HCX - Uninstall a deployment from Connector & Cloud

Products

• VMware HCX
• VMware Cloud on AWS
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Under certain circumstances, an HCX Administrator may want to decommission an HCX pairing between sites. This document will review the end-to-end workflow to remove HCX services on-premises and cloud scenarios. This is the best practice workflow to ensure a cleaned HCX decommission has been executed.
Generally, the workflow is to clean up from the HCX on-premises side first, then clean up on the HCX cloud side afterward.

Environment

VMware HCX
VMware vCenter Server

Resolution

HCX clean-up procedure:

On-premises:

1. Go to HCX standalone or vCenter plug-in UI and perform below:

a. End, finish or remove any ongoing migrations (under "Migration" tab) or disaster recovery protections (under "Disaster Recovery" tab).
b. Unstretch all networks through "Network Extension" tab.
c. Go to Interconnect --> Multi-site Service Mesh --> Service Mesh  and Select "Delete" button.
d. Repeat the "Delete" button action in step 3 if you have more than 1 HCX Service Mesh deployed.
e. Select the “Dashboard” tab, and click "Remove" button to remove the HCX cloud site pairing for the intended connector/cloud pair.

2. Unregister HCX plug-ins from the on-premises vCenter via vCenter mob 
Note A:- If any concerns in making MOB edits to vCenter appliance, you can take a snapshot of your current vCenter Server Appliance VM, before making these changes.
Note B:- If your HCX Connector is registered to a production vCenter Server Appliance, then it is suggested that a designated change window can be aligned depending on your needs as vsphere-client and vsphere-ui services will be required to be restarted (no longer than 30 minutes).
Once precautionary notes A and B have been acknowledged, proceed with the following mob un-registration steps

a. Unregister via <https://vc.on.prem.ip:/mob> and login as administrator
b. Go to ExtensionManager
c. Invoke "Unregister" and input strings to uninstall known HCX-plugin extensions

vCenter Server 7.0 or earlier : 

 

com.vmware.hybridity
com.vmware.hybridity.dr
com.vmware.hybridity.hcsp-dashboard
com.vmware.hybridity.publisher
com.vmware.hybridity.troubleshooting
com.vmware.hybridity.hybrid-interconnect-ui
com.vmware.hybridity.auditlog-ui
com.vmware.vca.marketing.ngc.ui
com.vmware.hybridity.mobility-app
com.vmware.hcsp.alarm

 

 

     vCenter Server 8.0 or later : 

com.vmware.hcx.plugin
com.vmware.hcsp.alarm

 

d. If the HCX plug-in still displays within the vCenter Server Appliance "Menu" button), it will be necessary to restart vsphere-client and vsphere-ui services for your on-premises vCenter Server Appliance.

i. Please execute these service commands to restart the vsphere-ui service (ssh root access to the on- on-premises vCenter appliance is required)

service-control --stop vsphere-ui
service-control --start vsphere-ui

Confirm you see the output of: successfully started service vsphere-ui

 

ii. Please execute these service commands to restart the vsphere-client services (SSH root access to the on-premises vCenter appliance is required)

service-control --stop vsphere-client
service-control --start vsphere-client

Confirm you see the output of: successfully started service vsphere-client

 

                           NOTE : vsphere-client service doesn't exist on vCenter 7 onwards. 

 

e. After a few minutes, please confirm within the on-premises vCenter UI, ensure that the HCX plugin is removed, and proceed to step 3.
 

3. Power-Off HCX Connector VM and delete it from the disk along with vCenter Inventory.

Public/Private Cloud:

Post decommission of HCX connector, we can delete service mesh followed by site pairing removal from cloud(target) HCX UI.

a. Go to Interconnect --> Multi-site Service Mesh --> Service Mesh --> Delete and select "Force Delete" option.

Note:- Force delete option will try to delete service mesh even if connector site is not reachable. Once there is no response from connector, the cloud manager will proceed to remove all orphan objects related to that site pairing.

b. Verify that HCX appliances are removed from the vCenter inventory.
c. Remove the appliance VMs manually if they haven't been removed successfully.
d. Power off the HCX cloud VM and delete it from the disk.

If the HCX plugin is still visible on vCenter, then follow step 2 from above.

VMware Cloud on AWS(VMC):

For the HCX Administrator to gracefully clean up the cloud side:

a. Ensure on-premises HCX components have been completely removed as described above.
b. Follow the same process to delete service mesh followed by site pairing removal from VMC cloud HCX UI.

Note:- In case of HCX deployment on VMC, the manual removal of HCX cloud manager VM is not allowed by administrator. The HCX admin needs to “undeploy” within VMC Console/portal following this workflow:

c. Log into VMC portal through https://vmc.vmware.com/
d. Select your SDDC Name.
e. Select “Integrated Services” and select “OPEN HYBRID CLOUD EXTENSION”.
f. Select “Undeploy HCX” link and confirm to remove Cloud HCX Manager from the Cloud vCenter Mgmt-ResourcePool inventory (it takes about 10 - 15 minutes for the undeploy to finish).

Additional Information

Stopping, Starting or Restarting vCenter Services