You can roll back or restore a vCenter Server instance on Windows when an upgrade of vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller fails after the export stage and the legacy environment has been uninstalled.

Prerequisites

The roll back or restore of vCenter Server applies when all of the following conditions apply:

  • You must have access to the vCenter Server on Windows machine.
  • The vCenter Server instance is attached to an external Platform Services Controller.
  • The Platform Services Controller upgrade must be successful.
  • The upgrade of the vCenter Server instance attached to the Platform Services Controller instance is in a failed state after the export stage and uninstallation of the legacy vCenter Server.
  • Ensure that vCenter Server rollback happened properly in case of upgrade failure and that no stale failed upgrade log entries remain.

For Rollback Method 1:

  • To unregister vCenter Server 6.0.x from the Platform Services Controller, see KB 2146453.
  • Use a Platform Services Controller snapshot taken after the Platform Services Controller node upgrade and before the start of the vCenter Server upgrade.
  • Use a vCenter Server snapshot taken after the Platform Services Controller upgrade and before the start of the vCenter Server upgrade.
  • Use a vCenter Server database snapshot taken after the Platform Services Controller upgrade and before the start of the vCenter Server upgrade.

For Rollback Method 2:

  • Use a powered off snapshot of the vCenter Server after the Platform Services Controller upgrade and before the vCenter Server upgrade.

Procedure

  • ♦ You can restore the legacy vCenter Server using Rollback Method 1 or Rollback Method 2.
    • Use Rollback Method 1.
      1. Manually unregister the legacy vCenter Server from the Platform Services Controller.
      2. Restore the vCenter Server database from a backup which was taken before the upgrade.
      3. Reinstall the vCenter Server instance pointing to the Platform Services Controller and also pointing to the database with the restored data.
      4. Ensure that the vCenter Server services are up and running.
    • Use Rollback Method 2.
      1. Restore the Platform Services Controller instance from a snapshot to the point where you were about to start vCenter Server upgrade. You can use a backup for a Windows configuration or use another backup and restore approach to revert the snapshot.
      2. Restore the vCenter Server instance from a snapshot.
      3. Restore the vCenter Server database from a snapshot.
      4. Ensure that the vCenter Server services are up and running.
    For Rollback Method 2, you will lose all data written to Platform Services Controller after the vCenter Server upgrade has been started when you restore from the Platform Services Controller snapshot taken before that point in time.