virtuallyGhetto

migrate2vcsa

vCommunity “shorts” on their experiences w/the VCSA Migration

by 2 Comments

The feedback from our customers on both the initial release of the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Migration Tool (vSphere 6.0 Update 2m) as well as the updated version included in the release of vSphere 6.5 has just been absolutely fantastic! The feedback has not only been positive in terms of customers experience with using the Migration Tool to go from a Windows-based vCenter Server to the VCSA, but also with their experience with the VCSA itself which has come a long from when it was first released back with vSphere 5.0.

As with any customer feedback (good as well as the bad), I share this feedback directly with the Engineering/Product teams so that they know which areas customers have found useful and which areas we can still improve upon. One source of customer feedback which I see quite a bit of discussions on regarding the VCSA Migration Tool is on Twitter and being an active user myself, it is also makes it quite easy to collect and share this feedback internally. I even created the #migrate2vcsa hashtags a few years back to make it easy for customers to provide feedback for all things related to the VCSA Migration.

Most recently, I was looking for a better way to share as well as aggregate some of the feedback from Twitter regarding the VCSA Migration Tool. Instead of manually tracking individual tweet links via an email or document, I wanted to anyone to be able to get a quick glance at the overall feedback. I started to look around and came across an interesting SaaS solution called Storify which allows you to tell "stories" by using content from various Social Media sources such as blog posts, Youtube or Twitter for example.

[Read more...] about vCommunity “shorts” on their experiences w/the VCSA Migration

How to tell if your vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) was migrated from a Windows vCenter Server?

by 2 Comments

In case you had not heard, last week VMware had officially released the VCSA Migration Tool which is included in the new vSphere 6.0 Update 2m release. Customers can now easily migrate from a Windows based vCenter Server over to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) all while preserving their existing vCenter Server configurations and integrations. For more details, I highly recommend you check out all the links and resources here related to the VCSA Migration Tool.

One interesting question that came up over the weekend from a troubleshooting standpoint was how do you tell if your VCSA was migrated from a Windows vCenter Server? Besides remembering 😉 there is actually a pretty simple way to check by looking at the install parameters as I have previously written about here. To do so, you will need to SSH to your VCSA and enable the Bash Shell first. Once that has been done, go ahead and run the following command:

install-parameter upgrade.source.platform

If your VCSA was migrated from a Windows based vCenter Server using the new VCSA Migration Tool, you should see a value of windows. If you do not get any results, then it means the VCSA was not migrated and it was freshly deployed as an appliance.

In addition, you can also check whether or not you had migrated over the original vCenter Server's Stats, Events and Tasks (SET) data. To do so, run the following command:

install-parameter upgrade.user.options

You should get back a value of either yes or no for migrating over the SET data.

Lastly, if your VCSA was migrated from a Windows based vCenter Server, you can even tell if the migration was done so using the UI or CLI. To do so, run the following command:

install-parameter upgrade.silent

You should get back a value of either True for a CLI-based migration or False for a UI-based migration.

Here is a quick screenshot of running the three commands on a VCSA that was migrated.
how-to-check-if-vcsa-was-migrated-from-windows

vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Migration Tool officially GAs w/vSphere 6.0 Update 2m

by 45 Comments

Today, I am very happy to announce that we have released the official Windows vCenter Server to vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Migration Tool which is part of the new VCSA vSphere 6.0 Update 2m release! I know many of you have been asking for an update since we released the VCS to VCSA Convert Appliance Fling a little over a year ago. The Fling was pretty limited in functionality and this was by design so that we could quickly get something out to our customers and get some early feedback. Although I could not say anything, the VMware Engineering team have been very hard at work incorporating all of the feedback in how they designed and built the official VCSA Migration Tool that you see today.

With that, I would like to extend a huge thanks to all of our customers who took part in the Fling and provided feedback both in the comments section as well as reaching out to me through the various channels. It was great to engage with literally hundreds of customers of all sizes and segments, all looking to move away from a Windows-based vCenter Server to the VCSA. Lastly, I want to thank our VMware Engineering team, both to the folks who lead the initial effort on the Fling prototype to those who then productized it! I was very fortunate to have been part of this amazing milestone at VMware.
vcs-migration-appliance-small

The VCSA Migration Tool workflow is quite different from how the Fling had worked which hopefully customers will appreciate. The team worked really hard on trying to simplify the overall user experience as well as trying to minimize the overall amount of downtime for the migration. In addition, we have also added full support for additional configurations and deployment topologies which you can find more details in the resource link below which includes an FAQ which I *highly* recommend folks have a look at before starting or asking further questions.

