Shutdown existing vCenter Server, create a new one

[jwall04]

I am wondering what the repercussions might be of shutting down our existing vCenter Server 4.1 vm, and installing a new vCenter Server 5.1?

I know we'll need to recreate the data center, clusters and resource pools and assuming we don't care about the logs will this cause a problem?  When we attempt to add our hosts to the new vCenter will they complain that they're already being managed by another vCenter?

The reason I'm looking at doing this is to migrate from VC 4.1 to 5.1 in order to use SRM 5.1, but since we are not totally sure if what we want to do is possible (see my other post here: http://communities.vmware.com/message/2192244#2192244) I don't want to upgrade only to find out it was for nothing.  I'd rather just power my VC 4.1 machine down, create a new VC 5.1 and start fresh, provided I can easily go back to VC 4.1 later if I need to. The hosts are running ESXi 4.1 and are not on the HCL for anything newer.

[jdptechnc]

If you don't care about losing your history and statistics, then you shouldn't have any issues removing your hosts from vCenter 4.1 and connecting your hosts to a new vCenter 5.1.  There would be a warning raised about the host being managed by another vCenter, but you can continue on from that warning and connect the host to the new vCenter.

[sadomi]

this shouldn't be a problem. you don't even need to shut down the running VMs.

it will install a newer HA agent vor vCenter 5.1.

be sure to disable HA and DRS, to prevent unexpected results during migration.

in case of a problem, before going back to the old vCenter, you should remove the hosts from the vC5.1,

to remove the HA agents. afterwards power up the vC4.1 and reconnect the hosts (if they

are still listed as disconnected) or add them again manually. this will install the old HA agent again.

[JimKnopf99]

Hi,

like the two other member said, it should work.

But you wrote that the hosts are not on the HCL. If this Cluster is your production environment and you have support on that, i would not recomend to update. Because when you come into trouble with something related to vmware and your hosts are not on the hcl, i am not sure what happend with your call.

Keep that in mind!

Frank

[sadomi]

Frank wrote:

But you wrote that the hosts are not on the HCL. If this Cluster is your production environment and you have support on that, i would not recomend to update. Because when you come into trouble with something related to vmware and your hosts are not on the hcl, i am not sure what happend with your call.

he means, they are not on the HCL for vSphere 5, but they are for vSphere 4.1.

it is supported to have a vCenter 5.1 with vSphere 4.1

[jwall04]

Thanks for the replies, I suspected it would be straightforward but it's always helpful when someone can confirm a plan.