Hi all. Would really appreciate some advice on this.

We have a production and DR vsphere setup. Each have their own vcenter, VUM, External SQL, and SRM servers. They are all running on Windows server 2008. Great!!

8 servers in total.

- vCenter 6.0 (OS 2008) x 2

- VUM (OS 2008) x 2

- SQL (OS 2008) x 2

- SRM (OS 2008) x 2

Im trying to plan the underlying OS upgrade.

I know the VCSA is all the rage these days, and I would consider this, but would also like advice for upgrading to Server 2012 and keeping the above assorted mgmt servers on a windows OS (for now anyway).

A couple of things worth noting

- The vcenters are running 6.0  with integrated PSC

- The ESXi hosts are running ESXi 6.0 and can't be upgraded (Dell R815s are only compatible up to this version and no further)

- We are aware that 6.0 is End of General support.

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of advisories for this, because I guess it isnt highly advised, but I still want to understand what the most logical and safest way to do this is.

I am getting below error:

# esxcli software  profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/3da59473-8545b21e/VMware-ESXi-7.0.0-1584

3807-depot.zip  -p ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard

[HardwareError]

Hardware precheck of profile ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard failed with warnings: <UNSUPPORTED_DEVICES WARNING: This host has unsupported devices [<PciInfo ' [1000:0030 15ad:1976]'>]>

Apply --no-hardware-warning option to ignore the warnings and proceed with the transaction.

Please refer to the log file for more details.

] esxcli software  profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/3da59473-8545b21e/VMware-ESXi-7.0.0-1584

3807-depot.zip  -p ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard --no-hardware-warning

[HardwareError]

Hardware precheck of profile ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard failed with errors: <NATIVE_BOOTBANK ERROR: Found=[False] Expected=[True] Native drivers are missing for bootbank storage device.>

Please refer to the log file for more details.

esxupdate logs has below error:

------------------------------------------------------

2020-06-24T08:17:32Z esxupdate: 2104379: imageprofile: INFO: Adding VIB VMware_bootbank_lsuv2-oem-dell-plugin_1.0.0-1vmw.700.1.0.15843807 to ImageProfile ESXi-7.0.0-1

2020-06-24T08:17:32Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: INFO: Running command localcli hardware pci list^@

2020-06-24T08:17:33Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmhba0: identified native driver for device^@

2020-06-24T08:17:33Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmnic0: identified native driver for device^@

2020-06-24T08:17:33Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmnic0: identified native driver for device^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmnic1: identified native driver for device^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmnic1: identified native driver for device^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: INFO: Running command localcli --formatter=json storage core adapter list^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = 'localcli --formatter=json storage core adapter list', outfile = 'Non

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmhba0: identified sbdf '0000:00:07.1' for a native supported device using description '(0000:00:07.

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmhba1: rejected for native driver support non-pciiid device with sbdfAddress '0000:00:10.0' and des

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: vmhba64: found base native driver 'vmhba0' for non-pciiid device with sbdfAddress '0000:00:07.1'^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: DEBUG: Found native devices on the host: {'vmnic1', 'vmnic0', 'vmhba0', 'vmhba64'}^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: precheck: INFO: Starting precheck for localcli/esxcli, VmkLinux checks only^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: INFO: NIC uplink order of VMKernel NIC Management Network: ('vmnic0',)^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: INFO: Running command localcli --formatter=json storage core path list -d mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = 'localcli --formatter=json storage core path list -d mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: INFO: Storage adapter for the boot disk mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0: vmhba1^@

2020-06-24T08:17:34Z esxupdate: 2104379: upgrade_precheck: ERROR: Precheck Error(s).   <NATIVE_BOOTBANK ERROR: Found=[False] Expected=[True] Native drivers are missin

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: vmware.runcommand: INFO: runcommand called with: args = 'localcli system visorfs ramdisk list | grep /esx-update-2104379 && l

