In stage 1 of the upgrade process, you deploy the OVA file for the new vCenter Server appliance.

Prerequisites

Ensure that your environment meets the prerequisites for upgrading a vCenter HA cluster. See Prerequisites for Upgrading vCenter Server High Availability Environments.

Procedure

  1. In the vCenter Server 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.
  2. On the Home page, click Upgrade.
  3. Review the Introduction page to understand the upgrade process and click Next.
  4. Connect to the source appliance that you want to upgrade. This appliance is the Active vCenter HA node.
    1. Enter the information about the source vCenter Server appliance that you want to upgrade, and click Connect to Source.
      Option Action
      Appliance FQDN or IP address Enter the IP address or FQDN of the Active vCenter HA node that you want to upgrade.
      Appliance HTTPS port

      The default value (443) is displayed and cannot be edited.

    2. Enter the information about the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator and root user.
      Option Action
      SSO user name

      Enter the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name.

      Important: The user must be administrator@ your_domain_name.
      SSO password Enter the password of the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator.
      Appliance (OS) root password Enter the password of the root user.
    3. Enter the information about the source vCenter Server instance on which resides the vCenter Server appliance that you want to upgrade and click Next.
      Option Description
      Source server or host name IP address or FQDN of the Active node. The Active node must be configured as the vCenter HA node.
      HTTPS port

      If the 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.
  5. 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.
  6. If vCenter HA is successfully detected, the target appliance is set to the manager of the source appliance. Click OK.
    The appliance deployment target information is populated.
  7. On the Set up target appliance VM page, enter a name for the target vCenter Server appliance, set the password for the root user, and click Next.
    The password must contain 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 source is not transferred to the target appliance.
  8. Select the deployment size for the new vCenter Server appliance for your vSphere inventory.
    Deployment Size Option Description
    Tiny Deploys an appliance with 2 vCPUs and 12 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines

    Small Deploys an appliance with 4 CPUs and 19 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines

    Medium Deploys an appliance with 8 CPUs and 28 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines

    Large Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs and 37 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines

    X-Large Deploys an appliance with 24 CPUs and 56 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 2,500 hosts or 45,000 virtual machines

  9. Select the storage size for the new vCenter Server appliance and click Next.
    Important: You must consider the storage size of the appliance that you are upgrading and the database size if external.
    Storage Size Option Description for Tiny Deployment Size Description for Small Deployment Size Description for Medium Deployment Size Description for Large Deployment Size Description for X-Large Deployment Size
    Default Deploys an appliance with 315 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 380 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 600 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 965 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1705 GB of storage.
    Large Deploys an appliance with 1390 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1435 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1600 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1665 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1805 GB of storage.
    X-Large Deploys an appliance with 3145 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 3195GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 3360 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 3425 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 3565 GB of storage.
  10. From the list of available datastores, select the location to store the virtual machine (VM) configuration files and virtual disks, and, optionally, enable thin provisioning by selecting Enable Thin Disk Mode. NFS datastores are thin provisioned by default.
    Note: vCenter HA cannot be set up on a vCenter Server that has disks on more than one datastore.
  11. Configure the temporary network for communication between the vCenter Server appliance that you want to upgrade and the new vCenter Server 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.

  12. On the Ready to complete stage 1 page, review the deployment settings for the new vCenter Server appliance and click Finish to start the OVA deployment process.
  13. 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 start the services of the new appliance.
    Note: If you exit the wizard by clicking Close, you must log in to the vCenter Server Management Interface of the newly deployed vCenter Server appliance to transfer the data from the old appliance and set up the services.

Results

The newly deployed vCenter Server appliance 7.0 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.