VCenter 5.1a Migration Strategy?

[rbmadison]

We are running vcenter version 5.1 and I want to upgrade to vcenter 5.1a. I also need to move the DB to our SQL 2012 environment. Since I'm doing this I'd also like to install vcenter on a new server 2012 OS. I couldn't find any information on how to migrate a 5.1 database or vcenter so I was going to attempt it this way:

1. Upgrade the existing 5.1 vcenter and remote SQL 2008 DB to 5.1a.

2. Install a brand new instance of virtual center 5.1a on a server 2012 and remote SQL 2012 instance.

3. Shut down the old vcenter server and backup the old upgraded 5.1a SQL 2008 database and restore it to the new SQL 2012 instance.

4. Power on the new VCenter server.

With this work?

[JagadeeshDev]

If you are using Vcenter 5.1 U1 , then it supports the following databases.

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2

vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1 Release Notes

VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes

[rbmadison]

Thanks for the help but vcenter is now supported on Server 2012 OS as well as SQL 2012.

See: vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1a Release Notes

Still looking for help on this upgrade strategy.

[rbmadison]

Anyone have steps for migrating the vcenter to a new server and the DB to a new instance?

[Strider1989]

I'd like to know this as well.  The only thing I've been able to find so far is this article: 

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=585044...

But I'm not sure which parts are relevant to 5.1 and it doesn't talk about SSO, inventory, and web client services.  Step 5 concerns me, "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 might not operate properly and/or the client might fail during connection" 

[rbmadison]

I forgot about the adam database. I think migrating it using the process below should work. I think it would just need to be done as a last step before starting the vcenter services on the new server. I hope someone can try this in a test environment.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&e...