vCenter upgrade from 7.0U3t to 8.0

[allenlaiyang]

Hi experts,

I am planing to do vCenter upgrade from 7.0U3t to 8.0.

According to the documentation, it said to deploy 8.0 vcenter with  a temporary network config.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/vcenter-server-upgrade-8-0/upgrading-and-updating-the-vcenter-server-appliance/about-the-vcenter-server-appliance-upgrade-process.html

does it mean to use temporary ip address and hostname but the temporary ip can be communicated with old 7.0 vCenter and temporary hostname DNS record should be created and answered by DNS server when querying happened?

Other than above, anything else should be noted?

Thanks

Allen

[a_p_]

The temporary IP address is only required for the upgrade procedure itself. Once the upgrade is done (new vCSA deployed, and data migrated), the old vCenter will be shut down, and the new one assumes the old one's identity. At the point the temporary IP address will be removed. No need to create DNS records for the temporary IP address.

Please note that an upgrade from v7.0 U3t requires at lease v8.0 U3d (see Interoperability Matrix).

André

[allenlaiyang]

thanks Andre.

I recall the jason template for new application install has the hostname part.

I don't have the jason template for the upgrade. 

Is there any example for it?

Thanks

allen

[a_p_]

You can find upgrade templates in the vCSA installer ISO image.

See e.g. Prepare Your JSON Configuration File for CLI Upgrade

André

[allenlaiyang]

got it thanks Andre

[allenlaiyang]

Hi Andre and experts,

i ran into the following error when doing pre-check

Error message: ApplianceName: A virtual machine with the name '***' already exists on the target ESXi host or cluster. Choose a different name for the vCenter Server Appliance

(case-insensitive).
I want to keep the same vm name for the new vCenter on 8.0 but it doesn't allow as above error.

Is there anyway we can do it or have to change the vm name?

Thanks

Allen

[Alexandru Capras]

You can add something like '_v8' to the name for the deployment and rename it however you like later. Once the old vCenter machine is powered off, you can rename it with '_old' so you can reuse the original name. It's a lot of steps, but make sure to do a storage vMotion afterward to rename the VMDKs accordingly.

[allenlaiyang]

thanks Alex

allen

[Alexandru Capras]

To add some thoughts to what André said: 
make sure the temporary IP is from the same subnet as the old 7.0 vCenter - it will make your life easier.

Here's a quick guide with the upgrade steps in case you want a refresher:
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/372863/quick-guide-to-upgrade-from-vcenter-serv.html

...and a known issue that we faced when we did the upgrade, quoting from the release notes:
"If you do not open port 9087 in your firewall between ESXi hosts and vCenter, compliance checks and vSphere HA might fail after vCenter update to 8.0 Update 3

Starting from 8.0 Update 3, the vSphere Lifecycle Manager downloads updates for ESXi hosts by a HTTPS connection to the vCenter instance on port 9087."