vCenter 6.7 – Three ways to migrate external vCenter PSC to Embedded Mode
Announced in November 2018, the External Platform Services Controller (PSC) is being deprecated. If you are running vSphere 6.7 or vSphere 6.5 Update 2, you can now enjoy the benefits of using embedded PSC deployments without the hassle and complexity of extra nodes or load balancers. However, this means you will now need to join your PSC with your vCenter server only if the PSC is currently external. This guide will walk you through on three different ways to get the job done.
Tips and Recommendations
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Also included in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 and above is the repoint tool. A stand-alone embedded deployment can join or leave a vSphere SSO Domain. This helps provide flexibility for data center moves, acquisitions, or mergers. The vSphere team commitment is to ensure vCenter Server complexity is minimized while also delivering the tools required so that architectural choices can be changed as an organization evolves.
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Once you have everything up and running the way it should
- Deploy vCenter HA to have a complete failover of your vCenter Appliance
- Schedule backups of your vCenter Server using the built-in vCenter backup feature. http://www.vmignite.com/2018/11/vcenter-6-7-how-to-backup-and-restore-vcenter/
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Use vSphere Replication to have a DR backup of your vCenter in another site
Use built-in user interface for vCenter 6.7 Update 2
Easiest method by far. This requires you to upgrade your vCenter to version 6.7 Update 2 first. Then login to the HTML5 Client and go to Home > Administration > System Configuration and select the Converge to Embedded option. Then once everything is converged, you will need to select the Decommission PSC option. For more details and full instructions, you can see the post below
Use CLI for vCenter 6.7 Update 1 and above
You will need to upgrade your vCenter Server to version 6.7 Update 1 and above, then locate the converge tool inside the vCenter ISO. This method is a lot more difficult than the above method but can be an alternative if the user interface method doesn’t work, or for some reason you are not able to upgrade to vCenter 6.7 Update 2 or above. Instructions and details about the process are below.
https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2019/02/understanding-the-vcenter-server-converge-tool.html
https://nolabnoparty.com/en/vcenter-server-6-7-converge-tool-embed-external-psc-into-vcsa/
Build new vCenter Server Environment and Migrate
Use this option only when all else fails or if you feel the need to start from scratch again or your old environment has stability issues. This is the longest method but might be the perfect method for environments that doesn’t have only a few hosts to migrate.
The Vmware Official way of migrating a vCenter with VDS switch: https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029498
A quicker unsupported way of migrating vCenter with VDS switch: http://www.vmignite.com/2016/03/how-to-migrate-host-and-vms-from-vcenter-5-to-a-vcenter-6-server/
