Lets see how to get the vCenter Server Appliance update from 6.0 to 6.5

Run the Installer.exe from the ISO if its a Windows Machine.

D:\vcsa-ui-installer\win32\installer.exe

Choose Upgrade –

Two Stage Process

Stage 1  – Deploy New vcenter Temp

Stage 1  – Enter Source and target info.

If its a same cluster . Mention the esxi info.

Enter Target Info –

Security Untrusted SSL Prompt – Say Yes.

Enter Temporary vcentername.

Choose vcenter Size

Enter Temporary IP info. Same VLAN preferred.

Choose Finish

Now you can choose Stage 2- or continue stage 2 using  https://temp-ip:5480

Temporary Appliance booted up and ready. _Just _ Good_To_know

Take Backups/snapshots of old appliances

Ignore DRS warnings.

Vcenter 6.5 is up and ready.

Known Issue – 1 –

Issue  –  Using same vcenter creds for source and target

Error –

Encountered an internal error. Traceback (most recent call last): File “/usr/lib/vmidentity/firstboot/vmidentity-firstboot.py”, line 2018, in main vmidentityFB.boot() File “/usr/lib/vmidentity/firstboot/vmidentity-firstboot.py”, line 349, in boot self.configureSTS(self.__stsRetryCount, self.__stsRetryInterval) File “/usr/lib/vmidentity/firstboot/vmidentity-firstboot.py”, line 1479, in configureSTS self.startSTSService() File “/usr/lib/vmidentity/firstboot/vmidentity-firstboot.py”, line 1141, in startSTSService returnCode = self.startService(self.__sts_service_name, self.__stsRetryCount * self.__stsRetryInterval) File “/usr/lib/vmidentity/firstboot/vmidentity-firstboot.py”, line 88, in startService return service_start(svc_name, wait_time) File “/usr/lib/vmware/site-packages/cis/utils.py”, line 784, in service_start raise ServiceStartException(svc_name) ServiceStartException: { “resolution”: null, “detail”: [ { “args”: [ “vmware-stsd” ], “id”: “install.ciscommon.service.failstart”, “localized”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘vmware-stsd'”, “translatable”: “An error occurred while starting service ‘%(0)s'” } ], “componentKey”: null, “problemId”: null }

Solution –

If you use vcenter credentials for Source and Target in the same Cluster.

It will turn of the Source

It will try doing the job on the target using the specified Creds.

–

Means . Use Esxi Creds for Target creds if its a same cluster.

Known Issue – 2  –

Vcenter Appliance password will Expire.

https://vcenterIP:5480

Note :

Goodbye vSphere Client for Windows (C#) – Hello HTML5

C# client (Desktop Client/thick client/vSphere Client,vi Client for Windows) will not be available from vcenter 6.5 Onwards

[ :ShowExcp:M: 6] 2016-12-05 09:56:31.231 Error: An internal error occurred in the vSphere Client.
Details: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Contact VMware support if necessary.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at VimSearchUI.Services.Impl.SearchSpecBuilderImpl.GetSimpleProperties(PropertyOwner owner, Type parentType)
at VimSearchUI.Services.Impl.SearchSpecBuilderImpl.BuildTypes()
at VimSearchUI.Services.SearchServiceAdaptor.CreateSearchSpec()
at VimSearchUI.Controllers.Impl.SearchController`1.CreateSearchSpec()
at VpxClient.Home.ChromeView.InitializeChromeView()
at VpxClient.Home.ChromeView.OnFirstVimContext()
at VpxClient.Home.ChromeView.set_VimContext(VimContext value)
at VpxClient.Form1.OnFirstVimContext()
at VpxClient.Form1.set_VimContext(VimContext value)
at VpxClient.UI.OnSuccessfulLogin()
at VpxClient.UI.OnLoginEvent(String message, Object[] args)

Forgot root password to vCenter Appliance 6.0

Most of the Cases –

• Gets Expired by default.
• Locked out by Wrong Attempts

Lets see how to change the root password –

• Reboot the vCSA 6.0 using the vSphere Client.
• When the GRUB boot loader appears, press the spacebar to disable auto boot.
• Press P to Enter Edit Mode

If the vCSA was deployed without editing the root password in the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI), the default GRUB password is vmware.

If the vCSA root password was reset using the VAMI, then the GRUB password is the password last set in the VAMI for the root account.

Choose the Second One.  kernel /…

Type e to edit the boot command.

Append

init=/bin/bash

to the kernel boot options.

• Press Enter. The GRUB menu reappears.
• Type b to start the boot process. The system boots to a shell.
• Reset the root password by running below command.

  passwd root

Restart the appliance by running the reboot command.

Set Password Never Expires – 

Login to Appliance

https://10.10.10.100:5480

After a Physical to Virtual Conversion using P2v Converter VMware , Generic Applications gets below Error on startup

System.Security.CryptoGraphy.CryptographicException: Key not Valid for Use in Specified State

System.Security.CryptoGraphy.CryptographicException: Key not Valid for Use in Specified State

at System.Security.CryptoGraphy.Utils.CreateProvHandle(CspParameters Parameters,Boolean RandomkeyContainer)

Solution :

Moved this SID Named folder to a different location.

C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Crypto\DSS