We sucessfully migrated our developpement environnment to VCSA.
It was not as smooth as announced but, at the end we’re all satisfied from the migration.
Overall, everything as been migrated smoothly.
However, we encountered a few roadblocks we cleared, I’d like to share with you.
1- Oracle / sql express issue:
Our setup is a separate oracle database with a dedicated windows server vcenter.
First of all we setup a trial windows 12 with sql server all on trial to be able to install the SSMA.
2- conversion of the vpxadmin schema was simple. We only migrated the vpx_* tables (there was also VUM_ tables and tables from the VCops which we dont’t use).
Only a few issues, like a ressource pool for the VCO configuration deployement that refused to migrate which we choose to ignore.
3- Boot of the vcsa : we encountered the problem of ovf parameters injection. OVF injection needs the vcenter for first boot, but as the address is the same as vcenter, only one shold be booted up at a time. We have here a problem of chicken and egg that we solved with first booting the VCSA with network disconnected, then shutdown the vserver and finaly, connect the vcsa network through ESXi connection..
4- At the end of the setup, vcsa status was red because of incorrect HA-Setup. We had to disable HA then reenable to fix the problem.
5- I think the VCSA was not registered inside the inventory service. I did not matter much as a matter of fact.
In conclusion, one need to be very strict in the ordering of the migration:
A- Create the VCSA, and setup the name and IP address. Even boot it up without network.
B- Deploy migration appliance, and start the wizard up to the step where it ask to shutdown the vcenter
C- Only if setup is not external mssql. Start the migration of the Vcenter Database to the external MSSQL you previouly setup (skip the stats/taks/events if you want to shorten the migration time dramaticaly).
D- Once the data are migrated, shutdown vcenter, and reconnect network to the vcsa
E- Start the MSSQL VCDB migration
F- Complete the migration wizard and enjoy the new VCSA.
Overall, I would have like :
1- the vcsa should not be so intolerant to first boot name. You cannot set the name and IP Address after the boot, it should be set through OVF at boot time. We had to restart 4 – 5 time the migration before correcting this problem.
2- Getting the data through another Server thant MSSQL shouldn’t be that hard (ORACLE connector would be greatly appreciated, and Postgresql Also).
Now we have the others server to migrate (2 environments / test / prod) and setup a windows Server + MSSQL is quite a daunting task just for migration, and had a lot of unnecessary delay and complexity.