How to move ESXI and vCenter to a new disk

[JeffCW]

Good afternoon All,

I will be upgrading from vCenter 5.5 to vCenter 6.5 in the near future. Currently we have ESXI/vCenter on the same disk. We have 10 other disks with all of our VMs.

The issue is the current disk is starting to fail. We need to get everything moved to a new disk. We have the basic "VMware vSphere 5 Essentials" + "vCenter Server 5 Essentials". We just purchased the "vSphere 6 Essentials Kit". This means we don't have vMotion or other tools available in the "Plus" kit.

Also, please note, environment only has one host at the moment.

Is it possible to shut down all the VMs, install vCenter 6.5 on a new disk, then have the new vCenter 6.5 "discover" the new VMs? (essentially just adding old VMs to the new vCenter)

Or should I get everything upgraded/running on the existing disk, then somehow transfer that to a new disk?

[IRIX201110141]

With vSphere Essentials you can perform a cold migration of VMs from one Datastore to another. So you have to shutdown the VM and use the migrate function within vCenter. For moving the vCenter VM.....

- You can try to clone the VM during vCenter is up and running

- You can migrate vCenter 6.5 to 6.7 which is always to create a new VM (on the new Datastore of course) and than the Wizzard migrate the Content and shutsdown the old vCenter and start the new one

- You can use a backup and restore of the vCenter VM (Veeam, vRanger and the countless others)

Regards

Joerg

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

upgrading vCenter Server to the vCSA 6.5 is actually done by deploying a new vCenter Server Appliance, and migrating the data from the old instance to the new one. So in this case you may simply select another datastore, on which you want to deploy the new vCSA.

André

[JeffCW]

Good afternoon JEORG,

Thank you for the quick reply. To clarify, the 10 disks with VMs will not be changed/moved. The only thing at this time needing done is upgrading from 5.5 to 6.5 (possibly 6.7 later), and moving the ESXI/vCenter to a new disk.

If I shut down the "vCenter Server VM", then I don't have access to migrate/move it since this is a one host system, or am I mistaken?

[JeffCW]

Good afternoon Andre,

Thank you for the information. That helps me get the vCenter upgraded, but then the new disk cannot have the new ESXI/OS installed on it afterwards.

Maybe for now I'll install the new vCenter on a different disk/datastore, then once I get everything (ESXI/OS) configured/installed on the new disk I can move/migrate the vCenter VM.

[IRIX201110141]

I dont understood what you mean with "new disk".

Yes, if you shutdown the vCenter VM you cant migrate it anymore.

I have present 2 ways (Clone/Copy and by Upgrading) how to "move" your vCenter.

- Deploy a new phys. ESXi Hosts and add it to the existing vCenter

- Migrate all VMs (need to be shutdown)

- Migrate vCenter

Done.

Do you have to add new local phys. Storage to your one and only existing ESXi?

Regards,

Joerg

[JeffCW]

Good morning Jeorg,

Currently I have vCenter VM and ESXI installed on a failing hard drive.

I have purchased a new hard disk to replace the failing drive. (the server will be the same hardware)

I would like to get ESXI and vCenter upgraded as well.

Maybe it would be best if I use another server to spin up a VM, have ESXI 6.5 installed on that, join that host to the existing vCenter, shut down all the VMs, then migrate them to the new host.

Once that is complete, I can replace the failed hard drive, install ESXI/vCenter 6.5 on the new hard drive, then migrate everything back?

I look forward to your response and appreciate your feedback/advice.

[IRIX201110141]

Does the failing drive is a member of a RAID set/group? or a single Disk or RAID0?

Is the ESXi also installed on that disk? (This would be explain your question about moving ESXi)

Well... you cant "move" a ESXi in a easy manner . Yes you can

- use vicfg-cfgbackup (VMware Knowledge Base ). But can only restore on the same exact version

- use Host Profiles which needs vSphere Enterprise Plus licensing

When i have to re install a ESXi (no fancy stuff exists) i open a putty session and enable logging in putty

esxcfg-vswitch -l

esxcfg-nics -l

esxcfg-vmknic -l

cat /etc/hosts

cat /etc/resolve.conf

cat /etc/ntpd.conf

hostname

which give me most of the Infos for a reinstall and than reconfigure again.

Our Hosts have alway a boot device for ESXi alone..

- Dual SD card (thats what we have in most servers)

- RAID1 with 10K disk or BOSS

- 20GB Volume from a larger RAIDx Diskgroup

- USB stick (i dont like it)

so when ever i need to reinstall i never put the existing VMFS Datastore in danger.

There is no real problem to Re-Add the fresh reinstalled ESXi into the existing vCenter because the ESXi brings in all the VMs, vSS as long as no fancy stuff like vDS, vSAN, VDI and so on is used.

Regards

Joerg

[JeffCW]

The failing drive is on a Single Disk/Raid 0.

ESXI is installed on this Disk.

I have no problem putting the vCenter Server on a different Disk/Datastore. We have plenty of space on other Datastores for that.

I'm also debating the idea of just starting fresh. Install ESXI 6.7 on the new hard drives, then configuring everything fresh. If I took this approach, would it be possible to get any of the existing VM's into this environment? (Please note, all the VM's are on their own Disks/Datastores and is not the failing ESXI/vCenter Disk).

I'd prefer to be able to use the existing VM's since they have a lot of information/installations/configurations, but I'm not sure if them being configured with 5.5 could cause issues. For example, I have about 8 Windows 10 VMs, all of which were configured with 5.5 and set as "Windows 8 64bit" VMs.

[IRIX201110141]

- Move the vCenter away as described above

- "Extract" the config as described above

- Shutdown the Host and remove the disk. The RAID0 config stays on the disk*

- Now remove the RAID0 konfig within the controller if necessary

- Insert your new disk and create a new RAID0**

- Install ESXi and apply the needed configurations (IP/DNS, vNetwork....)

- The ESXi will detect the other Datastores automaticly. Now browse the Datastore and add the *.vmx to the Inventory to get the VMs back

- Reconnect the ESXi within the existing vCenter

* If something goes wrong you can import the "foreign" config from the Disk back into the controller

** Consider a RAID1 for redundancy

Regards

Joerg

[JeffCW]

Good afternoon.

Is it possible to just move the existing ESXI/vCenter 5.5 to a new disk? My major concern now is the failing disk. I could worry about upgrading later.

I have 2 SSD setup with RAID 1. Is there an easy way to get ESXI/vCenter over to that?

[IRIX201110141]

With the right license and svMotion its easy..... but you havent the lics.

Again.... CLONE IT!

Regards

Joerg

[JeffCW]

Good evening,

I was able to get vCenter 6.5 installed and work out the issues. It looks like the issues were caused by using SR IOV for passthrough. After I disabled this in the BIOS, rebooted the ESXI server, then I was able to complete the vCenter upgrade from 5.5 to 6.5.

The only steps remaining now are to get ESXI on the new RAID 1, then get that connected with the new vCSA.

I appreciate all of your help. Thank you kindly.