VMware v Sphere Upgrade Tips and Tricks URL

VMware v. Sphere Upgrade Tips and Tricks URL for this deck will be provided at the end of the presentation Patrick Kremer – Systems Engineer, VMware Twitter: @Kremer. Patrick © 2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Upgrade Planning

CHECK YOUR HARDWARE COMPATIBLITY!!!!! Seriously. Check it. • VMware Compatibility List: http: //www. vmware. com/resources/compatibility/search. php 3

4

CHECK YOUR GUEST OS COMPATIBLITY!!!!! Check it twice. http: //www. vmware. com/resources/compatibility/search. php • Customers run into problems when they don’t discover that the guest OS is no longer supported until an outage. • Finding out that your production SQL guest is unsupported during an outage: 5

6

Prepare your upgrade sequence We’ve got a list for that • VMware supported upgrade sequence: http: //kb. vmware. com/kb/2109760 • There are 29 VMware products on the list. v. Center Server is 12 th! ESXi is 24 th! • If you upgrade out of sequence: 7

Platform Features - Increased v. Sphere Maximums Up to 4 X Scale Improvement with v. Sphere 6 v. Sphere 5. 5 v. Sphere 6 Hosts per Cluster 32 64 2 x VMs per Cluster 4, 000 8, 000 2 x CPUs per Host 320 480 1. 5 x RAM per Host 4 TB 12 TB 3 x VMs per Host 512 1, 024 2 x Virtual CPUs per VM 64 128 2 x Virtual RAM per VM 1 TB 4 x 8

v. Center Server Features - Enhanced Capabilities • Scalability supported by both Windows Install and v. Center Server appliance. • Windows install supports Postgres and External SQL and Oracle DBs. Metric Windows Appliance Hosts per VC 1, 000 Powered-On VMs per VC 10, 000 Hosts per Cluster 64 64 VMs per Cluster 8, 000 ✔ ✔ Linked Mode • v. CSA supports embedded Postgres and external Oracle DBs. • v. CSA converter Fling: https: //labs. vmware. com/flings/vcsto-vcva-converter 9

v. Center Server 6. 0 – Platform Services Controller takes it beyond just Single Sign-On. It groups: ü Single Sign-On (SSO) ü Licensing Two Deployment Models: • Embedded ü v. Center Server and Platform Services Controller in one virtual machine - Recommended for small deployments where there is less then two SSO integrated solutions • External ü v. Center Server and Platform Services Controller in their own virtual machines - Recommended for most deployments where there are two or more SSO integrated solutions ü Certificate Authority v. Center PSC v. Center 10

Platform Services Controller (PSC) Internal or External? • External was designed to eliminate the dependency on v. Center. • Other VMware software products rely on SSO for their authentication. • If you currently use other VMware offerings, or think you might in the future, consider external. PSC migration: Sean Whitney, Senior Technical Support Engineer with VMware http: //www. virtually-limitless. com/vsphere-6 -0/upgrading-from-embedded-sso-5 -5 -to-external-sso-psc-6 -0/ • There is currently no supported way to move from a 6. 0 embedded PSC to a 6. 0 external PSC. Support is being worked on but there is no official release date. 12

v. Center Server 6. 0 - Clients Client Comparison Use case Web Client v. Sphere management ✔ ✔ ESXi/VM patching (VUM) ✖ ✔ Hardware version 8 -11 ✔ ✔* New features ✔ ✖ * v 10 -11 Read only access 13

v. Center Server 6. 0 - v. Sphere Web Client • Usability Improvements – Can get anywhere in one click – Right click menu has been flattened – Recent tasks are back at the bottom – Dockable UI 14

Read the v. Center Deployment Guide http: //www. vmware. com/files/pdf/techpaper/vmware-vcenter-server 6 -deployment-guide. pdf • To upgrade to v. Center 6. 0, you must be running v. Center 5. 0 or later. • Consider making PSC a subordinate CA 15

Read the v. Center High Availability Blog entry http: //blogs. vmware. com/vsphere/2015/03/vcenter-server-6 -topology-ha. html A few points pulled from the blog post: • You can use FT to protect v. Center • Cluster the backend database • Cluster v. Center with Windows Server Failover Clustering (introduced in v. Center 5. 5 U 3) 16

Upgrading ESXi Old School • Boot directly from ISO and manually execute the upgrade. • If you’re doing this on more than 1 host: 17

Upgrading ESXi Update Manager • • Works very well for most upgrades You can import vendor custom ISOs (i. e. HP and Dell ISOs) with all the required custom drivers Create a baseline with your custom ISO and attach it to a cluster. Full Update Manager upgrade documentation for v. Sphere 6 here. • 6 minute VMware-authored video on the whole process here. 18

Upgrading ESXi Update Manager 19

Upgrading ESXi Update Manager 20

Upgrading ESXi Update Manager 21

Upgrading ESXi Update Manager 22

Upgrading/Installing ESXi Scripted 23

Upgrading/Installing ESXi Scripted 24

Upgrading/Installing ESXi Scripted 25

Upgrading/Installing ESXi Scripted – William Lam’s virtually. Ghetto. com PXE Boot install Custom Boot Menu Install 26

Upgrading/Installing ESXi Scripted – William Lam’s virtually. Ghetto. com Semi-Interactive Maintain a single copy of the kickstart config that is not host-specific, then key in the specific parameters on boot. 27

Questions? Patrick Kremer Systems Engineer Twitter: @Kremer. Patrick This deck is available at http: //www. patrickkremer. com/vmug

v. Sphere 6 Certification Changes URL for this deck will be provided at the end of the presentation Patrick Kremer – Systems Engineer, VMware Email: pkremer@vmware. com Twitter: @Kremer. Patrick © 2014 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

Version 6 Certification Roadmap VMware Technical Certifications 30

Version 6 Certification Roadmap VCA Exams – Online exams proctored by Pearson Vue. 31

Version 6 Certification Roadmap v. Sphere 6 Foundations exam 32

Version 6 Certification Roadmap v. Sphere 6 Foundations exam – Required base certification for all new VCP candidates 33

Version 6 Certification Roadmap VCP 6 -DCV – Migration for existing VCP holders 34

Version 6 Certification Roadmap VCAPs are now VCIXs There will still be 2 exams – an administration and a design exam, but you have to pass both to achieve the VCIX certification. 35