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RajatWadhwa2017
Contributor
Contributor

VSphere Migration from ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.7

Hi Experts,

I need your inputs in understanding the best possible way to migrate the existing production ESXi's 5.5 running on old hardware (i.e. HP BL 460C G8 ) to newer HP hardware i.e. HP BL 460C G10 on ESXi 6.7.

Kindly suggest what is the best way to approach this migration. Few more things to add on.

Existing production environment hardware which is going end of life soon (HP BL 460C G8) is hosting 3 clusters in a vCenter 5.5 edition & Storage is 3PAR.

Now, customer wants to move to NetApp in new hardware refresh with ESXi 6.7 on HP BL 460C Gen 10. So how can storage & virtual machines can be moved to new hardware (without minimal downtime)

7 Replies
diegodco31
Leadership
Leadership

Hi, could you provide more information?

Any other vmware product (vsphere replication, Vrops)?

Does your vCenter have a lot of customization (pool resources, vapps)?

Diego Oliveira
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcodiego
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RajatWadhwa2017
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Diago,

Yes,

Currently they are using Array Based Replication (as they have 2 sites, one primary and other DR). Hence, SRM needs to be upgraded as well. Moreover Array based replication is using 3PAR and now, storage might be moved to NetApp in new hardware refresh (at both sites.)

Rest there is not much customization i.e. resource pools, vApps etc.

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SureshKumarMuth
Commander
Commander

Since it is not an inplace upgrade (ESXi 5.5 to 6.7) and you are going to change the storage as well. So we have to think how the data migration can be done from 3PAR to NETAPP which is time consuming one, either moving or copying data will take time based on the amount of data. Though there are several ways. I can think of following solutions if you have Enterprise plus license

Solution 1:

=========

1. Create your new environment 6.7. Map the new Netapp LUNs and create datastores.

2. Deploy vSphere replication and make your old environment as primary and new environment with netapp as DR site.

3. Configure the VMs from old site to new site to replicate data to netapp.

4. Once done you can poweroff the VMs in old site and recover the VMs on new site.

Above method is using vsphere replication where the replication occurs at host level. So if should support different storage types at the backend.

Note: You have to check the following before implementing the above solution

1. You have license to use vsphere replication.

2.Check the compatibility matrix to ensure the above solution works.

3. This method requires minimal downtime.

Solution 2:

==========

Minimal downtime needed

1. Get ready with your netapp storage.

2. Map the LUNs to old hosts.

3. Perform storage vmotion from old datastores (3PAR) to Netapp new datastores.

4. Set up your new environment in 6.7. Map the Netapp datastores to these hosts.

5. Power off the VMs from old ESXi host and register the VMs on new hosts and start them

In your case, I am not sure how SRM going to help as you are going to move the data to new storage altogether. So we cannot make use of existing SRM data and need to configure SRM again with new storage after your migrate the environment.

Regards,
Suresh
https://vconnectit.wordpress.com/
RajatWadhwa2017
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks Suresh. Both the options you have proposed are quite interesting (especially option 2). I will discuss internally within my team and revert in case of any clarifications.

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diegodco31
Leadership
Leadership

What is new storage version and firmware?

Legacy environment utilize switch standard or VDS?

Diego Oliveira
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcodiego
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RajatWadhwa2017
Contributor
Contributor

New Storage version would be NetApp FAS 2650.

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3dsachin
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hey Guys! I'm in the same boat. We are running ESXi 5.1 on Prod and DR site with DELL EMC storage (VNX5300) which are due for hardware refresh. The intention is to move towards 6.7 (ESXi + vCenter) Appliance) with additional hardware (HPDL740) and also keep hosts with ESXi 5.1. A few things in mind:

a. Do we really need two vcenter servers for Prod and DR? We don't have SRM.

b. I have come across "Quick Migration" feature in Veeam B&R which could allow live migration of virtual machines. (Have not tested yet)

c. We are also getting away from EMC storage (Unified) for Nimble HF40 (Block Only)

This is a remote site and both data centers (Prod and DR) are 500m apart.

May I request your inputs\thoughts. Thanks!

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