I've read so many KB's my eyes are popping out, and talked to support twice. (But since its tech support, they're hesitant to give "design" advice, which I understand.)
So, please help me think thru this:
I currently have vcenter 5.5 on a physical server, running Server 2008R2, using the vcenter default "built in" SQL db.
- I want to upgrade to vcenter 6.0
- While I'm at it, I want to move it to a VM
- And I want to run Server 2012R2
What is the upgrade path? Seems simple on the surface, but in practice I've not found a way to make it work. I have a few choices, none of which actually seem to work. Is there a way?
One Method: Spin up new 2012R2 VM - Copy the v5.5 DB from physical server to the new VM - Install vcenter server 5.5 on new VM - use the copied DB - migrate hosts to new VM - make sure all is running well - upgrade new VM to 6.0.
Problem with this method, from kb5850444: "If you are migrating a vCenter Server 4.x/5.x database, you must also migrate the ADAM database. You can migrate this database if the Windows versions in the source and the destination is the same. If not, vCenter Server might not operate properly and/or the client might fail during connection."
Another Method: Upgrade physical box to 6.0 - spin up new 2012R2 VM - move vcenter install from physical box to new VM
Problem with this method: no documentation yet on moving 6.0 to a new host with a different OS
Another Method: Fresh install of 6.0 on new 2012R2 VM – connect hosts to new install
Problem with this method: dvswitches don’t migrate to 6.0; have to manually create on new install and nobody knows if that will break connectivity of my currently running vm’s.
Suggestions on the correct way to accomplish this?
