Cluster upgrade server processors from different gens to same

[MicahAPS]

Not sure if this is the right board. Let me know please.

I have three DL360 g10s, all currently running guest VMs in a cluster with same storage LUNs attached as datastores, two with Intel Xeon Silver 4214 and one with Xeon Gold 6130 processors. If I were to upgrade the two servers with Xeon Silvers to Gold, would I need to unregister the guest vms then reregister them after upgrading the processors? I can't get EVC enabled for the cluster because of the mismatch in proc gens.

Thanks for the clarification.

[a_p_]

I don't think that the VMs need to be re-registered in such a case.
However, since you have to shutdown the VMs anyway for the hardware upgrade, why don't you migrate them to the older host after shutting them down?

André

[hadjer1 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Shut down the VMs, then cold migration to the Gold host. Upgrade your Silver hosts to Gold and then move back the VMs to the upgraded host. Power-On the VMs. No need to unregister.

[MicahAPS]

Thank you. This worked.

I got one host upgraded to Gold, and one remaining on Silver that'll I have to wait until next week to work on.

One issue. The remaining host running Silver is also running the vCenter vm for vSphere. Trying to live migrate also complains about the target host(s) not supporting the vm's current hardware requirements, and that I need to setup EVC.I looked at EVC but due to the disparity between the processor families it wouldn't let me set the compatibility.

Of course if I shut down the VC vm I won't have vSphere to perform any vMotion with. Would I end up having to do a reinstall of vCenter?

Thanks.

[hadjer1]

Hello,

I'm happy it worked for you.

If the ESXI hosts have the same storage attached,  you can

1) Locate your vCenter (host and datastore ) and then poweroff the vcenter VM for the VAMI interface (https://vCenterIP:5480), then Action - Shutdown.

2) login to the web interface of the esxi hosting vCenter VM and then unregister the vCenter.

3) login to the new esxi that will host the vCenter and then browse the datastore where is vCenter and register it from there.

4) Power on you vCenter.

5) login to your vCenter and remove the old host

Hope that helps!

Regards.

[MicahAPS]

Thanks. That worked without issue.