vCenter 5.0 to 5.1

[efectorUS]

Hello All....

I currently have a 4 node cluster(ESX 5) w/ vCenter 5 (update 1 on both). I want to upgrade(migrate to a clean install) my cluster / vCenter to 5.1.

I really don't want to do an in place upgrade of the existing vCenter, I'd rather start fresh(I'm not worried about historical data / performance, etc). I have the ability to shut all of my VM's, down, etc to facilitate this.

Does anyone have any suggestions(steps) how best to do this? The only real docs I can find are usually talking about in place upgrades. Oh, also, I am not using distributed switches....only using standard switches.

Any information would be appreciated

[Atul_gen]

You can  migrate it from one VM to another VM. Which DB are you using, is it remote DB or installed on local VM where you keep virtual center server ?

If it is remote DB , create a DSN on another VM and point to the same DB.Go ahead with the fresh Installation, provide the DB details in the DB wizard, do not select overwrite option otherwise it will format your DB All data will be gone.Go with the "use existing DB".It will install Fresh VC with retain the old DATA.

One More thing if you want to use another Machine for fresh VC installation  then you need to copy SSL folder from old machine to new machine at the same location.Other wise it will give error on the database wizard.

If everything goes fine then nothing would be lost event performance data also.

Thanks,

Atul

[logiboy123]

In vSphere 5.1 SSO becomes mandatory. The installation and configuration for SSO is absolutely horrible. On my current project if I knew how bad SSO was I would have installed a lower version of vSphere.

It's not impossible at all, just quite painful at times. Especially if you have vCenter servers in Linked Mode. If you have a small configuration then it's probably not so much of a drama.

Build a test lab first if you can to get a feel for it.

VMware KB: vCenter Single Sign-On FAQ

Cheers,

Paul