Changing external Platform Services Controller deployment to embedded during process of migration or upgrade

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes how to change external Platform Services Controller deployment topology to embedded during process of migration or upgrade to vSphere 7.0.

VMware is deprecating the external Platform Services Controller(PSC) deployment model. Since vSphere 7.0 release, there will no longer be an option to deploy the external PSC. This means that customers with an existing external deployment needs to change their topology to embedded before or during migration or upgrade to vSphere 7.0.

A converge utility introduced in vSphere 6.7U1, allows customers with an external PSC deployment to migrate to an embedded PSC deployment prior upgrading/migrating to vSphere 7.0. It is a two way step process: first do a converge and second perform upgrade/migrate. Also note, that this utility is only available in vCenter Server Appliance(vCSA) and it's not available in vCenter Server for Windows.

As part of vCenter Server 7.0 upgrade/migrate, MxN deployment topology will be converged and upgrade/migrate to embedded PSC in a single step following existing upgrade/migrate process.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0

Resolution

The solution below describes steps to converge external PSC deployment topology during migration or upgrade process.

Convergence Steps

1. Before starting migration or upgrade to vSphere 7.0 take a backup of your vCenter Server(s) and the PSCs in vSphere SSO domain. This must be done before each vCenter Server management node upgrade or migration. VMware recommends having Powered-Off snapshots taken if you are planning to use snapshots as backup solution. The correct practice is to have powered-off snapshots of all PSCs and VCs within the SSO domain. This ensures consistency for the entries in VMDIR (VMware Directory Service) Database and that they do not go out of sync in the event they roll back to the previous state. Additionally, it is recommended that when rolling back to a previous state that all PSCs and VCs are rolled back to the same point in time

Note: The process for migration or upgrade to vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller is irreversible. The legacy vCenter Server management node will be removed from the vSphere SSO domain and it cannot rejoin to the same domain. You must perform restore from backup of vCenter Servers and Platform Services Controller systems in order to restore legacy system configuration.

2. Skip external Platform Services Controller upgrade or migration. The external Platform Services Controller upgrade will be part of migration process of the vCenter Server management node.
3. Proceed to vCenter Server management node upgrade or migration. Follow steps of vCenter Server upgrade UI wizard or use upgrade CLI to perform the upgrade. Note that if there are more than once vCenter Server management nodes in the deployment, an already converged embedded node needs to be specified as "SSO replication partner" or "first instance" for the first converged vCenter Server.
4. After the upgrade or migration process has completed, verify the vCSA is now running with an embedded PSC. You can use VMware Appliance Management on port 5480 or vSphere Client (HTML5). For VMware Appliance Management, go to the Summary tab and verify the type is “vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller” or look under the Administration menu in vSphere Client for System Configuration and verify the type as above.
5.  If there are any products or solutions that use the PSC for authentication, they will need to be re-registered. Re-register them with the embedded vCSA deployment before decommissioning the external PSC.

Do not decommission an external PSC until all vCenter Server management nodes registered to that PSC have gone through the convergence process.

Decommission external Platform Services Controller

Note: Verify the steps above have been completed prior to starting the decommissioning process.

Decommission external Platform Services Controllers using the cmsso-util command. For detailed instructions on decommissioning an external Platform Services Controller see Decommission of external PSC after successful converge upgrade/migration