V2T migration - Host won't be migrated because NSXV is not installed on it

[V2Jeff]

We are preparing to migrate from NSX-V to NSX-T (using existing hardware) and after importing the configuration, we received the following message in the L2 Category:

Message: Host won't be migrated because NSXV is not installed on it.

Detailed Message: Host 172.16.1.5 does not have NSXV installed; it is a member of ['vDS-0', 'vDS-iSCSI', 'vDS-vMotion']; select skip to skip migrating it.

This message is repeated for each of the hosts in the cluster.  I know for certain that NSX-V is installed and operational in the vCenter server and on the hosts.  The hosts that are listed as not having NSXV installed are the same hosts that will be used with NSX-T.  The messages are listed as warnings, not errors.

I want to know if these warning messages can be accepted?  I don't know if this will cause problems later when we attempt to prepare the infrastructure and migrate the hosts.

Any assistance is appreciated.

[Maurizzio Pandozzi]

I'm going through a bit of my own NSX V2T migration and it's quite a little "dance" so to speak.  Due to the nature of our infra and what parts of products we've implemented we seem to keep hitting interesting little road bumps.

By no means am I an NSX expert, but you may want to give the following ESXi command a whirl to see if the old NSX-V VIBs are still installed on the host or not:

esxcli software vib list | grep nsx

If NSX-V is installed it should return something similar to the following:

esx-nsxv 6.7.0-0.0.20506747 VMware VMwareCertified 2022-11-21

At least with that you'll be able to see the version of the VIBs installed which may help troubleshoot a bit.

Hope it helps or at least start you on the right track.

[V2Jeff]

Thanks for the suggestion.  We did confirm that the VIBs for NSX-V are installed, the NSX-V controller nodes are all green under Installation and Upgrade in the NSX-V Networking and Security module in the vSphere client, and that System Overview shows no problems.

We since opened a case with VMware support.  Will make sure to post the eventual resolution here.

[ssorellwj]

I think you will run into problems with the migration if you just accept those specific warnings. I imagine if it thinks NSX-V isn't installed it won't run the uninstall-V / install-T process correctly as part of the migration coordinator.

Which versions of NSX-V and NSX-T are you running/migrating to? The migration coordinator is limited to NSX-V versions 6.4.4, 6.4.5, 6.4.6, 6.4.8 and above. https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/3.1/migration/GUID-8C3E2019-D5A9-48F6-B9EC-A9E91B0A6649.html

[V2Jeff]

Thanks for the note.  We did accept the warnings and as expected, it didn't migrate anything as we progressed through the Migration Coordinator steps.

We opened a VMware support case and submitted logs from NSX Manager and vCenter.  They found something in the logs that was a problem and needs to be fixed, details here: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2112577.

Will make sure to post the eventual resolution here.

[V2Jeff]

We were able to get the migration to complete successfully!  Below are the note and changes we had to make to get the migration from NSX-V to NSX-T to work.

 

1. We were using a newer version of NSX-T that was not supported with the version of vSphere/vCenter we are using.  NOTE: always check the VMware compatibility matrix before starting a project like this!
2. During the initial connection from NSX-T to the compute manager (vCenter server), NSX-T showed an error for the ESX Agent Manager, "Failed to login to vCenter as extension, Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password", ESX Agent Manager".  To fix this, we had to follow the steps described here: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2112577.
3. When performing the migration, we originally chose to do the Distributed Firewall, Hosts and Workload.  The problem with this option is that it does not create the N-VDS switches or segments needed (we aren't at vCenter 7.0 or later, so we need the N-VDS switches).  Instead, we chose the migration option "Migrate NSX for vSphere".  This option successfully created the N-VDS switches, created the segments, migrated the distributed firewall (DFW) rules, reconfigured the hosts, and migrated the workloads - all without any downtime.

Hopefully this helps someone else!