Unable to update Host running vCenter server... Workaround?

[Benz41]

I have a small deployment (two hosts, 7vm's - one of which is the vCenter server).  What is the recommended method for updating the Host which also runs the vCenter server vm?  I keep getting an error that it can't remediate because one of the vm's is running the vCenter server.  Note that I don't have vMotion.  Is there a workaround or am I sol?  Thx.

[Troy_Clavell]

if you don't have vMotion and want to use VUM, you can make a note of the datastore and host that your vCenter VM resides on (assuming you are using shared storage). Power down the vCenter VM, remove it from inventory.  Log into the host that has already been patched and browse the datastore, right click on the vmx file and "add to inventory".  Power on the guest.  You can now use VUM to patch your host.

[Benz41]

Troy - The two hosts are ''not'' using shared storage.  Do you have a suggestion on how to manually move the VM containing vCenter server to the other Host?

[DSTAVERT]

You can use something like Veeam FastSCP to copy the complete folder from one ESXi host to the other. You might be as well to manually update the hosts using the vihostupdate utility from the vCLI tools.

[Benz41]

Thank you - I'll try the manual update to update my host.

[DSTAVERT]

I think by the time you had moved the files to the second host you would be done with the manual update. You might want to look at a small NAS device that supports NFS or iSCSI. You could host your vCenter Server on the NAS device. It could also double as a virtual machine clone destination.

[a_p_]

When I have to setup an environment like this (a few hosts, no shared storage), I usually install Update Manager on the vCenter Server VM and a vMA on one of the other hosts. You could also install the vCLI on one of your PC's to run the vihostupdate utility, however IMO maintenance with the vMA is a lot easier.

André

[HughBorg707]

I've had several "large" customers that want to run vSphere without shared storage. The updating of the hosts problem usually puts an end to that argument.

Hugh