install-parameter

In case you had not heard, last week VMware had officially released the VCSA Migration Tool which is included in the new vSphere 6.0 Update 2m release. Customers can now easily migrate from a Windows based vCenter Server over to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) all while preserving their existing vCenter Server configurations and integrations. For more details, I highly recommend you check out all the links and resources here related to the VCSA Migration Tool.

One interesting question that came up over the weekend from a troubleshooting standpoint was how do you tell if your VCSA was migrated from a Windows vCenter Server? Besides remembering 😉 there is actually a pretty simple way to check by looking at the install parameters as I have previously written about here. To do so, you will need to SSH to your VCSA and enable the Bash Shell first. Once that has been done, go ahead and run the following command:

install-parameter upgrade.source.platform

If your VCSA was migrated from a Windows based vCenter Server using the new VCSA Migration Tool, you should see a value of windows. If you do not get any results, then it means the VCSA was not migrated and it was freshly deployed as an appliance.

In addition, you can also check whether or not you had migrated over the original vCenter Server's Stats, Events and Tasks (SET) data. To do so, run the following command:

install-parameter upgrade.user.options

You should get back a value of either yes or no for migrating over the SET data.

Lastly, if your VCSA was migrated from a Windows based vCenter Server, you can even tell if the migration was done so using the UI or CLI. To do so, run the following command:

install-parameter upgrade.silent

You should get back a value of either True for a CLI-based migration or False for a UI-based migration.

Here is a quick screenshot of running the three commands on a VCSA that was migrated.

This is the first part in a new blog series that I will be working on in which I will be sharing some simple tips and tricks that I learned along the way while working with vCenter Server 6.0, these especially came in handy during the early development of vSphere 6.0. These tidbits will include information covering both the vCenter Server for Windows (VCS) as well as the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).

When installing VCS or deploying the VCSA, you are prompted to fill out a variety of inputs based on the deployment type, SSO Domain, database information, etc. These "install parameters" are then fed into the configuration of either your vCenter Server (Embedded) or separated out with vCenter Server Management Node and Platform Services Controller Node.

After you successfully deployed your vCenter Server and say a couple of weeks has passed and you are now wondering what install parameters you used either for auditing, informational purposes or more likely you may need to know one of these parameters for adding additional instances say for Enhanced Linked Mode, how might you go and retrieve this information?

Luckily, VMware has made finding this information extremely easy by providing a tiny little utility called "install-parameter" and here are the locations for both platforms:

Windows:

"C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\bin\install-parameter.bat"

VCSA:

/bin/install-parameter

The utility accepts the name of a well defined set of installation parameters, an example would be "vmdir.domain-name" which specifies the name of the SSO Domain that you had configured:

You can see the complete list of available installation parameters under the following paths in the two platforms:

Windows:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\install-defaults

VCSA:

/etc/vmware/install-defaults

For your convenience, I have also listed all the installation parameters in the table at the very bottom of this post.

In addition to these installation parameters, there are two additional ones that I would like to mention which are not part of this list.

Database Type

The information is stored in a file called db.type with possible values of: embedded, oracle and mssql and here are the paths for the two platforms:

Windows:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\db.type

VCSA:

/etc/vmware/db.type

The possible values for this files is: embedded, oracle and mssql

Deployment Type

The information is stored in a file called deployment.node.type with possible values of: embedded, management and here are the paths for the two platforms:

Windows:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\vCenterServer\cfg\deployment.node.type

VCSA:

/etc/vmware/deployment.node.type

For those with a critical eye, you might have noticed there is one installation parameter that is not available in any of these files and that would be the SSO Domain Site Name. This property is not really important (outside of troubleshooting) unless you need to add additional Platform Services Controller and replicate with an additional one or adding additional vCenter Servers for enabling Enhanced Linked Mode support. This property is one of the required parameters when performing a scripted install but is not needed if performing the deployment using the guided install method. In the next blog post, I will show you how you can retrieve this property.

vCenter Server 6.0 Installation Parameter

autodeploy.ext.managementport
autodeploy.ext.serviceport
cis-license.int.http
cm.int.cmhttp
cm.url
cm.url.path
db.dsn
db.instance
db.presetupdone
db.provider
db.servername
db.serverport
db.user
eam.int.http
invsvc.int.http
mbcs.int.http
netdumper.ext.serviceport
netdumper.int.webport
perfcharts.int.https
rhttpproxy.cert
rhttpproxy.conf.path
rhttpproxy.ext.port1
rhttpproxy.ext.port2
sca.hostid
sca.int.scahttp
sps.int.pbmhttp
sps.int.pbmhttps
sps.int.smshttp
sps.int.smshttps
sps.int.spshttp
sps.int.spshttps
sshd.ext.port1
syslog.ext.port
syslog.ext.tls
syslog.int.http
syslog.int.port
system.hostname
system.hostname.type
system.urlhostname
system.vm0.hostname
vapi.int.endpoint-http
vapi.int.jmx-port
vc.conf.path
vc.home.path
vc.instance.cfg.path
vmafd.ext.port1
vmca.cert.dir
vmca.ext.port1
vmdir.admin-dn
vmdir.domain-dn
vmdir.domain-name
vmdir.ext.port1
vmdir.ext.port2
vmdir.ldap-port
vmdir.ldu-guid
vmdir.site-guid
vmdir.username
vmkdc.ext.port1
vmkdc.ext.port2
vmkdc.ext.port3
vpostgres.int.server_port
vpxd.ext.port1
vpxd.ext.port2
vpxd.int.sdk-port
vpxd.int.sdk-tunnel-port
vsan-observer.ext.port1
vsm.int.http
vsm.int.https
vsphere-client.ext.port1
workflow.int.jmx-port
workflow.int.service-port
workflow.int.vapi-port

How to tell if your vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) was migrated from a Windows vCenter Server?

vCenter Server 6.0 Tidbits Part 1: What install & deployment parameters did I use?

Database Type

Deployment Type

vCenter Server 6.0 Installation Parameter