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stevenfoo
Contributor
Contributor

MIgrating from vmware 5.0 to 6.0

We are planning to migrate from vmware 5.0 to 6.0. Is it an ideal plan or it is advisable to wait for 6.1 or 6.2 first?

Source: (serverA and storageA)

vcenter: 5.5

vmware 5.0 with 3 hosts (essential plus license)

Target: (serverB and storageB)

vcenter: 5.5

vmware 6.0

We would like to move from the source to the target as above.

1) We understand from vmware document that vmware 5.0 support only vmotion without shared storage.

Only vmware 5.1 support vmware shared storage.

2) Could we migrate from source to target using vcenter 5.5 with vmotion in this case?

Or we need to upgrade the VM at the source from vmware 5.0 to at least 5.1 or 6.0 first before we can vmotion ?

Thanks.

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npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Target: (serverB and storageB)

vcenter: 5.5

vmware 6.0

Is this your target environment, may be there's typo in it. Because you cannot manage ESXi 6 with vCenter 5.5 anyway. your vCenter 6 will still be happy to manage older version of ESXi hosts.

1) We understand from vmware document that vmware 5.0 support only vmotion without shared storage.

Only vmware 5.1 support vmware shared storage.

Updated Note: upto vSphere 5.0 vMotion was only possible with shared storage, since vSphere 5.1 onwards we have vMotion capabilities without shared storage also which is known as Enhanced vMotion (or cross-host vmotion)

Yes you are right, cross host vMotion migration is only supported from vSphere 5.1 using web client.  but if I am not mistaken, I have a feeling that you are trying to achieve cross- vCenter migration here because you mentioned source and target with separate vCenter. now that's a brand new feature of vSphere 6.0 where you must have source and target VC in version 6 along with esxi hosts (source and target both) version 6.

2) Could we migrate from source to target using vcenter 5.5 with vmotion in this case?

Or we need to upgrade the VM at the source from vmware 5.0 to at least 5.1 or 6.0 first before we can vmotion ?

now again if you have two clusters, both managed by vCenter 5.5 single instance and if you want to do vMotion migration along with data files which is known as cross-host vMotion migration where you are moving your VM from Host A - Datastore A to Host B - Datastore B, this can simply be achieve by just upgrading your ESXi 5.0 to 5.1/5.5

but if you have two vCenter servers and if you are planning to do vMotion migraion across them then you need everything in version 6.0

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
stevenfoo
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the information. Greatly appreciated.

Now it is clear to me.  As I expected it will be a lot of work to be done here.

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stevenfoo
Contributor
Contributor

How about the following scenario? Will it work?

1 x vcsa 5.5

3 x host ESXi 5.0

1 x temporary host ESXi 5.5

1) Disconnect 3 x host ESXi 5.0 from vcsa 6.0

2) Inplace upgrade vcsa from 5.0 to 6.0

3) Connect 3 x host ESXi 5.0 to vcsa 6.0

4) vmotion vm from host ESXi 5.0  to temporary host ESXi 5.5

5) upgrade host ESXi 5.0 to 6.0

6) vmotion back vm from temporary host ESXi 5.5 to host ESXi 6.0

7) Upgrade vmware tools on vm in ESXi 6.0

😎 Upgrade hardware version in ESXi 6.0

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npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

2) Inplace upgrade vcsa from 5.0 to 6.0

inplace upgrade of VCSA 5.0 to 6.0 is not possible, you got to first upgrade your VCSA 5.1 update 3 and from there there's a way to upgrade to VCSA 6.0

Please refer following PDF, page 92 onwards you will find what you want for VCSA upgrade.

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-60-upgrade...

4) vmotion vm from host ESXi 5.0  to temporary host ESXi 5.5

Please check cpu compatibility, shared storage and networking requirements to achieve vMotion. It should be OK.

NOTE: Please also login in your my vmware account, and have your new licenses for vSphere 6 (ESXi and vCenter) ready, existing license are not going to be working with version 6.

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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stevenfoo
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the information. Our vcsa is now on 5.5.

How about item 6) vmotion back vm from temporary host ESXi 5.5 to the upgrade host ESXi 6.0 (item 5) ?

Will the vcsa 6.0 compatible to do that?

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npadmani
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

vMotion your VMs from Temp ESXi 5.5 to newly upgraded ESXi 6.0 is not going to be an issue at all. VCSA 6 is going to quite happy to let you do it.

use vSphere web client to do it and you are not going to be needing shared datastore either, because it will support cross host migration.

Narendra Padmani VCIX6-DCV | VCIX7-CMA | VCI | TOGAF 9 Certified
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