Migrate vCenter Server 5.1 to new cluster

[BMVMUser]

I have my vCenter Server (v5.1) VM on an old cluster of ESXi 4.1/5.0 hosts. I only have vSwitches on each of these hosts. I now have a new cluster of ESXi 5.1 hosts that are managed by this same vCenter Server. However, this new cluster has a dvSwitch with completely different VLAN's configured. I've already created many new VM's in this new cluster with the new VLAN's / port groups.

I would like to migrate my vCenter Server from the old cluster to the new and I cannot figure out how to do this since I cannot access my dvSwitch when adding my vCenter Server VM to a new host.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

BM

[logiboy123]

1. Pull one of the vmnics out of the dvSwitch on one of the new 5.1 hosts. I'll call this the Migration host from now on.
2. On the Migration host, create a vSwitch with the same portgroup name as your old environment hosts, including VLAN tag used on the vCenter server portgroup.
3. vMotion the vCenter server to the Migration host.
4. Change the network of the vCenter server to one of the dvSwitch portgroups.
5. Remove the vSwitch from the Migration host.
6. Add the vmnic removed from the vSwitch back as an uplink into the dvSwitch.

[BMVMUser]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Regarding step 3:

I forgot to mention: I do not have the same IP address space in the new cluster that I do in the old cluster, and therefore need to change the IP of the vCenter Server VM during the migration. How can I complete the vmotion, taking this into account?

Thanks.

[logiboy123 · Accepted solution]

Not possible. In order for a live migration to work you need the source and destination networks available in both environments.

I would just build a new vCenter server in the 5.1 environment and migrate new hosts into the new vCenter server.

[BMVMUser]

I'll do that, thanks!