Collection of all #migrate2vcsa Links / Resources: vmwa.re/migrate2vcsalinks

Here is a quick video that I had recorded earlier which demonstrates a migration from a Windows vSphere 5.5 environment to VCSA 6.0 Update 2m, hopefully this will give you a nice overview of the migration process.

[UI Demo] - Migration of Windows vCenter Server 5.5 to vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 Update 2m from lamw on Vimeo.

One last thing I want to quickly mention is that this release is specifically targeted at customers looking to migrate from a Windows vCenter Server 5.5 to the VCSA 6.0 Update 2, hence the letter "m" denotation. If you are NOT looking to migrate your Windows vCenter Server to the VCSA, this release is NOT applicable to you as you will NOT be able to perform a new install and/or upgrade using this release. Instead, you should be looking at the vSphere 6.0 Update 2 release which is the exact same code base that vSphere 6.0 Update 2m is based off of. This will be even more apparent when you launch the VCSA Installer, as the "Migrate" button is the only option as shown in the screenshot below.

vcsa-migration-tool-vsphere-60update2m
For those planning to attend VMworld this year, we do plan to have several sessions covering the new VCSA Migration Tool as well as some other surprises 🙂 I hope to see you there and if you have any comments or feedback, feel free to leave it here or use the #migrate2vcsa hashtag if you are on Twitter, especially if you are interested in some of the surprises at VMworld.

Few #migrate2vcsa VMworld sessions & HOL worth checking out

by 4 Comments

One thing that I had noticed at VMworld last week was that there was a lot of excitement and buzz coming from our customers/partners around migrating from a Windows based vCenter Server to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with the awesome #migrate2vcsa stickers that my buddy Emad had created.

migrate2vcsa-sticker
or the killer #migrate2vcsa apparel ...

In all seriousness, I do think our customers are genuinely excited about this upcoming migration capability and the value of the VCSA over the Windows vCenter Server. This is especially true for simplified lifecycle management from deployment (Day 0), configuration (Day 1), patching and upgrade (Day 2) of the VCSA. Customers not only benefit from the operational aspect of the VCSA, but it also allows them to reduce their overall Windows licensing footprint for both the vCenter Server as well as the backend database which is usually a Microsoft SQL Server or an Oracle Database. I do understand that this is not the goal of all customers, but I also know of many customers who do appreciate this additional CapEx savings.

At VMworld this year, there was a ton of coverage across a variety of topics for the VCSA including Migration, Deployment, Management, Operations and most dearest to my heart, Automation which spans all of these areas. I thought it would be useful to share some of the content in the form of publicly available VMworld sessions that you can view regardless if you attended VMworld or not. I know many of you have been asking about the VCSA Migration Tool and all I can say is check out the resources below and stay tune for an update real soon 😀

#migrate2vcsa Sessions:

#migrate2vcsa HOL (simulation):

I just found out about this, but it looks like our Hands-On-Labs folks also built a nice VCSA Migration simulation HOL (http://docs.hol.vmware.com/hol-isim/HOL-2017/hol-1710-vcsamigration.htm) that you can try out which gives you a sneak peak at a Tech Preview of the VCSA Migration Tool. You simply follow the instructions to the right and it walks you through the simulation and highlighting what you need to perform via the orange colored icon. I thought this was a very neat solution for folks to get an idea of how something works without having to sit through hours of content. migrate2vcsa-hol

Lastly, here are some of the general vCenter Server / VCSA sessions that are also worth checking out.

General VCSA Sessions:

Windows Server 2012 fix is out for the VCS to VCSA Migration Fling!

by

Happy New Years everyone! Here is the first post of 2016 🙂

I know many of you have been anxiously waiting for a fix to the Winexe bug that causes the VCS to VCSA Migration Fling to fail when migrating from a vCenter Server that runs on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (includes R2) OS to the VCSA. It has taken a bit longer than we all had hoped due to legal reviews and such, but today I am please to announce that we now have an updated release to the VCS to VCSA Migration appliance (v0.9.1). For customers using Windows Server 2012, WinRM will be used instead of Winexe due to the Windows bug that has been identified and will require a couple of additional configurations on the source Windows vCenter Server prior to starting the migration process. For more details, please refer to the documentation on the Fling site. Customers using Windows Server 2008, Winexe will continue to work as it does today.

