How to do Partial / Full Uninstall of NSX Manager / Components

Hi,

Recently I got a question where the POC was running and then Lab Environment needs to be reset with some of the NSX component for one Cluster out of Two.

So basically we have to get rid of the configuration from 3 ESXi hosts which are part of one cluster and there are other hosts in the 2nd cluster which needs to be continue running using NSX Manager without any issue.

Now the procedure we follow is exactly the same when you have to do the Partial uninstall or Full,

You just have to make sure that you follow the steps for all the ESXi host which are part of the cluster.

1. Reversing Host Prep

You need to connect to vCenter web client and then from there you need to unprep the host and also make sure that NSX manager is still up and connected to vCenter Server.

Remove EAM Agency:

- Go to vCenter à Home à Administration  à vCenter Solutions Manager à vSphere ESX Agent Manager

- Under the management tab, Click X (under Actions) to delete the solution (Agency).

- You can go under Networking and Security menu- Installation Tab and verify that the cluster is removed (if its a partial uninstall out of multi cluster environment)

Alternatively you can remove the installed VIBs from each host which was prepared for VXLAN

# esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-dvfilter-switch-security

# esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-vsip

# esxcli software vib remove --vibname=esx-vxlan

And Reboot the ESXi host/s to make the changes in effect.

Sometimes if there is any issue then you can find the Agency using the vCenter MOB. I will list out the Screen shots here in another post as its a long procedure.

In Summary check the EAM mob at https://vcenter/eam/mob/ (note the trailing /). Look for the agency that correlates to the cluster that is attempting to be uninstalled for any errors or reasons it may get stuck at "Uninstalling" under the Installation Tab of Networking and Security Menu of vCenter Server Web Client.

You can try to manually delete the agency if you're sure that all uninstall steps mentioned above have been performed on the hosts.

Sometimes restart of Web client Service will clear up the Uninstalling status.

Then we have to make sure that other components which are not required (only in case of full Uninstall) then we need to take care of them as well.

1) Turn Off Firewall on the components (if any configured)

2) Delete edge appliances (if any) & NSX Manager/Controllers etc.

3) Remove dvPortGroups used for VTEPs, Logical switch port groups and left over VTEP vmkernel interfaces.

4) Reboot the ESXi host/s

2. vCenter Extension removal

- Remove the NSX extension (vShield Extension) using vCenter MOB

- Go to https://vcenter-ip/mob

- Select Content à then select ExtensionManager à

Click on the method “Unregister Extension” and enter the extension string; com.vmware.vShieldManager

3. Clean up/ Remove vSphere Web Client Files for NSX

a) For Windows Based vCenter Server

Delete the directory(s) com.vmware.vShieldManager.** from C:\Program Data\VMware\vSphere Web Client\vc-packages\vsphere-client-serenity\

Restart the vSphere Web Client service from Administrator Tools (or Run services.msc) Services  à vSphere Web Client

b) If you are running VCVA linux appliance

Delete the directory(s) com.vmware.vShieldManager.** from /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/vc-packages/vsphere-client-serenity/

Restart vsphere-web-client by issuing `service vsphere-client restart`

4.) Deleting the NSX Manager Appliance (only in case of full Uninstall)

If you are doing the Full Uninstall then, after shutting down the NSX Manager appliance, you can right click and select "Delete from Disk"

I am in process of getting a KB published too so will update the post once it’s done.

Hope you find this information useful.

Share and Care please.

Thanks for reading.