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  • 1.  Migrate vCenter appliance cluster to new hardware

    Posted Jan 06, 2021 04:44 PM

    I have a vcenter appliance cluster running on old hardware and need to move to new hardware.

    The management cluster is running 6.5 and consists of 3 nodes, and each node has a single VM appliance.   vcenter, vcenter-peer and the vcenter-witness respectively.

    We do not have vMotion enabled in this management cluster as it's not needed, but it can be added. This is part of a larger hardware swap out so some shuffling is happening, which will mean I move 2 appliances and then the third.

    I have added 2 new servers to the cluster that I would like to move the peer and witness too.   Once they are done I will then pull their old servers and install a new one for the new master.  If this order is wrong then I can change it.

    I tried to clone the witness to a new server but my entire vcenter went dead, I had to reset the appliances from esxi to get it functional.  

    I assume there is a proper process for doing this, I have looked but could not find it in the docs so any help is greatly appreciated.



  • 2.  RE: Migrate vCenter appliance cluster to new hardware
    Best Answer

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Jan 07, 2021 05:09 AM

    In the VCHA setup ;  go to   Edit and use the  "Disable   vCenter HA" and then   move the VM's   to new hardware.



  • 3.  RE: Migrate vCenter appliance cluster to new hardware

    Posted Jan 07, 2021 05:12 PM

    Makes sense, will work on that today.

    I have a side question/education.   Not understanding the magic under the hood, how does the process work where the active appliance is migrating itself to new hardware, isn’t that a little like grabbing your ankles and trying to lift yourself?

    Thanks

    Mike