After completing the upgrade of the Platform Services Controller appliances in Region A, you upgrade the vCenter Server instance for the management cluster in Region A.

Procedure

  1. Log in to vCenter Server by using the vSphere Web Client.
    1. Open a Web browser and go to https://sfo01m01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local/vsphere-client/.
    2. Log in by using the following credentials.
      Setting Value
      User name administrator@vsphere.local
      Password vsphere_admin_password
  2. Rename the sfo01m01vc01 virtual machine.
    1. From the Home menu of the vSphere Web Client, select Hosts and Clusters.
    2. Expand the sfo01m01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local tree, double-click the sfo01-m01fd-mgmt data center, and expand the sfo01-m01fd-mgmt folder.
    3. Right-click sfo01m01vc01 and select Rename.
    4. Enter sfo01m01vc01_old as the new name of the virtual machine, and click OK.
  3. On the Windows host that has access to your data center, mount the vCenter Server Appliance installer VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.x-build_number.iso.
  4. Navigate to the \vcsa-ui-installer\win32 directory and start the installer.exe executable file.
    The vCenter Server Appliance Installer starts.
  5. On the Home page, click Upgrade.
  6. Follow the prompts and configure the following settings for the first stage of the vCenter Server Appliance Installer.
    Table 1. Upgrade - Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server
    Upgrade Wizard Page Setting Value
    Introduction - -
    End user license agreement - -
    Read and accept the EULA, and click Next.
    Connect to source appliance Appliance FQDN or IP address sfo01m01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local
    Appliance HTTPS port 443
    Configure the settings and click Connect to source.
    Appliance OS root password sfo01m01vc01_root_password
    ESXi host or vCenter Server name sfo01m01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local
    HTTPS port 443
    User name administrator@vsphere.local
    Password vsphere_admin_password
    1. Configure the settings and click Next.
    2. On the Certificate Warning dialog box, click Yes.
    Appliance deployment target ESXi host or vCenter Server name sfo01m01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local
    HTTPS port 443
    User name administrator@vsphere.local
    Password vsphere_admin_password
    1. Configure the settings and click Next.
    2. On the Certificate Warning dialog box, click Yes.
    Select folder Folder sfo01-m01fd-mgmt
    Select compute resource Compute resource sfo01-m01-mgmt01
    Set up target appliance VM VM name sfo01m01vc01
    Set root password sfo01m01vc01_root_password
    Confirm root password sfo01m01vc01_root_password
    Select Deployment Size Deployment size Small
    Storage size Default
    Select datastore Datastore sfo01-m01-vsan01
    Enable thin disk mode Selected
    Configure network settings Network sfo01-m01-vds01-management
    IP version IPv4
    IP assignment Static
    Temporary IP address 172.16.11.70
    Subnet mask or prefix length 24
    Default gateway 172.16.11.1
    DNS servers 172.16.11.5,172.16.11.4
    Configure the settings and click Connect to source.
    Ready to complete stage 1 - -
    Verify the configuration and click Finish.
    Wait until the first stage of the vCenter Server Appliance Installer completes. The deployment process might take several minutes.
  7. On the Upgrade - Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server page, click Continue.
  8. Follow the prompts and configure the following settings for the second stage of the vCenter Server Appliance Installer.
    Table 2. Upgrade - Stage 2: vCenter Server Appliance
    Upgrade Wizard Page Setting Value
    Introduction - -
    Select upgrade data Configuration Selected
    Configure CEIP Join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) Selected
    Ready to complete I have backed up the source vCenter Server and all the required data from the database. Selected
    1. Review the new appliance configuration and click Finish.
    2. On the Shutdown Warning dialog box, click Ok.
    Wait until the second stage of the vCenter Server Appliance Installer completes. The process might take several minutes.
  9. To ensure that the network access between vCenter Server and NSX is not blocked, exclude the newly upgraded vCenter Server Appliance from all distributed firewall rules.
    1. Open a Web browser and go to https://sfo01m01vc01.sfo01.rainpole.local/vsphere-client/.
    2. Log in by using the following credentials.
      Setting Value
      User name administrator@vsphere.local
      Password vsphere_admin_password
    3. From the Home menu of the vSphere Web Client, select Networking & Security.
    4. In the Navigator pane, click Firewall Settings, and click the Exclusion List tab.
    5. From the NSX Manager drop-down menu, select 172.16.11.65 | Primary.
    6. Click the Add button.
    7. From the Select VM(s) to include dialog box, select sfo01m01vc01, click the Add icon, and click OK.