Register esxi appliance to a unit

Hi Alain,

There is a known issue that appliance is not registered under proper unit during initial deployment (corresponding bug is fixed in the upcoming Update 2 for Acronis Backup 12.5). To workaround the issue on the current build you can do the following:

(!) Steps below are assuming that you have deployed an appliance already and it is registered under root organization instead of child unit.

1) Delete the appliance from the management server via web console: Settings->Agents->select appliance->click Delete

2) Switch to required unit context, while logged under root organization administrator:

3) Go to Devices->Add->ESXi->choose "Register an already installed agent" option->Provide IP address of the appliance + credentials appliance uses to connect to vCenter/ESXi host (these are the credentials to connect to appliance):

As the result the appliance will be properly registered under required unit.

Note however that you should not try registering the same vCenter/ESXi host in more than 1 unit in hierarchy, for example if appliance connected to "vCenter1" is registered under root "Organization", then registering this or another appliance connected to the same "vCenter1" under either of child units (childs of "organization") will not work, since the VMs instances will be randomly spread between "Organization" and its child unit in the management server infrastructure, thus producing non-predictable results.

Thank you.

OK, thanks for the answer!

Problem is that we are a serverice provider and are working with the spla program. The management console is running in our datacenter, the vcenter is running at our client network (remote). 

The client can connect to our management server, but there is no connection possible in the other direction, so I can't connect from the management server to the already installed vcenter appliance.

Only solution will be waiting till update 2 I think (like much other problems... )

Hi Alain,

Thank you for additional description of the environment - basing on it I can suggest one more option to register appliance under unit which will work even with the current build. Use "register_agent" utility right from the appliance CLI interface:

1) Open appliance console in vSphere client

2) Switch to CLI interface via Ctrl+Shift+F2/F1 key combinations (Alt+F1 will return back to GUI)

3) Execute /etc/register_agent tool with proper parameters, for example:

/etc/register_agent -a [AMS_IP] -o register -s mms -u [AMS_Admin] -p [AMS_Admin_password] --tenant [Unit_Name_OR_GUID]

P.S. If specifying a unit name doesn't work, then to discover a unit GUID you should open the backup console, go to Settings->Administrators, select a unit in the tree and note the GUID from the URL.

Thank you.

Thx, above method worked!!

Another question in the same setup:

In the same vcenter setup, I installed as test the acronis vmware agent on a windows server. During the installation of the vmware agent i could specify the management server, this worked and the agent was registerd. But I could not specify anywhere the vcenter server ip-address and credentials.

Same cause, I am not in the possiblity to push the agent from the management server, I needed to install the agent on the windows server via the acronis installer, but then there is no posibility to specify the vcenter server (or esxi server)

Hi Alain,

The configuration of connection to vSphere for Agent for VMware Windows is normally done from Devices->Add->ESXi->"Register an already installed agent". From there you specify the IP address of the Windows machine + administrator credentials => on the 2nd step you will be prompted to define vSphere credentials. This way you can also change vSphere connection for any of Agents for VMware even the ones already registered on the management server.

In your case since it's not possible to connect from the management server to the agent, the only option would be to perform installation of Agent for VMware (Windows) in unattended way as described in https://kb.acronis.com/content/59780. Note the following parameters:

========

SET_ESX_SERVER={0,1}
Specifies the ESX(i) server for Agent for ESX(i).
If the parameter value is 1, specify these parameters:

• ESX_HOST=<IP address or hostname> specifies ESX server
• ESX_USER=<user name> specifies ESX server user name
• ESX_PASSWORD=<password> specifies password for ESX server user

========

P.S. In Update 2 there will be an option to configure vSphere connection for Agent for VMware directly right from GUI under Settings->Agents->select some Agent for VMware->Details tab.

Thank you.

Super, thanks for the info!!

We look forward to update2 ;-)

Hello Vasily,

i also facing same issues bit little bit different, i don't want move my ESXi host it residing in top unit only, but i want move particular VM only.

It is possible?

please guide me.

Thanks 

Jeyaseelan 

Hi Jeyaseelan,

It's not possible to move a single VM across units, since the Units are designed for agents management, so you can only register specific agent (Agent for VMware/Hyper-V for example) under some Unit which will make all VMs "discovered" by this agent, also appear in this unit.

We do want to have this feature to allow VMs reported by Agents for VMware/Hyper-V (registered in root "Organization" unit) to be capable for migration across units, but it will be a huge product architecture change and there is no ETA we can provide at the moment.

The only possible way to "manage one VM from different unit" would be to install Agent for Windows/Linux inside this VM and manage it without using Agents for VMware/Hyper-V, e.g. like any other physical machine which has agent inside (it will be agent-based backup instead of agentless one).

Thank you.