You can use the GUI to migrate vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller to a vCenter Server appliance.

Before migrating a vCenter Server deployment with an external Platform Services Controller, you must first converge the external Platform Services Controller to an embedded Platform Services Controller and then perform the migration. See Knowledge Base article KB 68137.

If you use Update Manager in the vCenter Server deployment on Windows that you migrate, and Update Manager runs on a separate machine from any other of the vCenter Server components, take an extra step to migrate Update Manager to an appliance.

  1. If your vCenter Server deployment on Windows uses an external Update Manager, run Migration Assistant on the Update Manager machine to start the migration of the Update Manager server and database to the Update Manager appliance.
  2. Migrate the vCenter Server instance from Windows to a vCenter Server appliance.
  3. Verify the newly migrated vCenter Server appliance.
  4. Decommision the Platform Services Controller.
Figure 1. vCenter Server 6.7 with External Platform Services Controller Before and After Migration
Server 6.7 with External Platform Services Controller Installation Before and After Migration

GUI tasks for migrating an external Platform Services Controller instance from Windows to an appliance.

  1. Download and Mount the vCenter Server Installer ISO file on a network virtual machine or physical server from which you want to perform the migration.
  2. Download and Run VMware Migration Assistant on the Source Windows Machine.
    Note: If you are migrating a vCenter Server system that uses an external instance of Update Manager that runs on a separate Windows machine, first run Migration Assistant on the Update Manager machine.
  3. Assemble the Required Information for Migrating vCenter Server from Windows to an Appliance for each Platform Services Controller or vCenter Server instance.
  4. Deploy the OVA File for the Target vCenter Server Appliance
  5. Set Up the Target vCenter Server Appliance
Important: The user name you use to log in to the physical machine from which you want to run the GUI installer, the path to the vCenter Server appliance installer, and values, including the passwords, must contain only ASCII characters. Extended ASCII and non-ASCII characters are unsupported.

For each node to be migrated, the installer:

  • Deploys a new target appliance.
  • Exports the required files from the source Platform Services Controller or vCenter Server instance.
  • Copies the required files to the target appliance for migration.
  • Runs the migration process on the target appliance as indicated in the Summary.
  • Imports and updates the files and settings of the source Platform Services Controller or vCenter Server instance to the new vCenter Server appliance.

Deploy the OVA File for the Target vCenter Server Appliance

To start the migration process, you use the GUI installer to deploy the OVA file that is included in the installer ISO file as the target vCenter Server appliance.

Prerequisites

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 Migrate.
  3. Review the Introduction page to understand the migration process and click Next.
  4. Read and accept the license agreement, and click Next.
  5. Connect to the target server to which you want to migrate the source vCenter Server.
    Option Steps
    You can connect to an ESXi host on which to deploy the target appliance.
    1. Enter the FQDN or IP address of the ESXi host.
    2. Enter the HTTPS port of the ESXi host.
    3. Enter the user name and password of a user with administrative privileges on the ESXi host, for example, the root user.
    4. Click Next.
    5. 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 target appliance.
    1. Enter the FQDN or IP address of the vCenter Server instance.
    2. Enter the HTTPS port of the vCenter Server instance.
    3. 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.
    4. Click Next.
    5. Accept the certificate warning, if any, by clicking Yes.
    6. 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.
    7. Select the ESXi host or DRS cluster on which you want to deploy the new appliance, and click Next.
  6. (Optional) Review the warning message and try to resolve the warnings, if any, and click Yes.
  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 sigh (@), or brackets (()).
    Important: The local operating system password is not migrated to the target appliance.
  8. On the Connect to source page, enter the details for the source vCenter Server instance, and click Next.
    1. Enter the IP address or FQDN.
    2. Enter the user name and password of a user who has administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, for example, the administrator@your_domain_name user.
    3. Enter the Migration Assistant Port you received in the Migration Assistant instructions.
  9. On the Connect to source instance page, enter the details for the source Windows installation that you want to migrate.
    Option Action
    vCenter Server IP Address/FQDN Enter the IP address or FQDN of the vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade.
    vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name

    Enter the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name.
    vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password Enter the password of the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator.
    vCenter Server HTTPS Port

    Optionally, change the default vCenter Server HTTPS port number.

