vCenter Upgrade Plan Workflow

 

Error Source vCenter Server has unsupported version of host profiles

 Issue -: If you are getting below error during vCenter upgrade pre-check.

Error Source vCenter Server has unsupported version of host profiles

Host profiles with versions lower than 6.7 are not supported by vCenter Server 8.0.0 Upgrade the 1 host profiles listed below to version 6.7 or later before proceeding with the upgrade of vCenter server upgrade the host profile before upgrading all hosts with versions lower than 6.7 for more information see KB52932 list of unsupported host profiles.

Solution -: You need to check Host profile created in vCenter and delete unsupported Host profiles.

Steps to Upgrade VxRail vCenter.

Before starting VxRail infra upgrade you need to go with pre-validation test using vCenter and command line using VxRail Manager.

 

Please take some time to review the Customer Preparation Guide KB:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000200768 

 Recommendation:

VxRail Engineering performed a data analysis, which has shown that 92% of upgrades complete with no issue when the ESXi nodes are proactively rebooted. This will identify VM's with potential vMotion issues, ESXi maintenance mode issues, reboot issues and refreshes all ESXi services.  

Therefore, RPS are recommending customers to perform a rolling reboot on the ESXi nodes, several days before the VxRail Upgrade (Customer Task).

If a customer has any issues during the reboots, they can open an SR with the VxRail Support team to address an issue.
Additionally, your Upgrade Engineer will also reboot all Service VM's (VxRail Manager, vCenter** & PSC**) and reset iDRAC on all nodes prior to starting the upgrade.
**Only if VxRail Managed. 

 

 

1.      Run Skyline Health

Login to Vxrail vCenter -> Cluster -> Monitor

Under the vSAN Run Skyline

 

 

2. Check Resyncing Objects

Login to VxRail vCenter -> Cluster -> Monitor

Under the vSAN -> Resyncing Objects

If all object has already resync then it’s fine if not, then run the Resync from Configuration.

 

  

3.      Change VxRail cluster heartbeat duration to repair Object, default it is set to 60 Minutes.

Change it to 300Minutes or more to avoid object sync during node isolation.

 

Login to VxRail vCenter -> Cluster -> Configuration

Under the vSAN -> Service -> Advanced Option

Click Edit and set Object repair timer.

 

 

 

4.      Enable VxRail health Monitoring.

 

 

Login to VxRail vCenter using root credentials and below command to check health status.

Command -> vsan.whatif_host_failures 0

 

 

Download vxverify_XXX_XX_XXX.phy file

 

 

Open vxverify_XXX_XXX_XX file using phython

 

Once you will run this command, VxRail manager will start collecting health report like below.

 

 

 In preparation for your upcoming upgrade event, note the below known items:

Schedule the upgrade for a time outside of your peak I/O load, as performance degradation may occur during the migration of VMs while individual nodes or hosts are being upgraded.

Since VMs are vMotioned as part of the upgrade, ensure that VMs are available to be vMotioned in advance. Examples of issues which may prevent vMotion:

VM with an ISO mounted.

VM with external storage locally mounted

VM pinned to a host (Affinity rules)

 

Download the latest ISO from dell portal for VxRail upgrade.

https://dl.dell.com/downloads/PG9N6_VxRail-8.0.110-Composite-Upgrade-Package-for-7.0.x.zip

Mount the ISO in VxRail cluster

Login to vCenter -> Select Cluster -> Configuration

Under VxRail -> Updates -> Local Updates 

Select Update Bundle and Upload

Once ISO Image upload complete click start.

Once you click start it will go with Precheck -> Scan and then Update.

Now all the tasks will complete auto. first will upgrade vCenter -> ESXI host.

It will prompt to enter Temp IP that will be assign temporarily to vCenter during upgrade. 

ESXI host upgrade failing with error the VIB cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile | Missing_Dependency_VIBs_error

When upgrading the ESXI host from 6.7 to 7.0 or 8.0 it is failing with error the VIB cannot be satisfied within the ImageProfile

VIB Dell_bootbank_dell-configuration-vib

VIB qlc_bootbank_qedi

VIB DellEMC_bootbank_dellemc-osname-idrac

VIB QLogic_bootbank_net-qlge

dell-shared-perc8

You may perform below command to remove failed VIB.

Command -: esxcli software vib remove -n XXXXXXX(VIB name)

esxcli software vib remove -n dell-configuration-vib

esxcli software vib remove --vibname=vmware-perccli-007.0529.0000.0000_007.0529.0000.0000-01

Steps to Change vCenter Server FQDN | vCenter FQDN Rename Step By Step

 For prerequisite  follow below VMware KB article 

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2019/08/changing-your-vcenter-servers-fqdn.html

1. Prepare Infra level configuration

Current VCSA FQDN -: DEMOVCSA01.ads.com

Current VCSA IP       -:192.168.0.30

VCSA URL -: https://demovcsa01.ads.com/ui/ 

Create new DNS host record keeping the same old IP 192.168.0.30

Update both A and PTR records and run nslookup to see DNS is resolving DNS name correctly.

 

Once DNS level configuration complete and everything is resolving correctly

2. vCenter level 

Now go to vCenter prerequisite like taking backup, create clone or snapshot

Make sure you are taking backup and cloning vCenter server for roll back plan

Open VAMI console using 5480 port

https://192.168.0.30:5480/ 

Login with root account

Go to networking -> check the existing configure hostname and IP

Click Edit

Select the correct NIC assign to Management, usually we keep NIC 0 for Management traffic

Change Hostname and DNS 

I changed from DEMOVCSA01.ads.com to DEMOVCSA01R.ads.com

Click Next

Enter administrator@vsphere.local user ID and password

Click next

Acknowledge and click Finish

Once service will restart the VAMI page you need to reconnect.

Login with root password in VAMI page

Wait for to restart all the services and complete the process

Refresh the page or re-login 

Use the new URL to access vCenter UI link

https://demovcsa01r.ads.com/ui

How to take vSAN Storage Policy Backup | Import & Export Storage Policy

Review and finish

General
Name	vSAN_Custom_Storage_Policy_Old
Description	vSAN_Custom_storage_policy_Old
vCenter Server	DEMOVCSA08.ads.com
VSAN
Availability
Site disaster tolerance	Site mirroring - stretched cluster
Failures to tolerate	No data redundancy
Storage rules
Encryption services	No preference
Space efficiency	No preference
Storage tier	No preference
Advanced Policy Rules
Number of disk stripes per object	1
IOPS limit for object	0
Object space reservation	Thin provisioning
Flash read cache reservation	0%
Disable object checksum	No
Force provisioning	No

CANCELBACKFINISH

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