vCenter Server Converge Tool

Converging an External vCenter Deployment using the vSphere Client

Announced in November 2018, VMware has stated that the External Platform Services Controller will be deprecated in a future vSphere release.

As the External Platform Services Controller (PSC) is going away, a Converge Tool has been provided to migrate you from an External PSC Deployment to an Embedded PSC Deployment. This walkthrough will cover how to use the Converge Tool using the vSphere Client.

A high level overview on how we will migrate to an Embedded PSC Deployment is as follows:

We will run the Converge Tool against all vCenter Servers within the Single-Sign On domain
If any solutions are registered against the Platform Services Controller Lookup Service such as NSX or Site Recovery Manager, we will repoint and update to use the new Embedded PSC URL.
We will run the Converge Tool to decommission the External Platform Services Controllers within the Single-Sign On Domain.

More information on how to use the vCenter Server Converge Tool can be found in the following blog posts.

To begin, let's select Administration.

Once we are in the Administration section, we will select System Configuration.

Included in the System Configuration page is an overview of nodes in your SSO domain, you will see the load balancers, platform services controllers and vCenter Servers. You will also have insight into which node is an External PSC, which node is an Embedded vCenter Server and even see details such as which nodes are its replication partners. Let's proceed to click on the View as Topology and see what is new here.

Embedded vCenter Servers as well as Replications and External PSC Connections.Let's proceed back to the table view to begin our converge

process.

To begin our converge process we will select our first vCenter Server Appliance we wish to converge. We will then choose the Converge to Embedded option. Note: Converging through the vSphere Client will default to downloading the latest RPM's from the VMware Online Repository. If your vCenter Server does not have internet access you will either need to configure a custom repository or proceed to download and mount the VCSA ISO to the vCenter Server Appliance.

You will need to click Proceed on the warning that states that during the converge process the vCenter Server that you are converging will have its services restarted during the process.

We will be prompted to enter in the details of our Single-Sign On administrator account. We will be notified of the new replication partner for this Embedded vCenter Server. As this is the first vCenter Server we are converting it will show that there is No embedded node available, this server will use its existing replication data to syncronize its data. (Optional) If you wish to join your vCenter Server appliance to Active Directory you can proceed to enter in the details on this screen. Once the information has been entered, we will acknowledge that we have made a backup of the vCenter Server appliance before proceeding.

During the converge process a Pre-Check will be run to identify any issues. If no issues exist it will proceed to install the PSC components on the vCenter Server from the configured repository. Once the converge process is complete, you will be notified that the services will need to restart and that you will be logged off. If you have another linked vCenter Server you can log onto that server to monitor the convergence or wait a few minutes until the original vCenter Server comes back online.

Once we are able to log back in we will see that the convergence of our vCenter Server is complete and in the table it now shows it as a vCenter Server with embedded PSC.Let's head back to the Topology View and see how our systems are shown.

We can now see our updated topology view. Let's proceed back to the Table View to proceed with the process to converge our next vCenter Server.

Continuing our converge process we will select our next vCenter Server Appliance we wish to converge. We will then choose the Converge to Embedded option.Note: Converging through the vSphere Client will default to downloading the latest RPM's from the VMware Online Repository. If your vCenter Server does not have internet access you will either need to configure a custom repository or proceed to download and mount the VCSA ISO to the vCenter Server Appliance.

You will need to click Proceed on the warning that states that during the converge process the vCenter Server that you are converging will have its services restarted during the process.

We will be prompted to enter in the details of our Single-Sign On administrator account. We will be notified of the new replication partner for this Embedded vCenter Server. As this is the next vCenter Server we are converting it will show the existing Embedded vCenter Servers that are available.(Optional) If you wish to join your vCenter Server appliance to Active Directory you can proceed to enter in the details on this screen.Once the information has been entered, we will acknowledge that we have made a backup of the vCenter Server appliance before proceeding.

We can now see our updated topology view. Let's proceed back to the Table View to proceed with the process to converge our next vCenter Server.

IMPORTANT: Prior to starting the decommission process we need to make sure we re-register any solution that is currently registered with an External PSC to now use the Embedded vCenter Server such as NSX or SRM.To begin our decommission process, we will select our first External PSC and select Decommission PSC.

During the decommission process the External PSC will be shutdown and unregistered from the SSO domain. During the process the currently logged on vCenter Server services will also be restarted.