    The default value is 443.

  10. (Optional) Accept the warning message, if any, by clicking Yes.
  11. 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 14 GB of memory.

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

    Small Deploys an appliance with 4 vCPUs and 21 GB of memory.

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

    Medium Deploys an appliance with 8 vCPUs and 30 GB of memory.

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

    Large Deploys an appliance with 16 vCPUs and 39 GB of memory.

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

    X-Large Deploys an appliance with 24 vCPUs and 58 GB of memory.

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

    Note: At the bottom of the deployment size table, a row shows the size information of the source machine. This size information is reported by the migration assistant and might help understand why you cannot select some deployment sizes.
  12. Select the storage size for the new vCenter Server Appliance, and click Next.
    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 579 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 694 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 908 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 1358 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 2283 GB of storage.
    Large Deploys an appliance with 2019 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 2044 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 2208 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 2258 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 2383 GB of storage.
    X-Large Deploys an appliance with 4279 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 4304 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 4468 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 4518 GB of storage. Deploys an appliance with 4643 GB of storage.
  13. 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. NFS datastores are thin provisioned by default.
  14. Configure the temporary network for communication between the source vCenter Server and the target 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 and network settings.

    • 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.

  15. On the Ready to complete stage 1 page, review the deployment settings for the target vCenter Server appliance and click Finish to start the OVA deployment process.
  16. Wait for the OVA deployment to finish, and click Continue to proceed with stage 2 of the deployment process to set up and start the services of the newly deployed appliance.
    Note: If you exit the wizard by clicking Close, you must log in to the vCenter Server Management Interface to set up and start the services.

Results

The newly deployed target vCenter Server appliance version 8.0 is running on the target server but is not yet configured.

Important: The data from the source vCenter Server is not yet transferred and the services of the target appliance are not started.

Set Up the Target vCenter Server Appliance

When the OVA deployment finishes, you are redirected to stage 2 of the migration process to transfer the data from the source vCenter Server and start the services of the newly deployed target vCenter Server appliance.

The period of time during which your system is unavailable does not begin until you start to set up the target appliance. You cannot cancel or interrupt the process until it finishes with the shutdown of the source deployment. The time your system is unavailable ends when the target appliance starts.

Procedure

  1. Review the introduction to stage 2 of the migration process and click Next.
  2. On the Select source vCenter Server page, enter the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password and the root password of the source vCenter Server, enter the password of the user with administrative privileges on the vCenter Server instance, and click Next.
  3. (Optional) Accept the warning message, if any, by clicking Yes.
  4. If your source Windows machine is connected to an Active Directory domain, enter the credentials for an administrator domain user with permission to add the target machine to the Active Directory domain, and click Next.
    Note: The installer verifies the entered credentials, but does not check the required privileges to add the target machine to the Active Directory domain. Verify that the user credentials have all the required permissions to add a machine to the Active Directory domain.
  5. Specify the replication topology for the vCenter Server. When converging vCenter Server instance with an external Platform Services Controller you must specify the replication topology.

    Convergence is the process of converting a vCenter Server instance with an external Platform Services Controller to a vCenter Server instance with those services embedded in the appliance.

    • This is the first vCenter Server in the topology that I want to converge.
    • This is a subsequent vCenter Server.

      If this is a subsequent vCenter Server, provide the IP address of its partner vCenter Server and its HTTPS port.

  6. On the Select migration data page, choose the types of data that you want to transfer from the source vCenter Server to the target appliance.
    The large amount of data requires more time to be transferred to the new appliance.
  7. On the ready to complete page, review the migration settings, accept the backup acknowledgment, and click Finish.
  8. Click OK to confirm the shutdown of the source vCenter Server.
  9. Wait for the data transfer and setup process to finish. Click OK to go to the vCenter Server Getting Started page.

Results

vCenter Server is migrated from Windows to a newly deployed target vCenter Server appliance. The source vCenter Server is powered off and the target appliance starts.

What to do next