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Upgrade vCenter Server 6.7 to 7.0

VMware recently announced its new version of vSphere 7 with lot of enhancements. There are many new features vSphere with Kubernetes, vSphere Life Cycle Manager etc. For more details on new vSphere feature please use this link of VMware Blogs

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In this blog we are upgrading our vCenter Server Appliance with embedded PSC from 6.7 to 7.0. In newer version migration & upgrade workflows have undergone several changes to help simplify them, making it easier to patch and move to new versions as part of the life cycle of vSphere and there is no longer an option to deploy the external Platform Services Controller (PSC). The only option is the vCenter Server Appliance which contains an embedded PSC The Converge Tool was introduced in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 to move from an external PSC deployment to an embedded PSC via either the vCenter Server CLI or vSphere Client and this will automatically happen in vSphere 7.0 when migrate or upgrade.

You can only upgrade from vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 to 7.0 all other older versions are not supported for migration or up gradation. Before upgrade make sure the solution interoperability with respect to your platform and make sure you have taken backup of vCenter appliance and snapshot is taken before upgrade. If it is Linked vCenter you can upgrade the second vCenter after completing the first one.

Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance

Download the VMware vCenter Server Appliance bundle from VMware Downloads and run the vcsa ui installer setup

Click on Upgrade as you are upgrading your existing vCenter Appliance

Click Next to proceed with upgradation

Note: – Upgrading the appliance is a two-stage process. The first stage involves deploying a new vCenter Server to the target ESXi host or a compute resource in the target vCenter Server. The second stage completes the upgrade process by copying data from the source appliance to the deployed vCenter Server. Make sure you have backed up all data on the source appliance before starting with the upgrade process

Accept the EULA and click Next

Provide the source vCenter Appliance details and click on Connect to Source

Provide the details like source appliance SSO password, appliance OS root password, and the details of ESXi host or vCenter appliance that manages the source appliance and click Next

Click YES on the certificate warning window

Provide the target ESXi host or vCenter Server details for the new vCenter Server appliance and click Next

Click YES on the certificate warning window

Provide new appliance VM details like name and root password and click Next

Select the deployment size details as per the source vCenter configuration and click Next

Select datastore for the new vCenter Server appliance and click Next

Configure the network details with temporary IP for the migration and click Next

Review the configuration and click Finish to proceed with upgradation

Click Continue to proceed with stage 2 of migration

Click Next to proceed with data migration from old vCenter appliance

Review the pre-upgradation check result and click Close to proceed with

Select the configuration data you wan to copy to new vCenter Server appliance and click Next

Configure VMware CEIP and click Next

Review the migration configuration and click Finish to start the upgradation

Confirm the source vCenter Server shutdown and click OK

Once complete review the information and click Close to Finish installation

Click Close to complete the installation and you can access the new appliance URL with same previous vCenter Appliance URL

Access the new vCenter Appliance VAMI URL and vCenter Server URLs and review the configuration and inventory.

Thanks,

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I hope this article was informative, and don’t forget to buy me a coffee if you found this worth reading.



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