In my previous blog I wrote up the process of importing a vCenter instance while on version 8.x. My next venture is getting it upgraded to VCF 9, this would be vCenter, ESX & NSX.
Now that the domain is part of my VCF Fleet, from the VCF Operations console, go to Fleet Management >> Lifecycle >>
You can see the there is a different icon for the Workload Domain GENAPP
To the right side there is a Configuration Update available.
Upon completion, checked the vCenter and it created a new DVPG, tagged with the correct VLAN and then made the pg Ephemeral
We can move to Plan Upgrade or Plan Patching located under ‘Available Updates’, let’s see what Plan looks like
There is our build out, which we can also customize.
Finally, summary of steps being performed
The next step is Configuring and Scheduling the Upgrade.
In a previous blog I covered importing a vCenter instance with a single cluster see here. and if you go to Part 1 of the blog, I covered performing a configuration update needed for the newly imported Workload domain.
The next step is to go back into Lifecycle for the Workload Domain and Configure Update
The wizard for the NSX Precheck will begin, click Next. In my homelab, I have no Edge clusters configured so clicked Next and straight to Run Precheck.
Once the Precheck completes, we can then move forward with performing a Schedule Update and that will give you an option to perform right away or schedule at a later time.
Once the update has kicked off, you can click ‘View Status’ and collapse to view all the components
Hey! Look at that, Step 1 is complete..onto Step 2. Click ‘Configure Update’
This next step will be upgrading a vCenter Server appliance from 8.0 u3 to 9.0. Because this is a single vCenter, we can leverage the Reduced Downtime Feature, but in this case, we will go straight into it.
Confirm Backup
Provide a temporary IP address for the new vCenter (No DNS record required, however optional if you want to reserve for future use.
Schedule the update and switchover options, we’re going for Immediate. The final step is reviewing everything and then proceed.
Here is some information for my 8.x vCenter to be Imported
vCenter 8.0 U3g
3 host cluster with DRS enabled
ESX hosts running 8.0 U3e
VDS with 2 uplinks attached from all hosts
NFS v3 backed datastore for principal storage (Synology)
vCenter appliance VM resides in the vCenter being imported
Cluster is using baselines for lifecycle (did this on purpose)
4 DNS records & 3 IPs reserved an NSX 3 node cluster.
Since the vCenter is NOT connected to any NSX instance, a new NSX instance will be created.
The term ‘Import’ is used when the action is performed within VCF Operations. ‘Converge’ is used when using the VCF Installer.
The actions are performed within the VCF Operations 9 console.
From the VCF Operations home page go to Inventory >> select the Organization listed under VCF Instances and you will see a drop-down menu for ‘ADD A WORKLOAD DOMAIN’ select ‘Import a vCenter’
Input a unique name for the Workload Domain
Selecting ‘Specify an external vCenter‘ and un-check the vCenter connected to an NSX instance. Fill out authentication details of the vCenter
Confirm thumbprint and Acknowledge
Once you click Next, Prechecks will kick off
I did have some ‘Warnings’ relating to upgrade policy settings, it allows for me to resume. This might be something to revisit when SDDC Manager take on lifecycle.
Because a vCenter 8.x environment is being imported, NSX 4.x will require 3 managers.
For the Networking section, populate fields for an NSX Management Cluster. This will also use the same management network the vCenter is on.
I will keep the default NSX Overlay options and define my own passwords
At Validation I got hit with some additional errors. For the particular NSX version, binaries needed to be downloaded.
Just directed myself to Fleet Management and started the download **Notice you have to select VCF 5.2 from the version drop-down. Also had to look inside the Patch Binaries for the particular version.
Final Validation succeeded
Review
Once it kicked off, the rest can be monitored in Tasks under Fleet Management and when complete, you will have a Workload Domain added to your organization.
In my previous blog I commissioned 3 physical hosts into my Management Domain vCenter, the next step will be to create a SDDC Cluster.
To get started, from the Datacenter Object, go to create a new cluster and we have ‘Create Standard Cluster’ & ‘Create SDDC Cluster’
This will be a vSAN ESA cluster as these hosts were previously provisioned with that purpose.
Name the cluster
Selecting an Image in library, this happens to be the same version of ESXi 9.0 as the Management Hosts
Selecting vSAN HCI
When we get to the Host Selection, we have our 3 hosts we previously commissioned
I will go with the Default settings for the vDS, this will create a new one for the cluster.
The one yellow banner requires a VLAN for the NSX TEP address, click on the ‘Edit’
Populate the VLAN for the overlay and click ‘Save Changes’
Click ‘Acknowledge’ in order to proceed.
Review and click ‘Finish’
Once everything was completed, VCF Operations now recognizes the second cluster, in addition to the hosts being prepared for NSX in addition to be added to the NSX.
Previously I blogged about commissioning ESXi hosts in SDDC Manager on VCF 5.2. You can read about that here. Please review Broadcom TechDocs; Commission ESXI Hosts
With VCF 9.0 hosts are commissioned within their desired vCenter in vSphere under Global Inventory Lists & then click ‘Hosts’ under ‘Resources’
From here, let’s take a look at the different sections, for the first one you can see ‘Assigned’ hosts that are in use in the vCenter
Under ‘Unassigned’ it will show empty because there are no hosts in a commissioned and unassigned state.
Under Network Pools you will find the pool initially created during the VCF wizard, we have IPs available for vMotion & vSAN networks.
Going back to ‘Unassigned Hosts’, from here we can click ‘Commission Hosts’, review the host commission checklist, once completed, click ‘Proceed’
The Commission Host wizard appears and there are different ways of doing it, adding them manually or using the Bulk Import with a pre-populated JSON file. I already have my 3 physical SuperMicro E300 hosts, these are hosts I picked up about 5 years ago, you can read about my blog on those here. ESXi 9.0 has been installed and I’ve gone through the basic configurations pointed out in previous blogs and Broadcom TechDocs.
I will be importing these as vSAN ESA hosts, selecting Import, Browse to my JSON and click Upload.
Once the hosts appear, next step will be to ‘Confirm All Finger Prints‘ and click ‘Validate All‘
Alright, good start so far, everything verified, click ‘Next’ & ‘Commission’
Heading to VCF Operations for Tasks
While we can monitor the task in vSphere, we can also get more detailed task info from VCF Operations under Fleet Management >> Tasks >> you can see the task in progress and click on it to monitor steps and subtasks
Now that the commission has been completed, in vSphere we have some Unassigned Hosts