You will once again be reminded to make sure that there are no solutions or vCenter Servers pointing to the External PSC. Once it is decommissioned it will be fully removed from your environment.Enter in your SSO credentials and proceed to click Decommission.

At this point we can now see that our External PSC has now been decommissioned. Let's take one last look at our topology view.

We can now see our final topology for our environment. We have successfully converged our environment from utilizing External PSC's to only utilizing Embedded vCenter Servers.

Thank you for completing the converge walkthrough. You can find more information on our vSphere Blogs.

Converging a Load Balanced External vCenter Deployment using the vSphere Client

Announced in November 2018, VMware has stated that the External Platform Services Controller will be deprecated in a future vSphere release.

A high level overview on how we will migrate to an Embedded PSC Deployment is as follows:

We will run the Converge Tool against all vCenter Servers within the Single-Sign On domain
If any solutions are registered against the Platform Services Controller Lookup Service such as NSX or Site Recovery Manager, we will repoint and update to use the new Embedded PSC URL.
We will run the Converge Tool to decommission the External Platform Services Controllers within the Single-Sign On Domain.

More information on how to use the vCenter Server Converge Tool can be found in the following blog posts.

To begin, let's navigate to Administration.

Once we are in the Administration section, we will select System Configuration.

Included in the System Configuration page is an overview of nodes in your SSO domain, you will see the load balancers, platform services controllers and vCenter Servers.You will also have insight into which node is an External PSC, which node is an Embedded vCenter Server and even see details such as which nodes are its replication partners.Let's proceed to click on the View as Topology and see what is new here.

Included in the System Configuration page is also a toplogy view of nodes in your SSO domain, you will see the load balancers, platform services controllers and vCenter Servers.You will also have insight into which node are which with a graphical representation of Load Balancers, Platform Services Controllers, Embedded vCenter Servers as well as Replications and External PSC Connections.Let's proceed back to the table view to begin our converge process.

To begin our converge process we will select our first vCenter Server Appliance we wish to converge. We will then choose the Converge to Embedded option.Note: Converging through the vSphere Client will default to downloading the latest RPM's from the VMware Online Repository. If your vCenter Server does not have internet access you will either need to configure a custom repository or proceed to download and mount the VCSA ISO to the vCenter Server Appliance.

You will need to click Proceed on the warning that states that during the converge process the vCenter Server that you are converging will have its services restarted during the process.

We will be prompted to enter in the details of our Single-Sign On administrator account. We will be notified of the new replication partner for this Embedded vCenter Server. As this is the first vCenter Server we are converting it will show that there is No embedded node available, this server will use its existing replication data to syncronize its data.(Optional) If you wish to join your vCenter Server appliance to Active Directory you can proceed to enter in the details on this screen.Once the information has been entered, we will acknowledge that we have made a backup of the vCenter Server appliance before proceeding.

We can now see our updated topology view. Let's proceed back to the Table View to proceed with the process to converge our next vCenter Server.

You will need to click Proceed on the warning that states that during the converge process the vCenter Server that you are converging will have its services restarted during the process.

We will be prompted to enter in the details of our Single-Sign On administrator account. We will be notified of the new replication partner for this Embedded vCenter Server. As this is the next vCenter Server we are converting it will show the existing Embedded vCenter Servers that are available.(Optional) If you wish to join your vCenter Server appliance to Active Directory you can proceed to enter in the details on this screen.Once the information has been entered, we will acknowledge that we have made a backup of the vCenter Server appliance before proceeding.

We can now see our updated topology view. Let's proceed back to the Table View to proceed with the process to converge our next vCenter Server.

During the decommission process the External PSC will be shutdown and unregistered from the SSO domain. During the process the currently logged on vCenter Server services will also be restarted.

At this point our first External PSC has been decommissioned. Let's proceed to review our current topology.

We can see that the first PSC has been removed from our topology diagram and we can go back to the table view to proceed with decommissioning our final External PSC.

During the decommission process the External PSC will be shutdown and unregistered from the SSO domain. During the process the currently logged on vCenter Server services will also be restarted.

At this point we can now see that our load balancer and External PSC's have now been decommissioned. Let's take one last look at our topology view.

We can now see our final topology for our environment. We have successfully converged our environment from utilizing External PSC's to only utilizing Embedded vCenter Servers.

Thank you for completing the converge walkthrough. You can find more information on our vSphere Blogs.

vCenter Server Converge Tool

Converging an External vCenter Deployment using the vSphere Client

Converging a Load Balanced External vCenter Deployment using the vSphere Client

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