Knowledge Base

Service Pack upgrade

1. Download the new version of vCenter Server Heartbeat self-extracting file to a desired location on both the Primary and Secondary servers.
2. On the Primary (active) server, stop vCenter Server Heartbeat, opting to leave protected applications running.
3. Navigate to Start > Administrative Tools > Services and set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to manual.
4. On the Secondary (passive) server, navigate to Start > Administrative Tools > Services and set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to manual.
5. On the Secondary (passive) server, right-click on the System Tray icon and choose Stop vCenter Server Heartbeat.
6. On the Secondary (passive) server, disconnect the network cable from the Principal (Public) NIC.
7. On the Primary (active) server, double-click the self-extracting file. The Setup Introduction screen displays. Click OK.
8. The WinZip Self-Extractor screen displays. Click Setup to open the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat Setup window.
9. Select Install Service Pack when the Setup Type screen displays.
10. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the ServicePack.nfs script and when prompted, reboot the server.
    
    Note: Use the present path to Service Pack.
    
    
11. On the Secondary (passive) server, repeat steps 6 to 9 to install the new vCenter Server Heartbeat Service Pack
    
    Note: During the Service Pack installation, the new vCenter Server Heartbeat plug-ins are copied to <Heartbeat install dir>\R2\<version> plug-ins\<plug-in name>.
    
    
12. On the Primary (active) server, check the configuration of the NICs and make corrections if necessary (the packet filter should be selected on Principal (Public) NICs and cleared on channel NICs).
13. On the Secondary (passive) server, check the configuration of NICs and make corrections if necessary (the packet filter should be selected on Principal (Public) NICs and cleared on channel NICs).
14. On the Primary (active) server, start vCenter Server Heartbeat.
15. Navigate to Start > Administrative Tools > Services and set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to automatic.
    
    Note: For 6.4, set VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to automatic.
    
    
16. On the Secondary (passive) server, start vCenter Server Heartbeat and then reconnect the network cable to the Principal (Public) NIC.
17. Navigate to Start > Administrative Tools > Services and set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to automatic. 
    
    Note: For 6.4, set VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to automatic.

Upgrading to vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.4

1. On the Primary (active) server, open a Command Window and navigate to:
   
   <install_location>\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin (by default C:\Program Files\VMware\Vmware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin)
   
   
2. Run the command:
   
   regext -register <username> <password>
   
   Where <username> and <password> are the username and password for vCenter Server.

If upgrading from Identical nodes deployed in a WAN to Non-Identical nodes deployed in a WAN, perform these steps on each server in the cluster:

1. Launch vCenter Server Heartbeat Console.
2. Navigate to Applications: Tasks.
3. Select the DNS Update task.
4. Click Edit.
5. Edit the Command field so it looks like this:
   
   <install_path>\R2\bin\dnsconftool.exe -auto
   
   
6. Click OK.

1. Launch vCenter Server Heartbeat Console.
2. Navigate to Applications: Tasks.
3. Select the DNS Update task.
4. Click Remove.
5. Click OK.

1. Launch vCenter Server Heartbeat Console.
2. Navigate to Applications: Tasks.
3. Select the DNS Update task.
4. Click Remove.
5. Click OK. 

Plug-ins Upgrade

Note: This is performed by uninstalling the old versions of VMware vCenter Server and/or SQL Server plug-ins and reinstalling the new ones.

1. On the Primary (active) server, launch the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat Console.
2. To uninstall the old plug-in, navigate to Application > Plugins, and select the desired plug-in to be removed/uninstalled.
3. Click Uninstall in the Plugins pane.
   
   Note: When the plug-in is uninstalled, the files are not removed. They are left in <Heartbeat install dir>\R2\plugins folder.
   
   
4. To install the new plug-in, navigate to Application > Plugins, then click Install.
5. Click Browse and navigate to the <Heartbeat install dir>\R2\<version> plug-ins\<plug-in name> location.
6. Select the *NFPlugin.dll file, then click OK to complete the installation (for example, VirtualCenterNFPlugin.dll for VMware vCenter Server plug-in, and SqlServerNFPlugin.dll for SQL Server plug-in).

Note: During the upgrade procedure, the vCenter Server plug-in Username and Password are not saved, so they must be configured immediately after the new plug-in installation. Also, check vCenter Server rules and enable/disable as desired.