swapping SD card and disks into new hardware rather than rebuilding vSphere

[kwg66]

Currently we have a host built with 6.5 and we need to swap out this server.   In the old days, years ago, with older version of ESX, we used to be able to pull drives, pop them into new server, power it up, and all would be good. 

However, with ESXi, and its many iterations, I'm not so certain we can do this anymore, and don't have time to test this out at the moment.

Our build is installed on SD cards, and the local disk contains VMs.    IF we remove the SD cards and disks and populate the new server with them, what should I expect to see?  success or failure with these actions?

[Magneet · Accepted solution]

Please don't swap sd's, it will give issues on mac addresses. Somehow it will keep using the mac address from the old host. I have accidentaly swapped sd's in the past and had the weirdest issues afterwards. Those few minutes of installing a new host are not worth the issues.

DIsk raid sets should be safe to swap to a new host. Just make sure to have a proper backup in advance

[kwg66]

Thanks for this tip.   I will take it to heart and make certain this server is rebuilt after it is replaced and not just swap out the build on the SD cards,