Impact of updating vCenter and NSX service accounts in VMware HCX active deployments

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

This article defines the operational impact of changing the vCenter Server and NSX service accounts within an active VMware HCX environment.

Environment

VMware HCX

Cause

Updating service account credentials in the HCX Manager configuration triggers a restart of the HCX Manager services. This results in a temporary management plane outage.

Resolution

Note : This task should be performed in a maintenance window to avoid any unforeseen issues.

To update the vCenter or NSX service accounts, follow these steps during a scheduled maintenance window:

1. Prerequisite: Take a snapshot of the HCX Manager and ensure no migration switchovers are scheduled.
2. Log in to the HCX Management Virtual Appliance Administration interface (Port 9443).
3. Navigate to the Configuration tab.
4. Update the vCenter and/or NSX credentials with the new service account details.
5. Save the changes. This will initiate a restart of the HCX services.
6. Verification: Log back into the HCX UI and verify that the Connection status for vCenter and NSX shows "Connected".

Operational Impact Considerations:

• Management Plane: The HCX Manager UI and API will be temporarily unavailable during the service restart. Monitoring, pausing, or canceling migrations will be disabled during this time.
• Data Plane (Network Extensions): Active network extensions are not disrupted; data traffic continues to flow through the HCX Interconnect appliances.
• RAV Migrations: Ongoing data transfer (Initial Sync/Delta Sync) is not impacted. However, do not perform a migration switchover while vCenter connectivity is down, as switchover requires active vCenter integration.