Wednesday 4 January 2012

Moving the vCenter 5 SQL Database from local SQL Express to full blown sql server

There are a few things I had to do when moving the sql database from the local install on SQL Express on the vCenter server itself to a full blown SQL server. Firstly, I followed the steps set out in this article.


Then I had to change a few of the other services to use the account set up for the vCenter server service. I'm not sure if they were all needed but I changed the vCenter Inventory Service, the VMWare VirtualCenter Management Webservices, the VMWare VirtualCenter Server, VMWare vSphere Profile-Driven Storage Service
and the VMWare vSphere Update Manager UFA Service.

After that I was unable to view performance information. I discovered that the web services were still pointing at the local SQL express install for the database. To change this the vcdb.properties file located in "C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter" had to be changed.

Also as a additional change, I wanted to stop the sql express service from running, however the vCenter Server service was dependant on it, so I had to remove that dependency.

  • Stop the vCenter Server service
  • Take a backup of your registry
  • Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services, find the vpxd service.
  • Right-click on the string value "DependOnService" and select "Modify".
  • You should now see a list of services that it is dependent on. Delete the sql express service (mine was called MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM).
  • Repeat the steps for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Services and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet002\Services.
  • Set the SQL Express servicices to disabled.
  • Restart the Server.

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