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Taseen_24
Contributor
Contributor

Moving vCenter 5.5 to another Server

I have built a Windows 2008 r2 server.  I plan to install vCenter.  I will be pointing the vCenter install to my current vCenter Db.  the plan is to shut down the old vCenter server.   The ip address and name of the host will change with the new vCenter.  My questions is how big of an impact will this have on my vCenter environment?  Will I have to reconfigure my vsphere distributed switches or storage?  Note the new virtual server will be on the ESxi host as the original vCenter server.

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ShirinKumar
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vAMenezes
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Looks like you're leaving the DB on a different server and moving only the vcenter server installation to a new server, right?

See this article Migrating a vCenter Server Installation? Don't Forget Your SSL Certificates! - Wahl Network

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keshavkant
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Hi,

Pelase check and follow the given instruction or steps which help you to move your vCenter from one sever to other server .

vCenter Server has inter-dependencies with other services. Care must be taken to not break any of these inter-dependencies. As with any major change in your infrastructure, good backups are essential in providing smooth, limited downtime changes. 

To move your vCenter Server

Verify and ensure that the Lockdown mode is disabled on hosts. To verify this, navigate to Host > Configuration > Security Profile > LockDown Mode.

  1. Shutdown the VMware VirtualCenter Server service.

  2. Take a backup of the SQL database.

  3. If the SQL database is also being moved, create a second instance of your database and use the vendor's tools to migrate the data.

    Note: If you are using an Oracle database, create a second instance of your database and migrate the Oracle database schema, vpxadmin. For more information regarding migrating oracle databases, contact your software vendor.

  4. If you are migrating a vCenter Server 4.x/5.x database, you must also migrate the ADAM database. You can migrate this database if the Windows versions in the source and the destination is the same. If not, vCenter Server might not operate properly and/or the client might fail during connection.

  5. Create the appropriate System DSN connections on the new vCenter Server host. For more information, see the Viewing and modifying the database server section of If the new VirtualCenter server uses the same hostname and IP address, the SSL certificates can be copied to the new server to eliminate the need to reconnect the ESXi/ESX hosts.

To copy the VirtualCenter Server SSL certificates:
  1. Create this folder structure on the new server:
C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL
  1. Copy these files from the original VirtualCenter server to the new server, preserving the folder structure:
  • C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL\rui.key
  • C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL\rui.pfx
  • C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL\rui.crt
  1. Begin the installation of the vCenter Server software on the new server. If you are installing vCenter Server in a virtual machine,

  2. When prompted, select Use existing database, and provide the correct credentials to that database.

  3. When prompted, select to not re-initialize the database to preserve all of your inventory data.

  4. Reboot the machine after the installation completes.

  5. When you first start the vCenter Server Client, it may ask for licenses. Configure the licenses as you had previously in your environment. If the IP address of the new vCenter Server has changed, your ESX hosts must be made aware of that change, otherwise the ESX hosts will continue to send their heartbeats to the original IP address of vCenter Server and appear as Not Responding or Disconnected. For more information, Confirm that your SQL Agent rollup jobs are present. Detaching/attaching, importing, or restoring a database to a newer SQL server does not recreate these jobs. If these jobs are not present, there are problems viewing performance data and the database begins increasing in size. For more information, see
  6. If vCenter Server is moved to another server with a fresh installation, the SSL certificates change and the ESX hosts show as disconnected within vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server. Right-click the disconnected hosts, click Connect, provide the root login credentials, and follow the prompts.
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IBM_India
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There are several reasons to move your VMWare vCenter server to new hardware. You might want to replace an aging machine that has become less stable, or you might want to take advantage of newer 64-bit architecture. Either way, you need to plan carefully -- and execute just as carefully -- to move vCenter to a new server

Step 1

Stop the vCenter Services, back up the SQL database and migrate the database to the target server.

Step 2

Create System Data Set Name, or DSN, connections on the target server so that it will be able to find the database after the vCenter installation.

Step 3

Insert the vCenter software media into the proper drive and install vCenter Server on the target server.

Step 4

Select “Use existing database,” and provide a userid and password when prompted.

Step 5

Select “Do not re-initialize the data” to preserve your inventory information.

Step 6

Restart the target vCenter server after the installation completes.

Step 7

Reconfigure the ESX hosts with the new IP address information, if the IP address of the new server is different from the old server. Also, if your SSL certificates change as a result of the migration, your hosts will disconnect. Right-click on the disconnected hosts and click “Connect.” Enter the proper certificate userid and password, then follow the instructions to reconnect the hosts.

you can follow below link as wel

VMware KB: Migrating vCenter Server to a different host machine

if you think this post is helpful, please provide points accordingly thanks Zubair Technical Specialist
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jagdish_rana
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Hi There,

Please create an empty db for vcenter in new build server and restore the DB.

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