Hi,
I do have little bit of a situation in my environment We run vCenter 5.1 and its database is on Microsoft SQL 2005. Our version of 5.1 vCenter is not compatible with SQL 2012 (I have checked that). I have plan soon to update to vCenter 5.5 but as we know vCenter 5.5 is not compatible with SQL 2005. We plan to move vcenter database to SQl 2012 standard and then perform upgrade to 5.5.
My database guy says that he will first backup database and then restore it on 2008 R2 and after that move it to SQL Server 2012. Then we will create new ODBC connection and connect vCenter 5.5 to the new database during upgrade.
VMware sent me this link VMware KB: Migrating the vCenter Server database from SQL Express to full SQL Server
which basically says that we should create new database and then overwrite it with the backup. I was planing just to use existing database restore it on SQL Server and then new ODBC connection to this database.
How would you approach to this
Regards
We moved our vCenter SQL DB off from SQL express installed locally to a remote full blown SQL server and we did not create a DB and then let vCenter overwrite it. We basically did it the same way your DBA's are telling you. No issues. I will say we weren't doing a vCenter upgrade at the same time merely just a DB move.
I agree with Cyberfed27, as I also have done DB migrations the way that your DBA's are suggesting. This would be the upgrade path that I would recommend to get the end result of vCenter 5.5 running on SQL 2012.
Upgrade or migrate vCenter DB, SSO, etc to SQL 2008 R2. Test everything works, and then get a good backup.
Upgrade vCenter to 5.5. Test everything works, and then get another backup.
Upgrade or migrate vCenter DB (No SSO DB to migrate now that you are on 5.5) to SQL 2012.
Hope this helps...
