Upgrading vCenter Server 4.1 installed with vCenter Heartbeat 6.4 to vCenter Server 5.0

Purpose

This article provides steps and best practices to upgrade vCenter Server 4.1 installed with vCenter Heartbeat 6.4 to vCenter Server 5.0. This is not a comprehensive guide and should only be used as a guideline. For more information on performing the upgrade, see the vCenter Server 5.0 Upgrade Guide and vCenter Heartbeat 6.4 Installation guide.

Resolution

Before proceeding, ensure to:
  • Review the entire upgrade procedure.
  • Copy the media to both your nodes
  • Meet these prerequisites:
    • Create a backup of your database. Alternatively, if your vCenter Server is a virtual machine, take a snapshot of the virtual machine.
    • Ensure that you are using supported versions of SQL or Oracle clients. For more information, see Installing vCenter Server 5.0 best practices (2003790).
    • Verify that all required database permissions are applied to the database. For more information, seeInstalling vCenter Server 5.0 best practices (2003790) and the vSphere Upgrade Guide.
    • Ensure that your Secondary Node is active.
To upgrade vCenter Server:
  1. Click Start > Run, type services.msc, and click OK. The Services window opens.
  2. Stop the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service:

    Note: Leave the protected applications running on both nodes.

  3. Set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Manual on both nodes.
  4. Perform a vCenter Server 5.0 upgrade on the Secondary Node. Ensure that the database is successfully upgraded during the install wizard.
  5. Reboot and test the vCenter Server 5.0 installation on the Secondary Node and ensure that it is functioning correctly. 

    Note:
     Ensure that the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service is set to Manual at this time.

  6. Set the VMware VirtualCenter Server service and the VMware VirtualCenter Management WebServices service to Manual.
  7. Start the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service and ensure it comes up correctly. It cannot replicate with the other node because of version differences.
  8. Set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Automatic.
  9. Shut down the Secondary Node.
  10. Enable the Public NIC on the Primary Node:

    1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the %ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\R2\Bin directory:

      cd "%ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\R2\Bin"

    2. Run this command: 



      nfpktfltr.exe setfilter PassThru

    3. Run this command and verify that the packet filter’s state is set to passthru: 



      nfpktfltr.exe getstate

    4. Test connectivity by pinging from the Public NIC to a remote workstation:

      ping ip_address

  11. Run the vCenter Server 5.0 upgrade installation.

    Note: Do not overwrite the existing database and do not reboot after installation completes.

  12. Set the VMware VirtualCenter Server service and VMware VirtualCenter Management WebServices service to Manual.
  13. Set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Automatic.
  14. Shut down the Primary Node. VMware vCenter Heartbeat assumes that it is passive.
  15. Power on the Secondary (Active) Node and ensure that the VMware vCenter Heartbeat server is healthy and that vCenter Server 5.0 tests successfully.
  16. Power on the Primary (Passive) Node. Ensure that replication activates and is healthy.
  17. Make the Primary Node active. Ensure that the replication activates and is healthy.
  18. Test vCenter Server to see if it works correctly.
Based on VMware KB2007455
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