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: Ramdisk: INFO: Unmounting manual tardisk /tardisks.noauto/esxupdt-2104379^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: Ramdisk: INFO: Unmounting manual tardisk /tardisks.noauto/tpmesxup-2104379^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: Ramdisk: INFO: Unmounting manual tardisk /tardisks.noauto/weaselin-2104379^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR: Traceback (most recent call last):^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:   File "/usr/lib/vmware/esxcli-software", line 470, in <module>^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:     main()^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:   File "/usr/lib/vmware/esxcli-software", line 461, in main^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:     ret = CMDTABLE[command](options)^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:   File "/usr/lib/vmware/esxcli-software", line 213, in ProfileUpdateCmd^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:     nohwwarning=opts.nohwwarning)^@

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:   File "/build/mts/release/bora-14320388/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/esxupdate/lib64/python3.5/site-packages/

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:   File "/build/mts/release/bora-15843807/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/esxupdate/lib64/python3.5/site-packages/

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR:   File "/build/mts/release/bora-15843807/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/esxupdate/lib64/python3.5/site-packages/

2020-06-24T08:17:35Z esxupdate: 2104379: root: ERROR: esximage.Errors.HardwareError: Hardware precheck of profile ESXi-7.0.0-15843807-standard failed with errors: <NA

~

Note:  We were facing CPU compatibility issue before this and resolved using below link

How to Install Nested ESXi 7.0 On Unsupported CPU (CPU_SUPPORT_ERROR)

We currently have an old environment that needs to get upgraded, not just vmware but also hardware, and looking at best practice for this.

Vcenter running 5.5.0, 2183111 (enterprise plus license) inside Windows 2008 R2 (guest VM)

5 hosts in a cluster are running ESXi 5.5.0, 2302651 (Dell R710)

1 host outside the cluster but under same vcenter running ESXi 5.1.0, 1065491 (Dell R805)

The R805 has a couple of guests running on local drives. The rest all attached to an iSCSI SAN. We are replacing the hardware with 4x Dell R740 and at this point looking to upgrade to 6.5. Several guests are production so can't really have any down time. I do understand that the guests in the R805 would have to go down since they are not part of the cluster in order to move them into the cluster and SAN (or at least when I tried, that's what it said).

Was suggested at one point was to create a completely new Cluster and Vcenter on the new servers, and then migrate the guest VMs from one cluster to the other one. But not sure if this can be done while the guests are running. Networking is just vSwitches.

Otherwise, I know that the 5.1 host cannot go straight to 6.5. Since that has a couple of VMs only, we thought of moving them to another host and inside the cluster. Then we would decommission the old host, and start an upgrade from 5.5 to 6.5. We would upgrade Vcenter and then bring one of the new R740 into the cluster, move VMs to it, then continue bringing in the new hosts and decommissioning the old ones (don't have physical space to add all new hosts at once) and we may need to reuse IP addresses.

Any pointers as to which is better? TIA.

We are in the planning stages of migrating our vsphere 6.5 environment to either 6.7 or 7.0.

Our current vCenter is 6.5 on Windows with a external PSC also on windows.  Both are running on a dedicated physical server outside of the vsphere vm environment.

If we move to 6.7, we can keep this setup until the move to 7.x, but if we try to move to the appliance (have to with 7.0) then we have a problem.  We do not want vcenter inside the environment it is managing.  We had a issues with it in the past and feel that the management server does not belong within the environment it is managing. 

With that being said we tried to migrate our test environment to the 7.0 appliance as a proof of concept, as we eventually have to merge the PSC now.  Upon trying to migrate 6.5 to 7.0 we ran into problems with the ESXi free stand-alone version.  It was our impression that vcenter appliance was able to run on the free version of ESXi (free license and all), but this now no longer seem to be the case.  The only other option for moving to 7.0 would be to purchase an additional ESXi license for a single ESXI host for the appliance to run on OR to do what we do not wish to do and that is for it to run inside the environment it is managing.

Has anyone run into this issues and found an alternate solution to this ?

