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jkrugjohann
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ESXi 6.0 to 7.0 Storage vMotion [SAN to SAN]

Hello,

This is my first post, so I apologize ahead of time if it's not on the right board.

I was wondering if some fellow engineers on here could validate my methods for project I am working on.

I have the following scenario:

Customer's Existing Infrastructure:

  • 3 ESXi Hosts running ESXi 6.0.0 (two are running build 6921384, one is running 13635687)
  • vCenter 6.0 appliance
  • Dell iSCSI SAN

The end goal is to move all VM's off of the ESXi 6.0 cluster to the following brand new cluster:

  • 2 ESXi Hosts (a third will be added later)
  • vCenter 7.0 appliance
  • Dell iSCSI SAN

The lowest VM version I have is 8, which, according to the compatibility matrix, is fine for moving to ESXi 7.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2007240

My thought was to do the following:

 

  • After successful backups for all production VM's, attach existing iSCSI storage to two new ESXi hosts
  • Power down existing VM(s), and unregister it from old vCenter 6.0
  • Register powered down VM into new vCenter 7.0
  • Power On VM
  • Upgrade VM Tools
  • Storage vMotion VM from old datastore to new datastore

I know there may be other ways to accomplish the end goal (like upgrading each old ESXi host individually), but I'm specifically interested in knowing if this approach will work.

From what I understand, I know people have reported issues vMotioning from vCenter 6.0 to vCenter 7.0. due to how vCenter manages certain aspects of ESXi/vSphere.

Would that matter in this scenario?

I appreciate anyone's help on validating this approach and/or offering a simpler way.

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a_p_
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IMO your approach should work.

Since vMotion isn't an option anyway (because vCenter Server only supports ESXi 6.5 and later), that's basically one of the few ways to do the migration.

André

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a_p_
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IMO your approach should work.

Since vMotion isn't an option anyway (because vCenter Server only supports ESXi 6.5 and later), that's basically one of the few ways to do the migration.

André

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jkrugjohann
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Thank you, Andre.

I appreciate your feedback.

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