Replacing ESXi host with new hardware - configuration backup and restore?

[stephenmbell]

This is my first post, as I am just starting to get into PowerCLI - though I do have a fair amount of Powershell experience.

We recently purchased 2 new hosts that are intended to replace 2 existing hosts.  The process seems rather straight forward:

1.  Migrate all VMs off of Host A

2.  Power down Host A, unrack.

3.  Rack New Host A, install ESXi, configure ESXi

4.  Migrate VMs back to Host A.

Repeat for Host B.

My question is - I have backed up my ESXi configuration files using PowerCLI.  Is it possible (and advisable) to restore these same configuration files to the new host, assuming it comes up on the same version of ESXi?  This would save me having to configure all of the NICs and hostnames and NTP, etc etc?

I see there is a Set-VMHostFirmware that I can pull in a backup configuration that I got from the original Host?  What if the hardware is different?   I am pulling out Dell R715 servers and putting in Dell R630.

Thanks in advance,

sb

[LucD]

Have a look at KB2042141

[stephenmbell]

Thank you for the response.  I read that kb over before my initial post. So I am aware it is possible to backup and restore configuration with PowerCLI.  I guess my question is - for what I am looking to accomplish, is this a good idea?  Or should I just go through and manually configure the whole thing?

Thanks again!

[LucD]

To be honest, I have never done that to configure a new ESXi node.

Would be an interesting exercise though.

The manual configuration part is quite short, once the node is started and on the network, you can do most of the remaining configuration from PowerCLI.

Can you use HostProfiles ?

[stephenmbell]

Unfortunatley, no.  We have Enterprise licensing.  Not enterprise plus.  I will give it a shot and post back the results.

[stephenmbell]

So I gave it a shot.  It did not work.  It gave me a mismatch sparse bundle error....

Sidenote:

After going through and re-configuring one of the new hosts, it wasn't as bad as I had remembered.  And for the second host, I wrote a powercli to do all of the networking, so that helped a great deal.

sb