Upgrade vCenter Version but not the Hosts?

[NetworkNerd]

I work in an environment where we run vSphere Essentials with 3 hosts.  Right now we are still running 5.5 on 2 hosts and 5.1 on the third.  We have only a VMWare subscription right now but do have license to 6.0.  Without deactivating the host licenses, is there a way to upgrade my license for vCenter only so I can get converted from the Windows version of vCenter to the virtual appliance, make sure everything works, and then worry about upgrading the hosts to 6.0U2?  I figure there probably is a way but did not want to upgrade all the licenses and invalidate the licenses for my hosts.

If it is helpful, we did the basic install of vCenter are are not using VUM right now (though I want to implement for the future).  Any help is much appreciated.

[a_p_]

IIRC you can upgrade the vCenter Server license in the My VMware portal separately from the host licenses, even with the Essentials Kits.

André

[NetworkNerd]

Does that automatically place your current vCenter license into evaluation mode, or does it just throw messages about being unlicensed shortly after the change has been made?

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

There's no technical impact in upgrading the licenses. When you upgrade the a license in the portal, you have to confirm that you won't use the old license any longer. The proper way to do upgrades is to install the new version in evaluation mode (works for 60 days), and upgrade the license once the old system has been shut down.

André

[NetworkNerd]

That's a good point.  Thanks very much for your help.

[Magneet]

also copy all keys before upgrading the license, that way you can go back if needed with your installation instead of downgrading the license.