Change VCenter IP and Managment Network IP

[vmware128]

Hello, I am working on upgrading from vSphere 6 to 6.5. As part of this upgrade I also need to change the IP address of  vcenter( different VLAN) and the Management network of the ESXI Hosts.

VCenter has an IP of 192.168.10.x and I would like to change it to 192.168.7.x. The Vlan is saturated on 192.168.10.x as it has the VM Network Portgroup( standard vSwitch) along with the  MGMT Network and vMotion running on this same Vlan.

The current vcenter is running Windows 2012 which I am going to use the Migration tool to convert it to the Virtual appliance.  I would like some recommendations on how to achieve the changes with no impact(meaning no VMs going down).

vswitch0 ( Not license for Distributed switch) is configured as follows:

VM Network( Contains All of our Prod VMs) 192.168.10.X vmk0 - MGMT Network - 192.168.10.X

After the successful migration of vcenter to VCSA I am going to :

• change IP of vcenter and make any applicable changes to the DNS Server so it points to correct IP of vcenter( At this point I won't be able to manage the Host, is this ok? can it be avoided?)

• log on to the console of the ESXI host and change the IP and restart MGMT network agents( Should I move the VMs off of the ESXI hosts?). Also, while I change the IP I will also choose a new vmNic that corresponds to the new vlan (192.168.7.x).

This is where it gets a bit scary for me as I don't want the VMs in the VM Network that are part of vswitch0 to be impacted. My next plan was to create a new vswitch and choose the vmnics that were previously used for vswitch0 and the MGMT Network ( How do I get the VM Network on to this new vswitch?)

So in a nutshell , I'm not too sure how the VM Network is moved to the new vswitch( unless there is a better way of doing all this) and how can I make sure that I will be able to vmotion the machines back to the host after I change the IP of the  MGMT Network and I move on to the next ESXI Host and repeat the process.

The end result should be :

vcenter is on the  192.168.7.X along with all the esxi hosts and MGMT Network on the same 192.168.7.X while keeping the VMs where they are on the VM Network port group.(192.168.10.X) Thank You.

[MattiasN81]

‌The vSwitch configs are stored on the hosts so you dont need to worry about the VMs.

I usally do this when i migrate to another vCenter.

0. The hosts should NOT be in maintenace mode and the VMs should be running as normal during this operation.

this is due to two things, 1. The VM needs to be added to the new vCenter, VMs will be added to the vCenter inventory automaticlly when they are still added to a host inventory. 2. You dont want any downtime on the VMs, so keep them running.

This will not affect the VMs.

1. Configure the new vCenter as desired

2. Disconnect the hosts from the old vCenter

3. When the hosts are disconnected, remove them from the old vCenter

this will remove the vCenter configs on the hosts and cleanup any certificates tied to the old vCenter.

4. Add the hosts to the new vCenter.

5. Done :smileyhappy:

It will look a little bit scary on the old vCenter when you remove the hosts, when VMs starts dissapearing, this is normal

as they are only removed from the vCenter inventory but not the host inventory, they will keep running on the host as nothing happened at all :smileygrin:

I have done this many times under full workload hours without any impact on the VMs

Note..

If you use DVSwitches then you need to export the old switches and import them to the new vCenter so that the VMs are assigned to

the new DVS before you add the hosts.

[vmware128]

Thanks for the Reply, I am more concerned with the IP change of the vcenter and of the HOSTS as I am changing the MGMT Network. Do you have any recommendations on that?

[Ghostinthedarkn]

Remove your hosts from the old vcenter and add them to the New management IP. Downside in doing this you loose all the historic records. Other option is that you edit the vpa.conf for each host. much more of a pain really.