After coming back to a VMware vCenter Orchestrator 4.2 in my home lab that i have installed a while back, I have noticed that the vCenter Orchestrator Configuration interface was not showing the vCenter Server 5.0 plug-in tab. Actually it was showing the vCenter 4.1 plugin tab. As soon I saw that I remembered that the Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server 5 is not included in the VMware vCenter Orchestrator 4.2 included in the vSphere 5 vCenter installer CD. Then I thought what if I did not know that and I got to this stage. How odd & how long would I waste to figure out what is wrong with my setup.

To make it more interesting going to the vSphere vCenter 4.1 plugin tab in VMware vCO  and configure it with vCenter 5 information pass the validation without any error or complain. The only time you will start noticing the result of using the wrong plugin is when you start trying to execute any VMware vCenter Orchestrator workflow that require information to be populated from VMware vCenter. At that time you will notice that nothing show up in your vCenter inventory & you start scratching your head. Below is a screen shot to demonstrate how the vCenter 4.1 for vCenter Orchestrator plugin look like in vCO before upgrading it.

Great I thought, as I knew the answer to my problem & thought I would just go and upload the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-in for vCenter Server 5.0.1.1 & I should get my vCenter Server 5 tab. Trying that did not work as I was hoping. The reason behind it seems to be it conflict with the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-in for vCenter Server 4.1, which is documented in the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In for vCenter Server 5.0 Release Notes under known issue. To work around that you will need to follow the below procedure:

1. Remove the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-in for vCenter Server 4.1

   1. Log in as an administrator to the machine on which the Orchestrator server is installed.
   2. Navigate to the vCenter Server 4.1 plug-in .darfile.
      • If you installed Orchestrator with the vCenter Server installer, the default path is:
        install_directory\VMware\Insfrastructure\Orchestrator\app-server\server\vmo\plugins\o11nplugin-vsphere41.dar.
      • If you installed the standalone version of Orchestrator, the default path is:
        install_directory\VMware\Orchestrator\app-server\server\vmo\plugins.
   3. Delete the o11nplugin-vsphere41.dar file

2. Install the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-in for vCenter Server 5.0.1.1

   1. Download the vCenter 5 plugin .vmoapp file from http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vcenter-orchestrator/plugins.html.
   2.  In the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Configuration Interface go to the plugin tab and scroll down till you see the Install Plugin part.
   3. Click on the magnifying glass and choose the plugin file you have just downloaded
   4. Hit Upload and install as showing in the screen shot below
   5. You should receive a plugin installation success message saying “vCenter Server (5.0.1 Build 232) Plug-in with the same name was already installed (4.2.0 Build 5277): overwriting existing plugin”. Below is a screen shot of installation success message

    
   

3. Restart the vCenter Orchestrator configuration service and the vCenter Orchestrator server.

Now that you completed the above steps, you should be able to login after few minutes and see the vCenter 5.0.1 plugin tab that you were passionate to see. It was even worth sharing a screenshot of this lovely tab showing up.
 

Going into that tab you can now configure it with your vCenter 5 information just as you did with the 4.1 plugin. After you do that, you will be able to see your vCenter information populating in vCO & start working with your vCenter Orchestrator and build & execute your work flow.