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rb51
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Moving from vCenter4.1U2 to VCSA

hi all,

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current prod. environment:

License level: Enterprise

8x Dell Hosts on ESX4.1U2 (fat classic esx);

1x virtual vcenter 4.1U2 (win 2008 R2)

1x virtual center SQL (win 2008 R2)

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We are soon migrating our environment to v 5.5U1 and I am now thinking about deploying a VCSA rather than keeping using Windows for vcenter.

My understanding is that VCSA does NOT support linked mode (we do not have nor will have in the foreseeable future), does NOT support vCentre Heartbeat (we do not have and I do not think the business will require or spend money on this). For patching I normally SSH into the host and push the patches manually rather than using VUM, therefore an extra Windows machine may not be needed anyway. Moreover we would lose historical data as we cannot migrate the SQL DB to the VCSA (as of today anyway).

I also believe I cannot use the "Inventorysnaphot" fling to take a snaspho config of our vCenter4.1 and import on the VCSA.

Therefore: Do I need to take note of all vCenter config (Cluster settings, Folders, ResourcePools, Alarms, etc); deployed the VCSA and then recreate the settings?

I would appreciate your comments...

Regards

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3 Replies
vNEX
Expert
Expert

Hello rb,


Below are some great posts...hope will help you:

Upgrading to the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 from Windows vCenter 5.1 — The Lone Sysadmin

Migrate vCenter to vCSA in VMware View environment-Part 1 | v12n


Also check this sources:

VMware KB: Minimum requirements for the VMware vCenter Server 5.x Appliance

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 (vCSA) Limitations | Virten.net

Regards,

P.

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vNEX
Expert
Expert

Hi,

any updates on this issue?

Thanks,

P.

_________________________________________________________________________________________ If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider to award points. (use Correct or Helpful buttons) Regards, P.
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rb51
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Still waiting for the business to decide whether we need to keep historical data, etc...

It looks as if we will keep the existing Win2008R2 vCentre + Win2008R2 SQL DB; carry out the upgrade to Vcentre5.5U1 and upgrade the hosts....Then consider whether go Win2012R2, SQL 2012....

I really want to see an upgrade path to migrate the existing SQL DB to VCSA, then ditch the Windows machine(s).

Problem is that time is always against me to run the tests,etc....I will keep the thread up to date.

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