Thanks

Hi,

I would like migrate VC for windows 6.5 9451637 to newest possible VCSA 6.7 - I have found at Download section only vCenter Server 6.7.0 U3g.

But in VMware Knowledge Base I have found that there should be also version vCenter Server 6.7.0 U3h, which is newest.

Also https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2143838 is showing that U3h is newest - where can I download that ISO ?

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/67077

You can add 6.x esxi licenses on a vcenter for windows 5.5.

I think not since vcenter for windows 5.5 only supports esxi5.5u3

I successfully upgraded VCSA 6.5 U2 to 6.7U3 - (fully patched to date) and everything appears to be fine except the "updates" tab in HTML

Works fine in Flex

I have two 6.7 vCenters now (both 6.7 U3) and am running HTML in Chrome - vCenterA has "updates" tab just spinning and never refreshing, vCenterB has no issue

VUM as a hole is fine as in flex I was able to update all ym hosts, baselines etc - all is well.

Has anyone else had trouble getting "updates" tab to refresh?

I have restarted WEB and VUM svc, rebooted appliance.

Thoughts?

Thanks

I have ESXi 6.7 running on a server. I tried to boot the installation for 6.7 u1 and u2 from two different flash drives and both versions on both drives hang at bnxtroce.v00. There is no error message. The server still boots from the installed 6.7 fine. Why is it hanging, and how can I get around it?

Andy

In the past, when Dell provided their version of an update to Esxi, you could download it in the form of a zip file. You then applied it in this manner (from the esxi command line):

esxcli software profile update -d /VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-15843807.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A00.zip -p DEL-ESXi-700_15843807-A00

When you go to the Dell website and attempt to download the latest version (Version 7.0, A02), the files are no longer there and, instead you are met with this message:

"Dell EMC has migrated the latest revision of the Dell customized ESXi images with customized drivers to VMware's website. This change aligns with industry-standard practices and brings the Dell EMC-customized image to the same location as our competitors. For customers who manage heterogeneous fleets, this simplifies the procurement of SW images as they will all be housed in one location. Please go to your my.vmware.com license portal or click the link below to be redirected now. Older revisions of these images can be downloaded from www.dell.com/support in case there is a requirement

ISO Image Link: https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/downloads/details?downloadGroup=OEM-ESXI70GA-DELLEMC&productId=974"

One you go to the link provided, you no longer have any file available except the ISO file. I know of no way to upgrade from the command line via the ISO file.

Any ideas?

Hello,

I've searched on the Dell Suport Site and in the VMware HCL ...

we have several Dell VRTX Systems with M630 (VRTX) Blades Intel Xeon E5-2623 v4 cpu running with ESX 6.7u3. I can not find any Information about upgrading to ESXi7. Only the M640 (VRTX) Blades are in the HCL.

The CPU is supported, also the Chassis (VRTX) with the shared PERC ... Had Dell and VMware forgotten the M630 (VRTX)? Some "normal" M630 Blades are on the support list - but I don't know if there is a big difference between them and the VRTX Blades ...

We have just installed vSphere and getting to the end of setup was advised that we should update the vCenter server manager backend - we ran that from https://server.domain.tld:5480/#/ui/  and now for the last twelve or so hours have had a message at https://server.domain.tld:5480/#/ui/update/progress  saying

i have a lab environment that the AD domain - labtwo.local exists on DNS server and would like to build vSphere 7 under this domain name.

however, i'm not so sure about which option to choose in the "SSO configuration" page in the installer. as shown in figure below which is obtained from internet.

the demand is to join the vCenter under the domain "labtwo.local".

A little bit confused. so the questions are:

1. if i select the "join the existing SSO domain" then this indicate that the vCenter can utilize my AD domain's user account directly for login instead of creating a "vSphere.local" and using "administrator@vsphere.local" as login account?

2. is choosing "join the existing SSO domain" meaning that the vCenter server will join the AD domain at the same time?

