vCenter upgrade/migration process

[ManofmilkUK]

Hi,

We currently have a single vCenter 4.1 server running on a VM with a local SQL express 2005 instance. We would like to end up with a single vCenter 5 server running on a VM with a local SQL 2008 R2 instance.

To get there we are proposing to do something like this:

1. Deploy a new VM (Server 2008, Std, x64).
   
2. Install SQL 2008 R2 on it.
   
3. Copy (backup/restore) current SQL Express 2005 vCenter database to SQL 2008 on new VM.
   
4. Shutdown existing 4.1 vCenter server.
   
5. Install vCenter 5 on new VM and attach to the local SQL 2008 R2 instance.
   
6. Have the new vCenter server take control of all the ESX hosts.
   
7. Done?
   

How does that sound as a plan please?

Is the current 'step 4' at the right point in the process?

How exactly should 'step 6' work?

Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers.

[SantoshKumar36]

The plan sounds good but I would suggest you to go with this.

After 3 point, carry out with point #5, once you build the VM and install the VC5.0 setup and export the database, have a different IP set to new VM for some time. Access the New vCenter, all the entries will be remained as it is in disconnected state, on each host right click and say connect.

After you done for all the ESXi hosts.Make sure all the VMs are running fine.

Then think of decommision the VC4.1 server.

Regards

Santosh K

[weinstein5]

This will have detailed steps for migrating you environment - http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-501-upgrad...

[admin]

Hi ManofmilkUK

Welcome to the communites

Its sounds good, if its live server first take backup of all the thing so that incase gose wrong we can bring back to old state.

While implementing new one provide same information like instance name and host name and other parameters .

"Life is never easy for those who dream"

[ManofmilkUK]

Do we need to have the new vCenter have the same servername and IP as the old one do you think?

[SantoshKumar36 · Accepted solution]

IP address should be different and hostname as well for the new vCenter VM.

[ManofmilkUK]

Followed the plan and with the exception of a few bits of twiddling to change credentials and import the SSL certificates etc everything has gone well.

Thanks for the advice all :smileygrin:

[SantoshKumar36]

@Mano,

Good, Any problems faced during the upgradation process ?

[ManofmilkUK]

Hi Santosh,

The things that 'took us by surprise' were all very minor and did not hold us up at all:

1. We had to copy the SSL files over from the old vCenter during the install of the new vCenter.
   
2. The vCenter server services set themselves to run as the local administrator account and we were not able to edit this on the appropriate screen during the install so we just changed the services manually after the install completed.
   
3. When connecting the hosts to the new vCenter for the first time we received errors about missing passwords and had to re-enter the credentials to access the hosts
   

Otherwise the process followed was pretty much as planned and went smoothly, the only real difference is we moved the shutdown of the old vCenter to be a bit later in the process: we have a 2 host cluster in a separate datacenter that forms our test/dev environment and we left the old vCenter online until the new one had taken full control of these 2 hosts.

Cheers.