Upgrade vcenter 5.5 to 6.0 on server 2008

[jprovine7]

What is the best way to upgrade and existing install of vcenter server 5.5 on a windows 2008 server to vcenter 6.0?

[Camero]

Here are some documents you may refer for guidance on upgrading to vCenter 6.0

1. Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0 best practices (2109772) | VMware KB

2. Upgrading from vSphere 5.x to vSphere 6.0 Best Practices (2130664) | VMware KB 

3. Upgrade vCenter Server 5.5 for Windows 

[TomHowarth]

in addition to the documents already mentioned have a read of this too

Migration of Distributed vCenter Server for Windows Services During Upgrade to vCenter Server 6.0

[Jitu211003]

Hi,

What I have done in our enviornment.

1). Take a snapshot of existing vcenter 5.5.

2). Take a backup of Vcneter & update manager Database.

3). Start the Vcenter 6.0 setup and it will ask you to enter existing administrator@vsphere.local credentials to upgrade the existing PSC.

4). Select the options appropriately and you are done with your upgradation.

If anything went wrong, you can revert back all your installation by snapshot.

Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0 with an external Platform Services Controller - YouTube

But it works.

If you found this helpful mark it resolved.

Thanks

Jitendra.

Vmwarediary.com

[jprovine7]

Jitu211003​

My vcenter server is a physical box so I can't snapshot it but I can try to get a backup of the whole box. Your other suggest may work for me

[Jitu211003]

in that case database backup will also work.

Give a suggestion to convert a physical Vcenter to Virtual one. That will give you more flexibility and avoid any downtime, backup and many others.

[jprovine7]

Jitu211003​

How does it give me more flexibility to have it as a virtual machine? Wouldn't be more risky to have it on the box that it is managing rather than separate

[noel_lacayo]

My two cents: In the early days of virtualization, I remember the official recommendation was to run vCenter on a physical machine. Today more often than not vCenter is being run as a VM. This is in fact a VMWare supported method. It DOES give you more flexibility in the sense of HA, DR, and saving you physical hardware. And  its not more risky due to the reasons I just listed.

Another option is a VCSA and as you get to 6.5 you can easily deploy HA VCSA's from the VCSA appliance management console as well as use the built in backups and restoration options.

[jprovine7]

vExpert: Noel Lacayo​

very good point about the HA and really you are making it possible to us all the host machines as physical fail over boxes for you vcenter server, I had never thought of it that way.

[noel_lacayo]

Yep on a physical box you are dealing with a single point of failure.

[Jitu211003]

If the Vcenter is physical

1). Single point of failure wherein Virtual Vcenter moves among the host as normal VM in cluster.

2). Recovery from scratch is more time consuming.

3). May be system restore could be there but not as proficient as snapshot of virtual machine.

4). Performance vise if load increased on your Vcenter then adding more memory is not such easy as in Virtual Machine.

and a lot more if you think more deeper. As far as I am aware, Virtual is much better than Physical.

[vasan22in]

Hello,

Make sure you want to upgrade from vcenter 5.5 windows version to vcenter 6.0 windows version or vcsa appliance. I hope your going to upgrade windows to windows version. Also, consider vcenter appliancer, because VMware introduced more future in vcenter appliance.

How to upgrade vSphere 5.5 to version 6.0 - Part 1

https://www.virtuallyboring.com/upgrading-windows-based-vcenter-5-x-to-6/

Consider the prerequisites before start upgrade,

Upgrading from vSphere 5.x to vSphere 6.0 Best Practices (2130664) | VMware KB

Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0 best practices (2109772) | VMware KB

[jprovine7]

vasan22in​

Yes the long term plan is to also upgrade to server 2012.  I am weighing the pros and cons of having a virtual appliance over having a physical box and there are more pluses that I had not consider that people have pointed out to me

[jprovine7]

So is upgrading the 5.5 to 6.0 in place the best way?

[jprovine7]

Jitu211003​

All my components are on one server and I have a full SQL server install not an express.

[jprovine7]

Can you import a 5.5 vcenter database into a fresh install of version 6.0? What version of SQL is compatible with vcenter 6?