Migrate Host to new vCentre - potential easy method

[ghunter-bd]

Hello,

We’re planning to migrate 2 of our hosts from an existing vcenter server cluster to a new vcenter cluster. We're hoping to keep the VMs online and migrate the hosts with no downtime.

Both vCentre instances are running version 6.7.0 Build 18485185
The ESXi version is 6.5.0 Build 17477841

We’re using a distributed switch in the existing cluster.

We have found the following guide which we are reviewing - https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1029498

We have also been informed about another migration method (see below), and I would like to know if this is an approved/workable method, as it is considerably simpler than what is documented in the above URL.

The steps include:
-Export the distributed switch(s) config from the existing cluster
-Remove Host(s) from the source cluster
-Add the Host(s) into the destination cluster
-Import the previously exported distributed switch config into the destination cluster
-Remove Host(s) from inventory in the the source cluster

This method is documented here (I appreciate the document is old and relates to an old version of esxi) - https://dellaert.org/2013/09/28/migrate-vcenter-5-1-standard-to-vcenter-5-5-server-appliance-with-di...

I am curious if this method will retain the existing cluster/datacentre/vcentre config when importing into the new cluster and potentially causing issues.

Many thanks

[ghunter-bd · Accepted solution]

So I can confirm it is best to follow the vmware guide when performing such a migration with a distributed vswitch and esxi 6.7:

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1029498 

We found the host needs to be removed from the distributed vswitch, which the shorter guide does not mention.