Upgrade vCenter from 4.1 to 5

[Rohail2004]

Guys

Need your advice.  We are currently running vCenter 4.1 in Windows 2008 both the app and database servers with ESXi 4.1.  Has anyone performed vCenter 4.1 upgrade to 50? how was it? becuase I was thinking to build a new vCenter 5.0 server from scratch and then move my host one datacenter at a time, since I have enough host available to move VM's to another host w/o any downtime, the only challenge I'm running into becuase we are running Nexus 1000v switches..

thoughts as to what should be my best apporach?

thanks in advance.

[AndreTheGiant]

I've used the upgrade from 4.1 without issues.

Just remember to add the new licenses (for the vCenter instance).

IMHO I suggest to disable HA, or at least the host monitoring during this operation.

[Rohail2004]

thanks, but are you running Nexus 1000v switches? that's my problem.

[RParker]

Rohail2004 wrote:

Need your advice.  We are currently running vCenter 4.1 in Windows 2008 both the app and database servers with ESXi 4.1.  Has anyone performed vCenter 4.1 upgrade to 50? how was it? becuase I was thinking to build a new vCenter 5.0 server from scratch and then move my host one datacenter at a time, since I have enough host available to move VM's to another host w/o any downtime, the only challenge I'm running into becuase we are running Nexus 1000v switches..

Nexus should not pose a problem.  I would suggest that if you rebuild your datacenter and reinstall vCenter 5, use the Appliance.  You can't use SQL you must use Oracle (or embedded for less than 100 hosts).  The appliance is faster, more responsive, uses less memory and it's pre-built.  All you have to do is connect to a DB and voila done.

You can start using it within a couple of minutes.

[Rohail2004]

Thank you, one last thing.

I have less than 100 hosts so do you think it is good practice to go with embedded database?

also, can i deploy the new vCenter appliance in our existing ESXi 4.1 host, and then move one cluster at a time to new vCenter? would this cause any issue?

[bilalhashmi]

Rohail2004 wrote:

Thank you, one last thing.

I have less than 100 hosts so do you think it is good practice to go with embedded database?

According to the vCenter pdf you should be fine with 100 hosts

The VMware VCSA is packaged with an embedded database that supports up to five hosts and 50 virtual machines. When deploying VMware VCSA in larger environments, it supports connecting to an external Oracle database. Configured with an external database, it can support 300 hosts and 3,000 64-bit virtual machines. These host requirement limits are consistent with VMware vCenter Server.

Besides providing support for vSphere 5.0, VMware VCSA is able to manage vSphere 4.0 and 4.1 hosts. This flexibility provides administrators with the option to use it in these environments until they are able to upgrade

Rohail2004 wrote:

also, can i deploy the new vCenter appliance in our existing ESXi 4.1 host, and then move one cluster at a time to new vCenter? would this cause any issue?

I am not sure I havent tested that. But what you can do is once you have a host with ESXi 5 on it, you can deploy the appliance on that host. This should work.  If you want you can find out for us if deploying the appliance on a ESX/i 4.x will work or not.

P.S. Not a big fan of 1000v btw.

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[bilalhashmi · Accepted solution]

Here is the white paper btw http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vCenter-Server-50-Technical-Whitepaper.pd...

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