Upgrading vCenter 5.0 Windows/MSSQL to vCenter Server Appliance 5.5

[AlexSAL]

Hello,

We are currently running vCenter 5.0.0 under Windows/MSSQL (with a mix of ESX 4 and ESXi 5.0 hypervisors). We would like to upgrade to vCenter 5.5 but using the appliance instead.

Is there a proper way of doing this upgrade ? Can we just deploy the new vCenter using the appliance and then disconnect the hosts from the old, and reconnect them to the new ? Will that work "out of the box" ? Any shortcomings ?

Do we need to export any settings from the old vCenter ? (we are not using distributed switches and we do not care of the historical data/logs/performance etc.).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Alex

[abhilashhb]

It would usually get complicated when there is distributed switches and Historical data involved. But in your case it should not be an issue. You can disconnect the hosts and add them to new vCenter. I do not see any issues. And vCenter 5.5 is backward compatible upto 4.0 hosts which is also in your favor.

I do not see any issues here.

[f10]

Given that you are not using vDS and don't care about historical performance data the transition should be easy. However do backup the licenses and custom permissions. You would need them when you have vCenter Appliance setup. Also backup any information related to DC, Cluster/resource pool settings etc.

IMO disconnecting the hosts from windows vc and adding them to vCenter appliance should be fine.

All the best !

-f10

[admin]

Hi Alex,

--> Can we just deploy the new vCenter using the appliance and then disconnect the hosts from the old, and reconnect them to the new ? Will that work "out of the box" ? Any shortcomings ?

A : This would work fine and no problems. Unless a dependent networking like nexus1000 or vDS is running.

-- you need not Export any settings, The data you would be losing would be the performance charts data when you remove it from the VC and re-add it onto the other host

Hope this helps,

Thanks,

Avinash

[AlexSAL]

Thanks for the helpful answers !

Do you know if the same vCenter license will work in the new vCenter ? We will be decommissioning the other one.

[f10]

I am not a licensing expert but technically it would work, would be good to check with the licensing team to ensure the legal part.

-f10

[abhilashhb]

The licensing is generalized for every version. like 4.x,  5.x etc.So you should be good to go with the existing one. If it doesn't work you can always get a new one VMware KB: Upgrading license keys in My VMware