Step-by-Step: vCenter Server Appliance Convergence using the vSphere Client

In this step-by-step guide we are going to walkthrough how to converge three vCenter
Server Appliances using external Platform Services Controllers to vCenter Server Appliances with embedded Platform Services Controllers.

Lay of the Land

Our environment topology is as illustrated in the below diagram:

We have three vCenter Server Appliances, each using an external Platform Services Controller.

Prerequisites

There are just a few prerequisites before kicking off a convergence using the vSphere
Client:

• Backup all your vCenter Server Appliances and Platform Services Controllers
• vCenter HA will need to be disabled and removed and re-enabled after the convergence has completed (It’s easier to enable vCenter HA now since 6.7 U1)
• You must be running vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 2 using external Platform Services Controller (PSC can be Windows, including physical, or Appliance)
• Internet Access from the vCenter Server Appliance is required to enable automatic download of the RPMs needed to perform the convergence.
  • If that’s a problem, you will need to manually mount the vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 U2 installation media to the vCenter Server Appliance

Converge the first vCenter Server Appliance

We are going to converge our vCenter Server Appliances in the order of:

1. VCSA-01
2. VCSA-02
3. VCSA-03

So first, we’re going to log into the vSphere Client of VCSA-03 so that while we’re converging VCSA-01 and VCSA-02, we do not lose access to the vSphere Client and can monitor the progress.

1. Log into the vSphere Client and navigate to Administration > System Configuration
2. Select the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA-01) you wish to converge and click Converge to Embedded
3. Provide the Single Sign-On Administrator credentials
4. If you want to join the embedded node to Active Directory provide AD credentials
5. Check the box acknowledging that you have taken a backup (don’t lie)
6. Click Converge

VCSA-01 will have PSC services installed, converted to an embedded node and its services will fully restart. At this point the newly installed embedded PSC on VCSA-01 will automatically have a replication agreement with the external PSC that VCSA-01 was previously using.

Converge the second vCenter Server Appliance

Repeat the converge process for VCSA-02.

This time around, the newly installed embedded PSC on VCSA-02 will automatically form a replication agreement with the embedded PSC of VCSA-01.

Converge the third vCenter Server Appliance

Again, repeat the process for VCSA-03.

This time, log into a vSphere Client instance hosted from VCSA-01 or VCSA-02 so that we do not lose UI access while VCSA-03 is converging.

Now that we already have two existing embedded nodes present, we do get to choose which of these embedded nodes we want to establish a replication agreement with for the newly installed embedded PSC of VCSA-03. In this example, we selected that VCSA-03 form a replication agreement with VCSA-02.

If you happen to have more vCenter Server Appliances to converge, simply continue repeat the same process for each.

Repoint external Solutions

If you happen to have other products or solutions that may be registered with the external Platform Services Controllers, now would be a good time to reconfigure those products so that they register with the embedded Platform Services Controllers.

Decommission external Platform Services Controllers

Now that all our vCenter Server Appliances have been converged to embedded we now need to decommission the unused external Platform Services Controllers from the environment.

Note: Each decommission task requires a restart of the vCenter Server Appliance that is performing the decommission task

1. Log into the vSphere Client and navigate to Administration > System Configuration
2. Select the Platform Services Controller you wish to decommission and click Decommission
3. Provide the Single Sign-On Administrator credentials
4. Check the box acknowledging that you have taken a backup (don’t lie)
5. Click Decommission

Repeat the decommission task for each of the external Platform Services Controllers and voila we have successfully converged our three vCenter Server Appliances.