Upgrading From vSphere 5.0 to 6.5 - Sanity Check From The Community Please

[pbalderos]

Hello community peeps! :smileycool:

It's been a while since I have done an upgrade so I am reaching out you all for a sanity check. I am about to upgrade I am planning.

I am upgrading from 5.0 running on 2 HP Prolient DL380 servers to 2 Dell Power Edge R720 servers running vSphere 6.5. Since I am

jumping from one server brand to another (I know VMs are hardware agnostic) and jumping from 5.0 to 6.5 in the same breath I want

to make sure I do  this right.

Current production cluster that needs to be upgraded

2 HP Proliant DL380

vSphere 5.0

vCenter server 5.0 (Windows server 2008 R2)

SAN: Dell Equalogic

Future Production Cluster

2 Dell Power Edge R720XD

Planning to upgrade to vSphere 6.5

SAN: This cluster will use the current Dell Equalogic SAN

Migration / Upgrade plan

Note: I am planning on taking backups of all of the VMs prior to the upgrade.

Step 1 Upgrade current (soon to be decommissioned) production cluster from 5.0 - 5.5

            a. upgrade vCenter server from 5.0 to 5.5

            b. upgrade VMware tools on the VMs

            c. upgrade VMFS datastores

Step 2 Connect new host to SAN

            a. configure new Dell hosts to connect to the Dell Equalogic SAN

Step 3 Migrate VMs from the current production cluster to the new production cluster (5.5) 

Step 4 Upgrade the vCenter server from 5.5 and migrate to the vCenter 6.5 server appliance  - Performed on the new production cluster

Step 5 Upgrade vSphere 5.5 to 6.5 - Performed on the new production cluster

Step 6 Apply new license, since this is a major upgrade - Performed on the new production cluster

Questions:

1. Does the license for vCenter server windows version allow you to migrate to the vCenter server 6.5 appliance

2. Am I correct in saying that I only need to apply a new license when i do a "major upgrade" from one version to another. For example: 5.5 to 6.0 requires a new lic key but 5.0 to 5.5 does not?

3. From a very basic level does this plan seem ok

[vcallaway · Accepted solution]

Not sure if I'm understanding correctly, but for Step 1 I can't tell if you're upgrading vCenter or hosts first since you list vmtools on b. Obviously, you would want to upgrade vCenter first, then match your hosts to that supported version. Without knowing the exact versions of your virtual hardware, vm tools you should be fine in your plan. Obviously check the versions to be sure they're compatible as well as the HCL guide too (links below).

Answers to your questions:

1.) Yes, you can come from Windows to the vCenter Server Appliance with the same licensing.

2) Yes, you will need to upgrade your ESXi & vCenter keys (and use your new keys) within the VMware Portal if you have an active support entitlement.

3.) Yes, just make sure the as your upgrade the versions are compatible with each other and your upgrade order is supported.

Here's some helpful links.

VMware Compatibility Guide - System Search

VMware Knowledge Base - Upgrade Sequence 6.0

VMware Knowledge Base - Upgrading to 6.5

P.S. I don't know all the details of your environment so please take this advice with caution. Good luck.

[adgate]

Since you are not building a new infrastructure from scratch the latest stable version is the way I go. For you case, check the hardware support and compatibility with the features you are going to use.

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/vmware-vsphere-6-5-what-to-be-aware-of-before-upgrade

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/why-upgrade-to-vmware-vsphere-6-5-or-why-not