Stage 1 - Deploy the OVA File of the New Platform Services Controller Appliance

With stage 1 of the upgrade process, you deploy the OVA file of the new Platform Services Controller appliance 6.5.

Procedure

In the vCenter Server Appliance installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run the installer executable file.
- For Windows OS, go to the win32 subdirectory, and run the installer.exe file.
- For Linux OS, go to the lin64 subdirectory, and run the installer file.
- For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file.
On the Home page, click Upgrade.
Review the Introduction page to understand the upgrade process and click Next.
Read and accept the license agreement, and click Next.

Connect to the source appliance that you want to upgrade.

Enter the information about the source Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade, and click Connect to Source.

Option	Action
Appliance server or host name	Enter the IP address or FQDN of the Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade.
Appliance HTTPS Port	The default value (443) is displayed and cannot be edited.

Enter the Appliance (OS) Root password.

Enter the information about ESXi host or vCenter Server instance on which the Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade resides, and click Next.

Option	Description
Source server or host name	IP address or FQDN of the ESXi host or vCenter Server instance on which the Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade resides.
HTTPS port	If the ESXi host or vCenter Server instance uses a custom HTTPS port, change the default value. The default value is 443.
User name	User name of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host or vCenter Server instance.
Password	Password of the user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host or vCenter Server instance.

Verify that the certificate warning displays the SHA1 thumbprints of the SSL certificates that are installed on the source appliance and its source server, and click Yes to accept the certificate thumbprints.

Connect to the target server on which you want to deploy the new Platform Services Controller appliance.

Option	Steps
You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the new appliance.	Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host. Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host. Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user. Click Next. Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes.
You can connect to a vCenter Server instance and browse the inventory to select an ESXi host or DRS cluster on which to deploy the new appliance.	Enter the FQDN or IP address of the vCenter Server instance. Enter the HTTPS port of the vCenter Server instance. Enter the user name and password of a vCenter Single Sign-On user with administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, for example, the administrator@`your_domain_name` user. Click Next. Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes. Select the data center or data center folder that contains the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the new appliance, and click Next Note: You must select a data center or data center folder that contains at least one ESXi host that is not in lockdown or maintenance mode. Select the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the new appliance, and click Next.

Option

Steps

You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the new appliance.

Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host.
Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host.
Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user.
Click Next.
Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes.

You can connect to a vCenter Server instance and browse the inventory to select an ESXi host or DRS cluster on which to deploy the new appliance.

Enter the FQDN or IP address of the vCenter Server instance.
Enter the HTTPS port of the vCenter Server instance.
Enter the user name and password of a vCenter Single Sign-On user with administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, for example, the administrator@your_domain_name user.
Click Next.
Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes.
Select the data center or data center folder that contains the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the new appliance, and click Next

Note: You must select a data center or data center folder that contains at least one ESXi host that is not in lockdown or maintenance mode.
Select the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the new appliance, and click Next.

On the Set up target appliance VM page, enter a name for the new Platform Services Controller appliance, set the password for the root user, and click Next.
The name of the new Platform Services Controller appliance must be different from the name of the source appliance. The appliance name must not contain a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/) and must be no more than 80 characters in length.
The password must contain only lower ASCII characters without spaces, at least eight characters, a number, uppercase and lowercase letters, and a special character, for example, an exclamation mark (!), hash key (#), at sign (@), or brackets (()).

Note: The root password of the old appliance is not transferred to the new upgraded appliance.
From the list of available datastores, select the location where all the virtual machine configuration files and virtual disks will be stored and, optionally, enable thin provisioning by selecting Enable Thin Disk Mode.

Configure the temporary network for communication between the Platform Services Controller appliance that you want to upgrade and the new Platform Services Controller appliance, and click Next.

Option	Action
Choose a network	Select the network to which to connect the new appliance temporarily. The networks displayed in the drop-down menu depend on the network settings of the target server. If you are deploying the appliance directly on an ESXi host, non-ephemeral distributed virtual port groups are unsupported and are not displayed in the drop-down menu. Important: If you want to assign a temporary IPv4 address with DHCP allocation, you must select a network that is associated with a port group which accepts MAC address changes.
IP Address family	Select the version for the temporary IP address of the new appliance. Can be either IPv4 or IPv6.
Network type	Select the allocation method for the temporary IP address of the appliance. Static The wizard prompts you to enter the temporary IP address, subnet mask or prefix length, default gateway, and DNS servers. DHCP A DHCP server is used to allocate the temporary IP address. Select this option only if a DHCP server is available in your environment. Optionally, you can provide a temporary system name (FQDN) if a DDNS server is available in your environment.

On the Ready to complete stage 1 page, review the deployment settings for the new Platform Services Controller appliance and click Finish to start the OVA deployment process.
Wait for the OVA deployment process to finish and click Continue to proceed with stage 2 of the upgrade process to transfer the data from the old appliance and set up the services of the new appliance.

Note: If you exit the wizard by clicking Close, you must log in to the appliance management interface of the newly deployed Platform Services Controller appliance to transfer the data from the old appliance and set up the services.

Results

The newly deployed Platform Services Controller appliance 6.5 is running on the target server but is not configured.

Important: The data from the old appliance is not transferred and the services of the new appliance are not started.