Migrating vCenter 5.1 with Horizon View attached
We currently have a vSphere 5.1 environment and (installed separately) a Horizon View 5.2 environment. Our vCenter server is on a physical server which will be upgraded shortly to new hardware. vCenter uses and locally installed SQL Server instance that will be manually migrated to the new server. View Composer and the View Connector both use their local default SQL and ADAM databases respectively.
We don't want to have to make any changes in Horizon View if we don't have to. Currently we have some dedicated linked-clone pools that use persistent disks and some floating linked-clone pools that use persona management.
We plan to migrate the vCenter database to the new hardware and give it the same name and IP address as the old one. We will also migrate over all the SSL certs and RSA signatures.
Would this be enough to make sure Horizon View reconnects it's pools on the new server? Is there something else we need to do to make sure users can connect to their dedicated Horizon View desktops?
We don't want to have to make any changes in Horizon View if we don't have to. Currently we have some dedicated linked-clone pools that use persistent disks and some floating linked-clone pools that use persona management.
We plan to migrate the vCenter database to the new hardware and give it the same name and IP address as the old one. We will also migrate over all the SSL certs and RSA signatures.
Would this be enough to make sure Horizon View reconnects it's pools on the new server? Is there something else we need to do to make sure users can connect to their dedicated Horizon View desktops?
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
If the same names and IP Addresses are in use with vCenter Server, there should be no issues, between View and vCenter, and the DBs are the same.
ASKER
Is there no UID generated for the vcenter instance that needs to match up?
ASKER
It appears there is a VC_CONFIG_ENTRY in the View Composer database. This entry has an ID for the vCenter instance. It is still unclear whether this would change if we migrated the DBs, SSL certs, server name and IP to new hardware. Even with all that migrated, it would technically be a new vCenter instance, wouldn't it?
I'm sorry to keep harping on this point but my timetable for this is very short, we have a maintenance window to do this work this coming weekend.
I'm sorry to keep harping on this point but my timetable for this is very short, we have a maintenance window to do this work this coming weekend.
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ASKER
Thank you for confirming. You've been a great help.
Keep up the good work.
Keep up the good work.
ASKER
Update:
We completed the physical server migration of vCenter. In the process we set the IP and server name the same on the new server as on the old one. The DB and SSL certs were migrated. I used the Certificate Automation Tool to reinstall the certs from the old server. (I had saved the certs that had been generated for that server in a secure location previously.)
Refer to: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2041600
and http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2037432
Once the DB and SSL certs were in place and all services were restarted, Horizon VMware View was tested as suggested by hanccocka. The recompose was successful and everything linked back up just fine.
Hopefully this is useful for someone else in a similar situation since there are no official guidelines on how to migrate vcenter with Horizon View.
Thanks again for your advice, hanccocka.
We completed the physical server migration of vCenter. In the process we set the IP and server name the same on the new server as on the old one. The DB and SSL certs were migrated. I used the Certificate Automation Tool to reinstall the certs from the old server. (I had saved the certs that had been generated for that server in a secure location previously.)
Refer to: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2041600
and http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2037432
Once the DB and SSL certs were in place and all services were restarted, Horizon VMware View was tested as suggested by hanccocka. The recompose was successful and everything linked back up just fine.
Hopefully this is useful for someone else in a similar situation since there are no official guidelines on how to migrate vcenter with Horizon View.
Thanks again for your advice, hanccocka.
No problems, glad it all went well....