "<Administrator password of the Active Directory domain to which the source Windows installation is joined. Remove this if your Windows is not in a domain. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>"

        },

        "run_migration_assistant": {

            "__comments": [

                "Remove this section and provide the value for 'migration_ssl_thumbprint'",

                "in the 'vc_win' section if the Windows vCenter/PSC is running on a physical machine, or if you want to run Migration Assistant manually. Read more about the other 'run_migraton_assistant' template keys, or about 'migration_ssl_thumbprint' in template help, i.e. vcsa-deploy migrate --template-help"

            ],

            "esxi_hostname": "<FQDN or IP address of ESXi on which source vCenter Server Appliance resides.>",

            "esxi_username": "<Username of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host.>",

            "esxi_password": "<The password of the ESXi host user. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>",

            "esxi_port": "<The port number of the ESXi host. The default value is 443.>",

            "os_username": "<Administrator username for the source Windows operating system, e.g. 'administrator@example.com' or 'DOMAIN_NAME\\Administrator'>",

            "os_password": "<Administrator user password for the source Windows operating system. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>",

            "migration_port": "<Migration Assistant port number. The default value is 9123, e.g. \"migration_port\": 9123>",

            "sa_password": "<vCenter Server service account user password. This option is only required if the vCenter Server service is running under a non LocalSystem account. If left blank, or omitted, you will be prompted to enter it at the command console during template verification.>"

        }

    }

}

....

As you can see the last section is vc_win. As deployment option we have been using "management-medium" and "management-small", but we always get the same error.

Did anyone of the community get the same errors then we have. How can we achieve a migration in reasonable sizing?

[Vijay2027]

1. Cleanup Database

2. Reset Inventory and

3. Remove snapshots if any