How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 6

April 23, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM, vCenter, VMware Tagged ESXi, SRM, Upgrade Manager, vCenter, VMware, VMware Tools, VMware Upgrade 2 Comments

Step 20: Upgrade the ESXi hosts using Update Manager

20.1: The first step to carry out is to create a new baseline with the ESXi image. To do this go to Update Manager from the home page on the vSphere client

20.2: Click on the ESXi Images tab as you’ll need to upload the image before configuring a new baseline. Select Import ESXi image

20.3: Select the ESXi image that was downloaded earlier and click Next
Read More

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 5

April 23, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM, vCenter, VMware Tagged ESXi 5.5, SRM, vCenter, VMware, VMware Upgrade Leave a comment

Step 19: Post Installation tasks

Issue 1 – SSO access for admins

19.1: Give permissions to admin users for access to SSO. Log into the web client as the administrator account.

19.2: Select Administration and then expand Single Sign-On. Select Users and Groups and select the groups tab. From here you can select Administrators

19.3: Select Add member

19.4: Select the required domain from the drop down menu

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 4

April 23, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM, vCenter, VMware Tagged ESXi, SRA, SRM, vCenter, VMware, VMware Upgrade Leave a comment

Step 13 : Upgrade SRM

13.1: Upgrade the SRM server software first and once that has been completed update the SRA. Select the SRM software and run it.

13.2: Click Ok on the language settings

13.4: Go to C:WindowsSysWOW64 and run odbcad32 and check which server and database the connector is directed to. You can then run the normal 64bit ODBC from Administrative Tasks and add a new connection under System DSN

Click next to continue

13.5: Click Next

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 3

April 23, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM, vCenter, VMware Tagged ESXi, SRM, vCenter, VMware, VMware Upgrade, vSphere Leave a comment

Step 10: Upgrade vCenter Inventory Service on Primary

10.1: Select vCenter Inventory Service and click Install

vCenter Inventory Service installation

10.2: Leave the default language settings and click Ok

vCenter Inventory Service installation step 2

10.3: Click Next on the initial screen

vCenter Inventory Service installation Step 3

10.4: Accept the EULA and click Next

vCenter Inventory Service installation Step 4

10.5: Select to keep the existing data and click next

vCenter Inventory Service installation Step 5 Read More

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 2

April 23, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM, vCenter, VMware Tagged SRM, vCenter, VMware, VMware Upgrade Leave a comment

Step 7 – Unlink vCenter Server

7.1: Go to Start -> Programs -> VMware -> vCenter Server Linked Mode Configuration

7.2: When the configurator opens click on Next

7.3: Select Modify linked mode configuration and click Next

7.4: Leave Isolate this vCenter Server instance from linked mode group selected and click Next

7.5: Click Continue to remove the server from linked-mode

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 1

April 23, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM, vCenter, VMware Tagged SRM, vCenter, VMware, VMware Upgrade 1 Comment

Following on from a previous bit of work I carried out to convert vCenter from a physical to virtual machine I then had to upgrade vCenter from 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 to allow the drivers for Trend Micro Deep Security Manager to work on the ESXi hosts. A workaround was tried to just have the ESXi 5.5 filter drivers for Trend installed on the 5.0 hosts but it caused some PSODs on our Dev servers and VMware recommended performing an upgrade of the environment. It was on my to-do list for later in the year anyway so it was good to get the upgrade out of the way. I documented the steps for the upgrade and while once again I didn’t want to create a multi-part blog post the sheer number of steps dictated that it was a requirement. I’ve broken down the posts into a 6-part series covering the below areas:

Step 1 – Planning

1.1: Check Compatibility

The first thing you need to check is that all the components of your environment are compatible with the version of vSphere you want to upgrade to. The first step is this process is to gather the version details of all the installations and plug-ins that you have and use the VMware Compatibility Guide – http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php – to verify that all the components listed are compatible or at least find out what versions of your products are compatible and seek out information on the upgrade process for each of those components. For example in the below matrix we will be upgrading SRM from 5.0.1 to 5.5.1 to be up to the latest version supported on vCenter 5.5 Update 2. Likewise for the IBM plug-ins and the SRA required for SRM.

Product	Current Version	Compatible Version
ESXi Host	5.0.0	5.5 Update 2
vCenter	5.0.0	5.5 Update 2
SRM	5.0.1	5.5.1
IBM SRA	2.1.0	2.2.0
Update Manager	5.0.0	5.5 Update 2
IBM TSM TDP	1.1	7.1
IBM Storage Mgmt Console	2.6.0	3.2.2 (supported on 5.5)

There is one other document to be aware of when it comes to planning for the upgrade and that is the upgrade sequence matrix so that you ensure that the correct products are updated at the correct times. This can be found here – http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2057795

1.2: Download software vCenter 5.5.0 Update 2d

Go to the following website – https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?productId=353&downloadGroup=VC55U2D

Select the relevant version of vCenter and click on Download Now

From here you’ll be prompted to log into the my.vwmare.com account. Log in. Accept the EULA

The download will begin. To get the Custom ISOs for Cisco blades for this version go to: https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI55U2&productId=353#custom_iso and click Go To Downloads Read More

SRM 5.1 Failover Test

January 12, 2015 by derek.hennessy Posted in How-To, SRM Tagged DR, SRM, SRM Failover, Virtual Machine, VMware Leave a comment

Over the weekend I had to run a failover test for an application within SRM. As SRM can only replicate down to the datastore level and not the VM level this meant doing a full test failover of all VMs but ensuring beforehand that all protected VMs in the Protection Group were set to Isolated Network on the recovery site. This ensure that even though all VMs would be started in the recovery site they would not be accessible on the network and therefore not cause any conflicts. The main concern, outside of a VM not connecting to the isolated network, was that the VM being tested and the application that sits on it are running on Windows 2000. Yes, that’s not a typo the server is running Windows 2000. The application is from back around that period as well so if it drops and can’t be recovered then it’s a massive headache.

Failover Test:

Step 1: Power down the production VM

Step 2: Perform Test Recovery

Go to Recovery Plans -> Protection Groups and select Test

When the prompt comes to begin the test verify the direction of the recovery, from the protected site to the recovery site. Enable the Replicate recent changes to recovery site. In most cases you will be already running synchronous writes between the sites and the data will just about be up to date anyway. It is recommended however to perform a recent change replication anyway to make sure that all data is up to date.

Click Next and then click Start to confirm the test recovery

Category Archives: SRM

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 6

Other posts in this series:

Step 20: Upgrade the ESXi hosts using Update Manager

How To: VMware vCenter 5.0 to 5.5 Update 2 Upgrade – Part 5