Upgrade to VMware vCenter Server 7.0

vSphere 7.0 is now GA and live on vmware.com VMware vSphere Documentation  

GA Date: April 2, 2020
What’s New?
vSphere 7.0 debuts with Kubernetes support to run containers!

It also includes the following new features and enhancements:    

·       vSphere Lifecycle Manager

·       Quickboot cert expansion

·       Langley

·       Manage Certificates

·       Infra Profiles

·       Federated Identity Management 

·       NSX-T incl NVDS

·       NVMe

·       NVMe over Fabric

·       Assignable HW

·       vSGX

·       VCSA as first choice

·       VSTATS

·       Lifecycle, H5 client enhancements, Update Planner

·       vSAN File Services

·       System Storage Next

·       And much more..

Now, its time for an Upgrade !!!

Checkout on Pre-requisites before going for an upgrade

• vCenter Server 7.0 is compatible with starting ESXi 6.5 onwards. So, make sure you have all ESXi Host version as 6.5 or later including vSphere Distributed Switch (DVS) to version 6.5 or later.
• Check VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide before proceeding for Upgrade. 
• Make sure you have sufficient CPU, Memory, and Storage available on vSphere cluster. 
• DNS Forward and reverse lookup for all VMware components. Eg: nslookup -nosearch -nodefname your_vCenter_Server_fqdn
• Synchronize the clocks on all machines running the vCenter Server services using NTP.
• Disable VCHA.
• Full of Backup vCenter Server.
• Verify that passwords are current and not set to expire soon. i.e root.
• Offline Snapshot. i.e PSC (if present) and vCenter Server together.
• Network ports requirement for vCenter Server. Click Here
• Jump Server which should be in the same subnet as that of vCenter Server in order to get raid of network ports.
• Use ephemeral port binding for ESXi and vCenter Server management on DVS
• The readiness of vSphere 7 licenses and vCenter Server ISO file.
• SSH is enabled is on the vCenter Server Appliance.
• Disable Lockdown Mode on the entire vSphere cluster hosting existing vCenter Server and upgraded vCenter server.
• Make note of ESXi Hosting vCenter server.
• The readiness of root credentials for the vCenter Server and ESXi Server.
• Readiness SSO administrator credentials.
• Set DRS to manual mode for the environment where vMotions happens aggressively. 
• The temporary IP address should be in the same subnet as that of vCenter Server.
• Optionally, prefer Convergence from External PSC to Embedded PSC before proceeding.
• Export the vmdir information as an LDIF file using VMware KB. 
• Disable IPv6
• https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/76584

Hardware Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance

The hardware requirements for a vCenter Server appliance depend on the size of your vSphere inventory.

Hardware Requirements for a vCenter Server Appliance

	Number of vCPUs	Memory
Tiny environment (up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines)	2	12 GB
Small environment (up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines)	4	19 GB
Medium environment (up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines)	8	28 GB
Large environment (up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines)	16	37 GB
X-Large environment (up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines)	24	56 GB

Storage Requirements for the vCenter Server Appliance

The storage requirements are different for each vSphere environment size and depend on your database size requirements.

Storage Requirements for a vCenter Server Appliance

	Default Storage Size	Large Storage Size	X-Large Storage Size
Tiny environment (up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines)	415 GB	1490 GB	3245 GB
Small environment (up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines)	480 GB	1535 GB	3295 GB
Medium environment (up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines)	700 GB	1700 GB	3460 GB
Large environment (up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines)	1065 GB	1765 GB	3525 GB
X-Large environment (up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines)	1805 GB	1905 GB	3665 GB

Upgrade Steps for vCenter Server 7.0

Step 1: Mount the ISO VMware-VCSA-all-7.0.iso on Jump Server (machine which has access to vCenter Server and ESXi Host).

Step 2: Go to vcsa-ui-installer.

Step 3: Select and enter to win32 folder.

Step 4: Select installer.exe and perform “Run as Administrator”.

Step 11: Select Upgrade.

Step 12: Click Next.

Step 13: Accept EULA and click Next.

Step 15: Enter FQDN of vCenter Server appliance which is to be upgraded and click Connect to Source.

Step 17: SSO Username preferably with “administrator”. Use either vCenter Server or ESXi Host {Prefer using same ESXi host where vCenter server is hosted} and click Next.

Step 19: Accept Certificate warning and click Yes to continue.

Step 21: Enter the required details and click Next to continue.

Step 23: Accept certificate warning by clicking on “Yes”.

Step 24: Select required folder and click Next.

Step 25: Preferably select ESXi Host where existing vCenter server is deployed and click Next.

Step 26: Enter VM Name for Upgrade vCenter Server and enter root password Please Note: Here, VM Name is not the hostname and Root password doesn’t belong to existing vCenter Server.

Step 27: Select Deployment Size as per Environment. Please Note: Tiny Deployment model doesn’t support VCHA

Step 28: Select Datastore and click Next.

Step 29: Enter required detail and click Next to proceed ahead.

Step 31: Review setting before proceeding and click Finish to proceed.

Step 33: Monitor the progress

Step 36: Click “Continue” to proceed further.

Step 38: Click Next.

Step 41: Existing DVS is at 6.0 which needs to be upgraded to DVS 6.5.

Step 43: Upgrade DVS to 6.5 version or later.

Step 46: Click Next to proceed.

Step 47: Click “Finish”.

Step 48: Verify DVS 6.5 or later

Step 50: Click Next to continue.

Step 51: Click Close to proceed.

Step 53: Select upgrade data options and proceed accordingly. Below is the reference table of approximate time for data migration.:

Step 55: Click Next to proceed.

Step 57: Click on checkbox and Click finish.

Step 59: Existing vCenter Server i.e. old vCenter Server will be Shutdown by clicking OK button. Press OK to proceed further.

Step 61: Monitor the progress.

Step 65: Click “Close” and proceed to login to vCenter Server url.

Step 67: Starting with vSphere 7 only html 5 client is available.

Step 68: Verify the Version and apply vCenter Server 7 license.