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dfindlay
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Moving vm's from ESXi 4.0 to ESXi 6

We have four esx v4.0 hosts and a vcenter server on 2003.  Been running 7 years so it's time to retire.

The vm's are already on a new Equalogic iSCSI array.

I know I can't vmotion between the different hardware platforms, and vcenter server 6.0 won't manage ESXi 4.0 anyway.

If I bring up four new 6.0 hosts and a new vcenter server, I'm thinking I can shut down a vm, remove it from the 4.0 inventory, and add it to the 6.0 cluster.  Then boot it up.

Would this work?

Darron...

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RajeevVCP4
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You can follow also this

Assuming you have 4.0 U1

First upgrade vcenter server as 5.5 U3 which will support ESXi 4.0

Then upgrade ESXi 5.5 U3

Upgrade windows 2003 to 2008

then upgrade VC as 6.0 vcenter server which will support your ESXi 5.5 U3

Then upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.0

Upgrade vmware tool/virtual hardware

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Rajeev Chauhan
VCIX-DCV6.5/VSAN/VXRAIL
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JoaoCastro
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If your VM have a virtual hardware version 7, you can create a mix cluster with Esxi 6 and Esx 4 and enable EVC case host are different hardware, so you can migrate vm using vmotion.

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SavkoorSuhas
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Yes. Power off the vms from old hosts on the old vcenter. Remove it from the inventory and add it to the new hosts on the new vCenter.

However, running esx 4 and esxi 5/6 as a mixed cluster configuration. With/without EVC is not recommended.

Suhas

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Don't Backup. Go Forward!
Rubrik

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JoaoCastro
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Yeap,

You can try this or a V2V migration.

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EU_Office
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If I use Veeam backup & replication software for move a vm and then keep to same vm version 7.

Would this work?

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daphnissov
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If Veeam supports the source vCenter version, then it should.

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theaaronstrong
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Might be a good document to look over?

Migrating Virtual Machines

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cyberpaul
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Hi Darron, yes it would work.

If you have some space on your EqualLogic, you could also clone the volume you use for vSphere 4 and attach the clone to your vSphere 6 environment. This way, you could do some testing before doing the real thing.

Regards, Pavel

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Alex_Romeo
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Hi,

try the veeam quick migration utility.

You can download Veeam backup & replication 9.5 in free version and then manage the migration from 4.1 to 6.0, 6.5, 6.7 …

Soluzione di backup gratuita - Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition

Best regards,

Alessandro Romeo

Blog: https://www.aleadmin.it/
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mariakaira
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I've had mixed success with the *2V migrations, so I'd tend to avoid that. Since a vCenter 6 can't manage a 4.1 host but a 5.5 can, I'd probably temporarily set up one of the new hosts with 5.5. Start up a 5.5 vCenter appliance managing the 4.1 and 5.5 result systems. Then shut down the VMs and migrate them from the 4.1 host to the 5.5 host (or vMotion if you're licensed). Upgrade the tools and VM levels and then shut down the 5.5 vCenter and have the 6 vCenter take over the 5.5 host. Move the VMs to the 6 hosts, upgrade the 5.5 host.

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RajeevVCP4
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You can follow also this

Assuming you have 4.0 U1

First upgrade vcenter server as 5.5 U3 which will support ESXi 4.0

Then upgrade ESXi 5.5 U3

Upgrade windows 2003 to 2008

then upgrade VC as 6.0 vcenter server which will support your ESXi 5.5 U3

Then upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.0

Upgrade vmware tool/virtual hardware

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Did you find this helpful? Let us know by completing this survey (takes 1 minute!)"

Rajeev Chauhan
VCIX-DCV6.5/VSAN/VXRAIL
Please mark help full or correct if my answer is use full for you
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NathanosBlightc
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Check the VM hardware version compatibilty for ESX 4.0 and ESXi 6.0 before do that.

If you can register that VM to the newer ESXi host, you can run it too or also upgrade the hardware compatibility of that VM.

Please mark my comment as the Correct Answer if this solution resolved your problem
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