Move to a vSphere 7 environment - recommended approach

[andvm]

Hi,

Just thinking, how would one best start thinking about moving to (or better introducing) a vSphere 7 environment when current setup is on 6.x amongst all clusters in different DC's?

Would one consider to upgrade the VCSA and deploy future/new clusters with 7.0 so ending up having a mix of 6.x and 7.0

Would you recommend that new license are bought for 7.x rather than 6.x, along with a VCSA license upgrade?

Compatibility would also be key to check to make sure any 3rd parties interacting with VCSA do support 7.0x

Would appreciate your views or thoughts

Thanks

[peetz]

Greetings,

please start by reading the docs, e.g. this KB article: VMware Knowledge Base (vSphere 7 Upgrade Best Practices (78205)).

Also useful: VMware Knowledge Base (Update sequence for vSphere 7.0 and its compatible VMware products (78221)).

Here are some thoughts regarding your questions:

- The first step is upgrading the vCenter appliance. You need to make sure that all attached hosts can still be managed with a vCenter 7.0 server, I think minimum version of ESXi is 6.0.

- Regarding licenses ... If you have your licenses under maintenance (that means with an active support agreement) then you are eligible for free upgrades. If not then upgrading the licenses might still be cheaper than buying new ones. It depends on how long they have been out of maintenance. Check the licenses in the my.vmware.com portal and ask your reseller.

- Regarding upgrading hosts or not: I would upgrade any host that is supported by ESXi 7.0 (hardware wise). Check the VMware HCL and hardware vendor documentation. Of course it also depends on your budget for new licenses or license upgrades whether you can afford this. If you cannot upgrade a host to 7.0 (for whatever reason) then upgrade it to 6.7 instead (if hardware is compatible). Support for 6.7 was recently extended until 2022.

- Regarding 3rd party compatibility: Sure you need to check this. Think of e.g. backup and monitoring tools, but also other VMware products you might use.

- Andreas

[scott28tt]

This article is another good reference: vSphere 7.0 Migration Process with Screenshots

[andvm]

"If you have your licenses under maintenance (that means with an active support agreement) then you are eligible for free upgrades." - interesting so we can request the VCSA 6.0 license to be upgraded to 7.0 free of charge. If so this would definitely be the first action as long as VCSA 7.0 can manage any 6.0x ESXi and other software that connects into VCSA is compatible 

"Support for 6.7 was recently extended until 2022." - Does this actually mean that there will be updates available by VMware and Vendors to address issues/improvements till end of 2022 for 6.7?

Will check the links for more info.

Thanks

[scott28tt]

as long as VCSA 7.0 can manage any 6.0x ESXi

vCenter Server 7.0 can only manage ESXi 6.5 and later: VMware Product Interoperability Matrices

there will be updates available by VMware and Vendors to address issues/improvements till end of 2022 for 6.7?

Currently October 15th 2022: https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/product-lifecycle-matrix.p...

[peetz]

General support for vSphere 6.7 has been extended until Oct 15th 2022. See Announcing Extension of vSphere 6.7 General Support Period - VMware vSphere Blog

Read here what "General Support" means: Lifecycle Policies

But beware: As Scott pointed out vCenter 7.0 can only manage ESXi hosts with version 6.5 or newer, so if you have 6.0 hosts you need to upgrade them to 6.5 first.

Since 6.0 is out of general support since March this is a good idea anyway.

[andvm]

thanks, yes plan is to have all at 6.5 at minimum in any case.

What is interesting it that I cannot locate vSphere 6.x licenses (getting only version 7 listed) anymore on the My VMware portal, assume these would still be available for purchase?

In any case I will have a look on what is needed to upgrade the VCSA to version 7 including process to obtain the VCSA 7 free license upgrade

[peetz]

If you buy new licenses now you will only get 7.0 licenses.

However, you can downgrade them later in the MyVMware portal.

There you can also upgrade your existing 6.x licenses if they are under maintenance.

[andvm]

Will there be any issue with the upgrade process if the license (VCSA/ESXi) is still for v6 and then its upgraded/applied post-upgrade? (as one of them has to come first)

Thanks

[sudeshnas]

Hi andvm,

You should be able to upgrade the environment to 7.0 with the existing 6.x licenses as after the upgrade the vc as well as the esxi will be using evaluation license which will remain valid for 60 days.

During this 60 days period you can switch the license any time.

Regards,

Sudeshna Sarkar

Install-Upgrade Specialist