Migrating from vCenter 5.0 to 5.1

[efectorUS]

Currently I have a vCenter 5.0 installation w/4 hosts(cluster). My vCenter is virtual on the cluster. My cluster is sized so that I really only needed 3 of the 4 hosts.

I want to be able to create a new "clean" vCenter 5.1 installation, and move the machines / hosts. I've read over the documentation, but things are kind of fuzzy on the process. SO, can I remove one of the hosts from the existing cluster, and create the "new" cluster(5.1), then move the machines?

What is the best process? I am not really concerned with doing an "in place" upgrade. I do not need to keep the historical data.

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the COmmunity - I would proceed like thise:

1. Build your new 5.1 vCenter -
   
2. Disable the cluster in the 5.0 vCenter environment
   
3. Remove the hosts from the 5.0 vCenter and then add to the 5.1 environment - There is no need to shut down or vmotion the VMs
   
4. once all hosts are moved shut down the vCenter 5.0
   
5. Rebuild your clusters
   

[efectorUS]

Thanks for the information. Not to sound stupid, but where does upgrading the ESXi hosts come into the process? Do I bring them into the vCenter as 5.0 hosts, then upgrade ESXi? Sorry if the questions seem silly. Just want to make sure I do not hose my cluster / hosts.

[weinstein5]

Not silly at all - two ways to do this -

If you are planning to deploy Update Manager then I  would build out your environment clusters included and then use update manager or you could bring them in first to the new environment so you can vmotion the vms off and then do the upgrade -  once the upgrade is complete I would rebuild your clusters.