In addition to this fix, we also now support specifying a custom port for the Microsoft SQL Server Database in case you had changed it from the default of 1433, which a few customers have asked for.

migration-applipance-0.9.1
I would like to give a big thanks to both Mike and Ravi for working tirelessly on getting this fix out as soon as they could along with all the legal hurdles. Let us know if you have any feedback by either leaving a comment below or better yet, interact with the Engineers by leaving a comment on the Fling site!

Handy tidbits & workarounds for the VCS to VCSA Migration Fling

by

The VCS (Windows VC) to VCSA Migration Fling has been out for a little over 6 months and the response from customers thus far has simply been phenomenal. We have also received some great feedback (200+ comments) from customers who have tried out the Fling in either a Dev/Test environment and some even in their production environment for those that are a bit more on the adventurous side. I have also had the pleasure in talking to some of these customers who have been successful in migrating off of their Windows vCenter Server (both large and small) and onto the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and sharing additional feedback they may have about the Fling and how we can further improve.

Given the popularity of this topic, I thought it would be useful to aggregate some of the learning's, tidbits and workarounds that have been discovered in the past 6months to help any new or even existing users who might be interested in trying out the Fling. We really do appreciate all the feedback that everyone has given in the various forms and in fact, several of the workarounds were ones provided by our customers. As you know, the Fling today is not currently officially supported, however the feedback has really helped our PM/Engineering team. In fact, you can even get a sneak peak at an early Tech Preview we did at VMworld here to give you an idea on how some of your feedback has influenced a feature that may or may not be out in the near future 😉

Tidbit 1 Microsoft Windows 2012 is currently not supported.
Additional Info There is a known winexe bug which is affects migrating from this specific OS platform.
Workaround Engineering has a fix for this and is currently in the process of testing the fix along with legal review. There is not an ETA due to the review but we hope to release an update to Fling that includes this fix very soon. Stay tuned!This has been resolved with v0.9.1 of the Migration Appliance and for more details please take a look here.
Tidbit 2 Use of non-default (custom) ports on Microsoft SQL Server Database is not supported
Additional Info The Fling currently assumes the SQL Server Database is running on port 1433
Workaround Engineering has a fix for this and is currently in the process of testing the fix along with legal review. There is not an ETA due to the review but we hope to release an update to Fling that includes this fix very soon. Stay tuned!
Tidbit 3 Use of an Embedded Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Express Database on the vCenter Server is not supported
Additional Info Since the source Windows vCenter Server must be powered off during the database migration; running the database on the same source vCenter Server is not possible.
Workaround One option is to re-ip the source Windows vCenter Server and ensuring the vCenter Server service is completely disable which would allow the Migration Appliance to communicate with the database. This is not ideal as you are modifying the source Windows vCenter Server but has worked in our testing. Second option that several other customers have recommended instead is to export the vCenter Server Database to a single instance of a Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Express and that has worked really well.
Tidbit 4 Clustered database such as Microsoft Clustering Services (MSCS) is not supported
Additional Info There have been issues from some customers when trying to connect to an instance of the vCenter Server Database behind an MSCS Cluster.
Workaround Exporting the vCenter Server Database to a single instance of a Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft SQL Express and then using the Fling has worked for several customers.
Tidbit 5 Issues connecting to a non-default named instance (e.g. SERVERNAME\VCENTER) of the vCenter Server Database.
Additional Info Some customers have had issues with the connection string to a non-default named instance of the vCenter Server Database during the database migration portion of the Fling.
Workaround A solution that was identified by a customer used the following: http://stackoverflow.com/a/11921896/2668394
Tidbit 6 Upgrade to VCSA 6.0 after migrating from Windows vCenter Server 5.5 to VCSA 5.5 fails
Additional Info You see the following error "Extra sequences: vpx_host_cnx_seq;" in /var/log/vmware/upgrade/vcdb_req.err during the upgrade to VCSA 6.0. These sequences are only found and valid in a Microsoft SQL Server Database and are not relevant in an vPostgres Database and just simply need to be dropped as they are not used at all.
Workaround Login to the VCSA 6.0 appliance as root and run the following command: /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -d VCDB -c "drop sequence if exists vpx_host_cnx_seq cascade"

If you are running into issues while through the the migration, one thing you can do is login to the Migration Appliance and go to another virtual console (ALT+F2) and view the Migration logs  under /var/log/migrate.log SSH is currently not installed by default. If you wish to pull out the logs for additional support, you can install which will require internet access and you can do so by running the following commands:

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install openssh-server
sudo /etc/init.d/ssh start

The credentials to the Migration Appliance is vmware/vmware

Lastly, if there are other tidbits or workarounds that you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment and I will get it added to the list.