Somewhat off topic, but I tried several times to upgrade my 6.0 appliance. Failed every time with some 'an internal error has occurred' message (or words to that effect.) Google revealed nothing similar to this. I ended up deploying a 6.5 appliance from scratch, but haven't yet rolled it out to replace the 6.0 appliance - mainly since I would need to do some hacking on my Veeam B&R appliance to replace the Vcenter server it is referencing...
Upgrade of vCenter 6.0 to 6.5
- Thread starter BSDguy
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I'm busy powering up the vCSA 6 appliance so let's see what happens. I'll report back.
Thanks for the help.
Not off topic at all. I have to say, this upgrade has been a nightmare from the very beginning. I've done a few upgrades in the past with no issues but this has just been terrible. I really don't want to rebuild my vSphere setup again to get on version 6.5.
I also came back empty handed after y research of the errors/issues I experienced.
My Veeam backups are now broken too which is so odd considering they worked after the upgrade to vCSA 6.5.
So I powered off my vCSA 6.5 appliance and turned on the vCSA 6.0 appliance. It seems to be working again! My second host was connected and seems to be fine. I have since reinstalled ESXi 6.0U2 on my first host (just a basic install) and added it back into my cluster and it hasn't disconnected in 20min. So I have absolutlely no idea why this kept happening with the vCSA 6.5 appliance?!
I'm not even sure how to proceed with upgrading to 6.5.
FYI: If you use IPv6, remove the address from the vCSA 6.0 appliance AND remove and IPv6 DNS records BEFORE the migration
I'm not even sure how to proceed with upgrading to 6.5.
FYI: If you use IPv6, remove the address from the vCSA 6.0 appliance AND remove and IPv6 DNS records BEFORE the migration
Hmm this is more for the vCSA 6.5 not starting the vpxd service (resulting in the "could not connect to one or more vCenter systems" message), rather than updating. And I'm not sure if a controller triggers it or if you have to actually have a USB device attached to a VM (like a UPS, for example). There's a nasty bug in 6.5 where vpxd service won't start if you have any VMs with a host USB device attached. The solution is to log into the host web client, remove the offending VM(s) from inventory, and start/restart the vCenter appliance. I think your issue may be something different if it couldn't upgrade in the first place 
Shut down the vCSA and remove the VM from the host inventory (using the host web client if necessary, you can add the VM back later if vCenter comes up). Make sure you remove any VM with a USB device from all hosts, just removing the USB device from the VM but leaving the VM registered will still trigger the bug.
Boot the vCSA and try logging in to either web client and hopefully you won't get the "could not find one or more vCenter systems" message.
Yes, although I successfully upgraded to 6.5 with the VM with USB attached in the host inventory. It was when I shut down/restarted the vCSA 6.5 VM for the very first time that it never came back up until I removed the VM from the host. It's probably safer to remove the VM and upgrade anyway.
Ok, thanks. I'll unregister the VM with the USB UPS in vCenter before trying the upgrade again!
It was so weird because the upgrade to vCSA 6.5 was working for a day and then when I logged in the following day it was all screwed (even a reboot couldn't save it).
It was so weird because the upgrade to vCSA 6.5 was working for a day and then when I logged in the following day it was all screwed (even a reboot couldn't save it).
So, I attempted an upgrade to vCenter 6.5 again today and so far it is working. Wanna let it run for a couple days before I get excited!
I changed the following when I did the upgrade this time:
1) Unregistered VM with USB device before upgrading
2) Removed IPv6 address from vCSA 6 before upgrading
3) Completely disabled HA/DRS
I've also rebooted the upgraded vCSA a few times and it has been fine so far but still want to give it a couple days before upgrading my hosts. Veeam is happy too so backups are working (moved to ReFS for backup repository, damn its fast!)
The only odd thing I have noticed so far is (and maybe this is a GUI bug), here is my HA settings on the cluster in the HTML5 client:
Looks good right? Now check it out in the Flash client:
Is this a bug in the Flash client maybe?
One other thing I have noticed which is odd, when I set an IPv6 address again in the vCSA 6 appliance it loses it after a reboot?
