Physical to Virtual (P to V) Conversion of vCenter Server

[StageCoach20111]

What are all the things I need to think about when convering vCenter server from a physical machine to a virtual machine?  For example:

1. If the SQL database is on the same server can it be corruputed?

2. If I create P to V'd vm and let it sit for a day while the physical vCenter server is up, what happens with Active Directory when I shutdown the physical vCenter server and the virtual takes over?  The virtual vCenter Server would have a less recent synchronization with Active Directory than the physical server I just shut down.  Any problems there?

[Troy_Clavell]

can I answer this question in a non direct way?  I would tend not to P2V your vCenter Server.  What I would do is create two new VM's, one for vCenter and one for SQL (your VCDB).  I would then do a backup and restore of your DB.

I think this is the cleanest way, and you avoid all the unnessary work of removing hardware specific components post migration.

With that said, if you have to P2V you vCenter Host OS and you're running SQL on that box too, then shutdown SQL, and then do the P2V. Post conversion make sure you remove all old hardware components in device manager.

If you are retaining the same hostname and IP address, you should have no issues with AD.  However if you have to revert to the physical box for any reason, Your vCenter inventory will be out of date and you may experience weird issues.

[StageCoach20111]

If I do change IP address but not hostname, would I still have issues with AD and if so what issues?

[Troy_Clavell]

you may have to run an ipconfig /flushdns and then a ipconfig /registerdns from a command prompt.

If that doesn't work, you can always join the OS back to the Domain, which will update the DNS records.  However, if you are changing the IP address of vCenter you may want to look at the below KB article

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1001493

[StageCoach20111]

Does unjoining and rejoining vCenter server to a domain present any possible issues - such as loss of permissions, etc. that I need to beware of?

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

StageCoach wrote:

Does unjoining and rejoining vCenter server to a domain present any possible issues - such as loss of permissions, etc. that I need to beware of?

none whatsoever.  vCenter has all it's information stored in a DB.  The reason for the possible rejoining of the domain is just to update the AD object and DNS

[StageCoach20111]

Thanks for all the good info