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Which Platform Services Controller (PSC) is my vCenter Server pointing to?

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In vSphere 6.0 Update 1, one of the new features that is available for both the vCenter Server for Windows and vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) is the ability to "repoint" the vCenter Server to a new or existing Platform Services Controller (PSC). The process is pretty straight forward and is nicely outlined in the following KB articles: KB 2113917 and KB 2131191.

One obvious question that might come up before you decide to repoint is what is the current PSC that my vCenter Server is currently pointing to? This was actually a question that I had just received this morning from one of my readers. Though I had some of the details documented in these two articles here and here on locating all deployed PSC's and vCenter Server's, I figured it was probably worth pulling this topic out into its own blog post for ease of searching.

Note: The solution below is applicable to both vSphere 6.0 and vSphere 6.0 Update 1, but the ability to repoint is only available in Update 1.

There are two methods in which you can quickly identify the PSC that your vCenter Server is currently pointing to.

Option 1: Using the vSphere Web/C# Client

Under the vCenter Server's Advanced Setting, there is a property called "config.vpxd.sso.admin.uri" which specifies the PSC it is currently configured with. This is the most simplistic approach if you want to do it using the vSphere UI. Also note this is available through the vSphere API, so you can also query this from the command-line

which-psc-is-my-vcenter-server-connected-to-2
Option 2: Using vmafd-cli command-line

The second option is to use the handy vmafd-cli utility which is avialable on the vCenter Server itself. You will need to run the following command depending on your vCenter Server platform (Windows or VCSA):

VCSA:

/usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli get-ls-location --server-name localhost

Windows VC:

C:\Program Files\VMware\vCenter Server\vmafdd\vmafd-cli get-ls-location --server-name localhost

Here is a screenshot of running the command on the VCSA:

which-psc-is-my-vcenter-server-connected-to-0

Tech Preview of Windows VC to VCSA Migration at VMworld

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A couple weeks back I had teased out the #migrate2vcsa hashtag on Twitter and said to stay tune for folks planning to attend VMworld US in person. If you attended VMworld last week, you may gotten more details during TAM Day, at the VMware Booth or in either of the VCSA breakout sessions INF5975 & INF4528. I just found out this week that some of the VMworld sessions have already been posted online for everyone and it looks like one of my sessions, INF4528 vCenter Server Appliance Best Practices & Tips / Tricks session was one of them.

Well, it looks like the cats out of the bag! To be perfectly honest, I am actually glad, since now I can share some more details with my readers on what the VC Engineering team has been working very hard on. As you probably can guess from the cryptic hashtag, the topic is related to migrating from a Windows vCenter Server to the vCenter Server Appliance. About 6 months ago, we had released the VCS to VCVA Converter Fling and the feedback from customers has just been phenomenal. Though the Fling only supported a limited set of configurations, it did allow us to quickly gather feedback from customers on whether such a tool should still be further developed and more importantly, if the current workflow met user expectations.

At VMworld, we showed off a video of an early but functional Tech Preview of migrating from a Windows vCenter Server to a the vCenter Server Appliance to help Engineering get feedback from customers on the overall workflow. From the customers that I have talked to, the feedback have been super positive and in fact, they were quite excited. I do have to stress that this is still a Tech Preview and you should review the disclaimer below, but it should give you an idea of our current thinking.

Disclaimer: This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product.

We would still love to hear from you in case you did not get a chance to talk to us during VMworld. We are interested in any feedback you may have in terms of the overlal workflow and whether the process is intuitive or not. If you have any feedback after watching the video, please either leave a comment on my blog here or tweet your feedback using the #migrate2vcsa hashtag on Twitter.

For comparison, you can watch the Fling's workflow video here and compare and contrast that with the Tech Preview video below. In case the video does not automatically start playing at the Migration portion of the presentation (46:35), you can click here for the direct link.

VMworld Session VCSA INF5975 & INF4528 available to public

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I just found out this week after reading Eric Siebert blog post here, that a select number of VMworld 2015 US sessions have been made available to the general public on YouTube. I thought this was a very nice and pleasant surprise, especially for those who could not attend VMworld to be able to get a taste of some of the topics covered in last weeks conference. I personally have watched both the Cloud Native Apps and Future of NSX session, both of which I think are worth checking out not to mention the various demos in the NSX session!

For me personally, a hot topic that came up in almost every conversation when talking to our customers, field and partners at VMworld was the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA). There were also plenty of sessions at the conference that covered the VCSA from basic introduction to performance to availability. Below are the two VCSA sessions that were selected to be made generally available to everyone, one of which I presented on. Hopefully you enjoy both videos and I would also like to thank everyone who attended my session last Monday. It was really great meeting many of my readers as well as customers looking to take advantage of the VCSA and some of the new features in our upcoming release. I also wrote a blog post here on the upcoming release of vSphere 6.0 Update 1 (GA sometime in Q3 2015) with respect to the VCSA in case you missed it.

INF5975 - vCenter Server Appliance as "First Choice" VC

INF4528 - vCenter Server Appliance Best Practices & Tips / Tricks