Migration of ESXi 5.5 VM's to ESXi 6.7 on a different datastore.

[dablumberg]

We need to decommission our ESXi 5.5 environment (host runs on physical server and vm's resides on iscsi datastore) and migrate to a new server running ESXi 6.7 and wanted to know best practice for moving the virtual machines over to the new server?  

Current Environment:

VCenter 5.5

2 ESXi 5.5 hosts

2 Datacenters (4 vm's on each machine)

New Environment

VCSA 6.7

2 ESXi 6.7 Hosts on two new physical servers with identical specs (different cpu architecture from current environment)

I would like to move the vm's from the current environment to the new environment and can bring them all down to a powered off state before migration.

Is there a best practice for this move and what would be your recommendation?  Thank you

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

if the new hosts have access to the iSCSI storage, i.e. the current datastores, you can simply shutdown the VM's, remove them from the old vCenter Server's environment, and add them to the new one.

Depending on the new hosts' configuration, you may need to reconfigure the VM's network (port group). What you may do, is to create a temporary snapshot prior to powering on the migrated VMs (just in case something unexpected happens), install/update VMware Tools, and upgrade the VM's virtual hardware.

André

[dablumberg]

What would be the best way to connect the iscsi to the new datastore (all servers resides on the same subnet) and will this also move the vm to the new datastore since we have installed a new datastore that is ssd based?  Thank you

[a_p_]

Can you please share some details about the old, and the new storage system?

If the "old" storage system is supported by ESXi 6.7, the easiest way to completely migrate your VMs is to first connect one of the new host(s) to the old storage system, then "move" the VM's from the old environment to the new one as mentioned in my previous post. After the VM have been moved, you may then use the new vCenter Server to migrate the VM's from the old to the new storage.

Once all VM's are migrated, you may detach/unmount the old storage system from the new host(s) again.

André

[dablumberg]

The old storage system is a Dell Powervault MD3220 running RAID and the new storage system is based on a virtual storage device made up of physical SSD drives.  Each one has its own datastore that is setup.  --Edited

The MD3220 is supported by ESXi 6.7 per Dell and VMWare

When we move the old vm and convert to 6.7 will we have the ability to increase the storage/memory/processors?

[a_p_]

The datastore itself will not be an issue. ESXi 6.7 supports VMFS5, which I assume  is being used for the existing datastore(s).

The storage system itself is supported too with different firmware versions (see VMware Compatibility Guide - Storage/SAN Search)

André

[a_p_]

When we move the old vm and convert to 6.7 will we have the ability to increase the storage/memory/processors?

Basically yes, as long as the guest OS supports it.

André