So I recently migrated from a vSphere 5.5 environment to 6.5 using the migration utility. Overall, I had a great experience with a few exceptions, both of which were my fault. We’ll cover one of them in this post.
We were running Trend Micro Deep Security, which means we had NSX deployed in support of that product throughout our environment. My thinking, incorrectly, was that after the vCenter upgrade, I could upgrade the existing NSX components of the environment and I would be off to the races!
That was a mistake, and I thought it might be worth it for me to share what I saw unfolding, and how I resolved the issues. So here goes…
After the vCenter upgrade was successful, I noticed that I no longer had an NSX manager registered, which was odd. I was seeing issues with DRS, and the only way to get around the virtual machines hanging and eventually erroring out during DRS triggered vMotions was to manually migrate the virtual machines to other hosts and place the affected host in Maintenance Mode while I took steps to remove all things NSX, Guest Introspection and Trend Micro.
Here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of how I got all of my hosts, and my vCenter ready for a redeployment of NSX and Trend Micro.
- Remove the epsec-mux VIB on each host in the cluster prepared for Guest Introspection from the host’s CLI:
#esxcli software vib remove -n epsec-mux
If a host reboot is required, the CLI will tell you after you run the command above.
- Verify the VIB is gone:
#esxcli software vib list | grep mux
- Delete the Guest Introspection and Trend Micro VMs from disk by right-clicking each of them in inventory and selecting Delete from disk.
- Remove the vmservice-vswitch vSwitch on each host which is only used for the Guest Introspection and Trend Micro virtual machines:
- Select the host in inventory.
- Select the Configure tab.
- Expand Networking, and select Virtual Switches.
- Select vmservice-vswitch.
- Click the Remove selected standard switch button (the Red X).
Note: The portgroup vmservice-vmknic-pg will be deleted along with the vSwitch. There should not be any VMs connected to it, since we deleted the service VMs in step 3.
- Delete the ESXi agencies associated with the deployment:
- From the Home menu, select Administration.
- Expand Solutions, and select vCenter Server Extensions.
- Select vSphere ESX Agent Manager.
- Select the Configure tab.
- Right-click agency pertaining to Guest Introspection and Trend Micro deployment.
- Select Delete Agency.
Do the above for each affected host, and everything will be cleanly uninstalled and you’ll be ready to redeploy a new NSX manager. Once NSX manager is deployed and registered to the vCenter, you can deploy Guest Introspection and Trend Micro through the Service Deployment tab. Maybe I’ll cover that in the next post.
Hopefully, you never have to follow this guide. If it was helpful, leave a comment or share the article!
- Accolades
Scott is an experienced professional and recognized leader specializing in the design and implementation of enterprise virtualization, enterprise storage, server infrastructures and operations. A self-starter able to work both independently and in a team-oriented environment, Scott has a proven ability to create and automate solutions to improve productivity, reliability and performance.
Throughout his professional career, Scott has proven successes implementing technology and service improvement initiatives and has a demonstrated ability to think strategically about business, create technical definition around objectives in complex situations, develop solution strategies, motivate and mobilize resources, and deliver end-to-end technology solutions.
Scott has achieved multiple industry recognized certifications in virtualization, networking, cloud, storage, converged infrastructure, hyperconverged infrastructure and other technologies, and is honored to be a VMware vExpert in 2018-2022, and vExpert EUC 2020-2022.
Achievements
VMware vExpert EUC 2020-2022
VMware vExpert 2022
VMware vExpert 2021
VMware vExpert 2020
VMware vExpert 2019
VMware vExpert 2018
Double VCP – Data Center Virtualization & Desktop Mobility
Double VCP – Data Center Virtualization & Cloud Management
Double VCP – Data Center Virtualization & Network Virtualization
Double VCP – Network Virtualization & Desktop Mobility
Double VCP – Network Virtualization & Cloud Management
Double VCP – Cloud Management & Desktop Mobility
Dell Technologies Proven Professional Exam Developer – 2021
Certifications
VMware Certified Associate – Digital Business Transformation 2020
VMware Certified Professional – Desktop and Mobility 2020
VMware Certified Professional – Data Center Virtualization 2020
VMware Certified Professional 6 – Desktop and Mobility
VMware Certified Professional 6 – Cloud Management and Automation
VMware Certified Professional 6 – Network Virtualization
VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization
VMware vSphere 6 Foundations
Dell Technologies Cloud Platform Administrator 2020
Dell Technologies Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 2019
Dell Technologies Specialist – Infrastructure Security Version 1.0
Dell Technologies Specialist – Systems Administrator, VxRail Appliance Version 2.0
Dell Technologies Specialist – Systems Administrator, VxRail Appliance Version 1.0
Dell Technologies Associate – Converged Systems and Hybrid Cloud Version 2.0
Dell Technologies and VMware Co-Skilled Associate – Converged Systems and Hybrid Cloud
IBM Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner
IBM Enterprise Design Thinking Co-Creator
SolarWinds Certified Professional