Hello Dear Community ,

i have vcenter 6.7 installed on

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)

i need help to upgrade to vcenter 7

i have installed already vcenter 7 it has his own appliance

• VMware Photon OS (64-bit)

i have 20 host and 115 VM running so please i need ur help guys

thanks

Trying to upgrade our PSC so I can upgrade VCSA and converge them, but the process fails after the PSC export and the "new" PSC is online, saying I didn't specify a subnet mask. I've tried two different ways to specify the subnet (e.g. 255.255.252.0 or /22) and same result. In that same log it looks like the field for setting the subnet is blank even though I specified it:

esxcli software profile update -p DEL-ESXi-700_15843807-A01 -d /vmfs/volume

s/ISO/updateFiles/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-15843807.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A01.zip --no-hardwa

re-warning

[InstallationError]

Failed to finish bootbank stage: ('/tmp/stagebootbank/imgdb.tgz', 'Error writing tar database: Should have base image when an addon exists.')

      cause = ('/tmp/stagebootbank/imgdb.tgz', 'Error writing tar database: Should have base image when an addon exists.')

I am trying to update ESXI profile but i got theses errors come out.

After google, i can not find any information to solve that.

Please help!

Hi,

I attempted to update a Windows vCenter Server 5.5 to vCSA 6.5

After reviewing the migration-assistant.log I see a reference to a hostname and AD domain that no longer exists and the current CorrectFQDN and AD domain that does exist.

migration-assistant-15259038| I: ParsePreUpgradeOutput: VC machine/cert parameters. AppNetPnid: [CorrectHostname.contoso.local], CertIPs: [], CertFQDNs: [IncorrectFQDN.contoso-wrong-domain.local].

migration-assistant-15259038| I: ParsePreUpgradeOutput: SSO machine/cert parameters. AppNetPnid: [CorrectHostname.contoso.local], CertIPs: [172.X.X.X,192.X.X.X], CertFQDNs: [CorrectHostname.contoso.local].

migration-assistant-15259038| I: ParsePreUpgradeOutput: Database settings: Type='embedded'

Error: Failed to discover a system name that is compatible with both your VMware CorrectHostname Server certificate and your VMware Single Sign-On certificate that can be used to migrate to a VMware CorrectHostname Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller.

migration-assistant-15259038| I: ParsePreUpgradeOutput: Resolution: Regenerate your VMware CorrectHostname Server SSL certificate and your VMware Single Sign-On SSL certificate to have a common system name that can be used to migrate your system to VMware CorrectHostname Server Appliance with Platform Services Controller.

I check here: C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL

rui.crt references the incorrect hostname and AD domain

sso.crt references the correct hostname and AD domain

Do I need to follow this: VMware Knowledge Base 2110943?

Is it advisable to take a snapshot in case of human error so we can revert back? Or is it better to just go through and regenerate the certs again?

edit: grammar, sp

Hello Team,

Stuck at below screen while upgrading the Esx from 6.0 to 6.5.

Hardware : Cisco UCS

Hello All,

I am deploying a new vCenter Appliance and adding hosts from an old environment.

1. After I add all the hosts, can I change VCSA FQDN and IP in one step from VAMI? Is restarting dnsmasq service needed to flush old dns on appliance?
2. And if I am using default self signed certificates do I have to regenerate them again?
3. Also some people said that I need to re-register all plugins ( VUM, ...) is it correct or I can keep all VMware plugins with no changes?
4. Re-joining VCSA to AD is a must, but will the AD-Authentication sources be reset and have to configure users and groups again?

Appreciate your help in this!

Thank you

Hi,

I had a Windows 10 2016 LTSB client that lost internet connectivity. It was using the default E1000e adapter, but I have now changed to vmxnet3. Are there known problems with the E1000e on Windows 10 as there was on Server 2012/Windows 8?

Hello Team

I have Cisco CUCM running on ESXI host 5.5 version which need to be upgraded..

Kindly share the upgrade path..

Thanks & Regards

Anil Singh