Migrate vCenter Server 5.5 to VCSA 6.0

[Deas]

Hello,

I run a vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows at the moment. The database is on a remote SQL Server. We use Enterprise Plus Licenses and vDS.

I´d like to migrate this configuration to a VCSA 6.0.

Are there any documented ways how to do this? I´d prefer to do the migration without any guest downtime if possible.

Thank´s a lot for your help!

brgds Andreas

[Vol]

Also wondering the same thing,

From what I've gleaned so far from the documentation is that the PSC supports mixed vCenters, so providing your SSO is external you might be able to do the following:

(hopefully there is a way to get from internal SSO to external?)

upgrade SSO to a PSC,

upgrade vCenter to 6

deploy a vCSA 6

(haven't investigated past this point so i'm guessing)

enable linked mode between vCenter and vCSA to get config and data replicated

shutdown and remove vCenter

[akodenkiri]

Hi All,

As of now officially VMware does not support migration from Windows to vCSA 6.0

There is a fling which you may want to try for experimentation -

https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcs-to-vcva-converter

[Deas]

Hello,

I had a call with a HP VMware specialist today and took the chance to ask him about this issue.

His opinion is to stick with the Windows vCenter Server. The reason is that he had it many times that customers with a VCSA had problems and the answere from VMware was to redeploy the VCSA which means to loose the config. With the Windows vCenter Server we have much more possibilities to do troubleshooting.

A VCSA you should only use for small environments and where you don´t use Enterprise Plus features. Recovering from a failed VCSA when you use vDS is not an easy Task he told me even when you have a backup of the vDS config.

So i´ll stick with the Windows version and forget my plan to migrate to the VCSA.

Brgds Andreas

[MatteoMarchetti]

Same question here.

I'm running vCenter server 5.5 with different Windows VMs - one per "service": vCenter, web client, inventory service, database, sso.

I'd like to have an official migration path to VCSA 6.0.

Thanks.

Matteo

[RAMESA]

Migration from Windows vCenter Server to vCSA is not supported in vSphere 6.0 release. While this is in our roadmap. There is a fling (https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vcs-to-vcva-converter) available for migrating from Windows vCenter Server 5.5 to vCSA 5.5. Please use the fling and provide feedback.

[javier_dp]

While it is unsupported, I have tested the tool and looks really promising. However, It only supports migrating from vCenter Windows 5.5 to VCSA 5.5.

As I want to take advantage of the LVM autogrow feature in VCSA 6.0, is there a way to perform a full backup of an upgraded (5.5 to 6.0) VCSA and restore it into a newly deployed VCSA 6.0 that leverages the multiple disks partitioning + LVM?