Also, I don't have an option to upgrade my VMs VMware Tools. Normally after an upgrade if you right click a VM you get the option to update the tools but mine keeps saying I am up to date even though I know for sure I am two versions behind. Will this option come after updating my hosts maybe?
I changed the following when I did the upgrade this time:
1) Unregistered VM with USB device before upgrading
2) Removed IPv6 address from vCSA 6 before upgrading
3) Completely disabled HA/DRS
I've also rebooted the upgraded vCSA a few times and it has been fine so far but still want to give it a couple days before upgrading my hosts. Veeam is happy too so backups are working (moved to ReFS for backup repository, damn its fast!)
The only odd thing I have noticed so far is (and maybe this is a GUI bug), here is my HA settings on the cluster in the HTML5 client:
Looks good right? Now check it out in the Flash client:
Is this a bug in the Flash client maybe?
One other thing I have noticed which is odd, when I set an IPv6 address again in the vCSA 6 appliance it loses it after a reboot?
Also, I don't have an option to upgrade my VMs VMware Tools. Normally after an upgrade if you right click a VM you get the option to update the tools but mine keeps saying I am up to date even though I know for sure I am two versions behind. Will this option come after updating my hosts maybe?
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Aaah got it, not the hosts haven't been updated yet. I want to let vCenter 6.5 run for a few days before proceeding!
Further update:
So as a test I shutdown the first host in my cluster and removed the bootable ESXi USB key and replaced it with a temporary one that I installed ESXi 6.5 on. After the install I proceeded to add the 6.5 host to the 6.5 vCenter. And guess what?? Straight away I had disconnects between vCenter 6.5 and ESXi 6.5!
I tried unplugging the USB UPS altogether and checking forward/reverse DNS, firewall rules etc but nothing made a difference until...
IPv6!!
I run a dual stack IPv4/IPv6 network and my ESXi host and vCenter has an IPv4 AND IPv6 address. As soon as I removed the IPv6 address (and the relevant IPv6 AAAA/PTR records from DNS) from my ESXi 6.5 host ALL the disconnect errors disappeared instantly.
So then I tried to assign ONLY an IPv6 address to the ESXi 6.5 host and this failed with an error saying the default gateway was incorrect (even though it WAS correct).
So I'm wondering if IPv6 is broken in vSphere 6.5?
I also noticed that whenver I reboot the vCSA 6.5, it loses the IPv6 address.
Has anyone else had any experience with running dual stack IPv4/IPv6 with vSphere 6.5? I've been using dual stack with vSphere 6.0U2 for 4 months without a single issue so I am surprised/shocked that this is/may be the case with 6.5.
Here's the error when setting the static IPv6 address on the ESXi 6.5 host:
So as a test I shutdown the first host in my cluster and removed the bootable ESXi USB key and replaced it with a temporary one that I installed ESXi 6.5 on. After the install I proceeded to add the 6.5 host to the 6.5 vCenter. And guess what?? Straight away I had disconnects between vCenter 6.5 and ESXi 6.5!
I tried unplugging the USB UPS altogether and checking forward/reverse DNS, firewall rules etc but nothing made a difference until...
IPv6!!
I run a dual stack IPv4/IPv6 network and my ESXi host and vCenter has an IPv4 AND IPv6 address. As soon as I removed the IPv6 address (and the relevant IPv6 AAAA/PTR records from DNS) from my ESXi 6.5 host ALL the disconnect errors disappeared instantly.
So then I tried to assign ONLY an IPv6 address to the ESXi 6.5 host and this failed with an error saying the default gateway was incorrect (even though it WAS correct).
So I'm wondering if IPv6 is broken in vSphere 6.5?
I also noticed that whenver I reboot the vCSA 6.5, it loses the IPv6 address.
Has anyone else had any experience with running dual stack IPv4/IPv6 with vSphere 6.5? I've been using dual stack with vSphere 6.0U2 for 4 months without a single issue so I am surprised/shocked that this is/may be the case with 6.5.
Here's the error when setting the static IPv6 address on the ESXi 6.5 host:
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