Procedure to migrate NSX component VMs between vSphere clusters

Products

• VMware NSX Networking

Issue/Introduction

This article explains the procedure to follow when migrating NSX component virtual machines between vSphere clusters.

Environment

VMware NSX for vSphere 6.2.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3.x
VMware NSX for vSphere 6.4.x

Resolution

NSX Manager:

Source and Destination clusters do not have shared storage:

1. Shut down the NSX Manager VM and migrate it to the new cluster.
2. Power on the NSX Manager.
3. Confirm the Lookup Service & vCenter server registration status are healthy.

Source and Destination clusters have shared storage:

1. vMotion NSX Manager from the source cluster to the destination cluster.
2. Confirm the Lookup Service & vCenter server registration status are healthy

NSX Controllers:

Pre-migration/Post-migration Checklist:

1. Verify the cluster status before starting the migrations.
2. Login to command line of all Controllers and run the following commands to check the cluster status:

• • show status
  • show control-cluster status
  • show control-cluster roles
  • show control-cluster history

Source and Destination clusters do not have shared storage:

1. Shut Down the first Controller.
2. In the Installation > Management page verify the shutdown Controller is in a Disconnected state.
3. Verify the Controller cluster health status per Pre-migration checklist.
4. Perform the migration of the Controller to the new location for Compute and Storage.
5. Power-on the Controller.
6. Verify Ping connectivity between the three Controllers.
7. Verify on the Installation > Management page that the migrated Controller is now in a Connected state.
8. On the Installation > Management page click on the controller node and verify Cluster/Datastore/Host reflect the new location of the Controller.
9. Verify the Cluster Status on each Controllers using the Post-migration checklist.
10. Repeat the Migrations Steps for the remaining Controllers.
    
    Note: NSX Controllers are sensitive to disk latency. When moving to new storage ensure the storage system has a peak write latency of less than 300ms, and a mean write latency of less than 100ms.

Source and Destination clusters have shared storage:

1. Verify on the Installation > Management page all three controllers are in a Connected state.
2. Verify the Controller cluster health status per pre-migration checklist.
3. vMotion the first Controller to the new cluster.
4. Verify Ping connectivity between the three Controllers.
5. Verify on the Installation > Management page that the migrated Controller is now in a Connected state.
6. On the Installation > Management page click on the controller node and verify Cluster/Datastore/Host reflect the new location of the Controller.
7. Verify the Cluster Status on each Controllers using the Post-migration checklist.
8. Repeat the Migrations Steps for the remaining Controllers.
   
   Note: The Controller vMotion will result in a brief disconnect and reconnect to the majority, this can be observed by running “show control-cluster history” following vmotion. The Controller master node will change following the migration.

NSX Edge/DLR Control VM:

1. NSX Edges > Double Click the Edge/DLR VM > Settings > Configuration.
2. The Appliances section will display the Host, Datastore, Resource Pool etc.
3. Edit the Appliance and change the Cluster setting to the new Cluster.
4. The VM will be redeployed to the new Cluster.