vCenter 5.5 and SQL database upgrade Query

[amitb79]

i have vcenter 5.0 running as a VM and SQL 2008 SP3 is running on another machine, now i would like to upgrade the vcenter 5.5 and seems to be the SQL 2008 SP3 is not supported so need to upgrade the SQL as well. Somehow i can not upgrade the current SQL server version so need to move the DB on a new supported DB which is SQL 2008 R2 SP2 or similar

Source                            Target

5.0                                   5.5

SQL 2008 SP3                  SQL 2008 R2 SP1 or Any supported DB's

Doubt is can i first upgrade the SQL DB from 2008 SP3 to supported version and then upgrade the vcenter , Will that work in that manner. If not what is the best way i can move the vCenter Database and then connect to the upgraded version.

Suppose i am gng to take a back up of my Vcenter DB which is on SQL SP3 and then restore it on a upgraded SQL version say SQL 2008 R2 SP1 on a different machine so in that case how will i upgrade my vcenter to 5.5, like during upgrade can i give the path OR my vcenter 5.0 should also work with newly moved/upgraded DB ??

[lakshya32]

Hi

Welcome to communities.

Install supported sql on new machine and assign specify path on vcenter 5.5

Before that take back up of SQL DB.

[amitb79]

Hello Thanks for reply, i am having doubt like when i am upgrading the SQL DB 2008 SP3 which is currently connected with 5.0 which is a supported verision, so when i do the DB movemnet to SQL 2012 then do i need to connect the same DB with 5.0 or i can directly upgraded the vcenter 5.0 to 5.5 , will that work in that approach ? If that will work then how is will behave when i will be installing the inventory service as it has also a DB. pls help thanks

[amitb79]

Any update experts ?

[vNEX]

Hi amitb79,

vCenter server 5.0U3 supports SQL Server 2012 SP1 64-bit Standard/Enterprise (doesn't support R2) so before transition to SQL 2012 first go for Update 3

then you can migrate your SQL 2008 SP3 database using steps in KB article below: (Unless its written for 2008 SQL I think that is also applicable for SQL 2012)

VMware KB: Migrating the vCenter Server database from SQL Express to full SQL Server

Once you will have you db migrated and vCenter server functioning ... upgrade vCenter to 5.5 release.

Refer to these sources for more detailed steps:

VMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5 best practices