How to change the primary resource pool for a Provider VDC in VMware Cloud Director

Products

• VMware Cloud Director

Issue/Introduction

• Current Cloud Director versions do not have the capability to switch a Provider VDC's secondary resource pool to primary via UI or API.
• The only way to change a resource pool so it is no longer tagged a primary is to merge Provider VDCs.

Environment

VMware Cloud Director 10.x

Resolution

Note: The direction of the merge is very important in this process. For example, merge PVDC2 (new) with PVDC1 (legacy) to make the resource pool on PVDC2 the primary. Note: If the existing Provider VDC has non-elastic Organization VDCs (i.e. Reservation or non-elastic Allocation), then the merge will fail with the following error: Error: [ ########-####-####-####-########93f4 ] Validation errors during merge of Provider VDC. Cannot merge Provider vDCs because non elastic Ovdcs (Reservation Pool or non elastic AllocationPool) exists in the provider VDC to be merged. Merging of Provider vDCs that contain Reservation Pool OrgVDCs is not supported.

To merge Provider VDCs and ensure the resource pool you want to be the primary is set correctly, perform the following steps:

1. Create a new Provider VDC backed by the NEW resource pool.

2. Merge the NEW Provider VDC to the existing Provider VDC as per Merge Provider Virtual Data Centers in Your VMware Cloud Director.
   
   Note: Step 3 in the documentation refers to the new Provider VDC and step 4 refers to the legacy Provider VDC.

3. Disable the legacy resource pool.

4. Migrate the VMs from the legacy to the new resource pool.

5. Detach the legacy resource pool.