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deasyp
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Advice on migrating from vCentre 5.1 server to the latest VCSA 5.5 release

Hi there,

I'm working on planning out an upgrade path to get our current vCenter server upgraded to the latest 5.5 release. The vCenter server manages 24 physical hosts running ESXi 5.1 (appox 500 VMs operating)

I've not kept up to speed on finer points of the latest features with the 5.5 releases, but from what I can gather the latest generally available release of the VCSA would be capable of managing the above resources.

I'm unsure of what would be the best path to upgrade, without causing major disruption to those using VM's on the virtual infrastructure. We do not use distributed vSwitches, or HA, so this reduces the complexity of the setup / migration.

I'm investigating the theory of building a clean VCSA server, disconnect ESXi hosts 1-by-1 from vCentre and simply re-connecting into VCSA. (rebuilding resource groups, etc as part of the process)

Ignoring the reporting/audit history, I'm trying to determine is this an accepted upgrade route?

My inital thoughts would be that the licence server could be a problem, I'm not sure if the operation of two licence servers is possible, whilst transitioning the hosts from vCentre over to VCSA?  It may not be best practise, but is it actually possible to operate to licence servers whilst transitioning from one to the other?

From a storage perspective; as a fiber channell SAN user, is there any issues around having 5.5 servers using the same storage luns, as used by 5.1 hosts? (vmfs 3.31). Ideally I would prefer to have new VMFS's for the 5.5 servers, but I'm seeking to focus on sorting out the management server upgrade firstly.

If anyone has been down this route previously, I'd be keen to learn from your experiences in doing this.

Thanks in advance

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vThinkBeyondVM
VMware Employee
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Hi Friend,

Here is the great post that will give you more insight.

Upgrading to the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 from Windows vCenter 5.1 — The Lone Sysadmin

On your queries:

VCSA maximum:

Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database) 100

Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) 3000

Hosts (with Oracle database) 1000

Virtual machines (with Oracle database) 10000

Hence, VCSA is capable of handling your workload.

I'm investigating the theory of building a clean VCSA server, disconnect ESXi hosts 1-by-1 from vCentre and simply re-connecting into VCSA. (rebuilding resource groups, etc as part of the process)

Ignoring the reporting/audit history, I'm trying to determine is this an accepted upgrade route?

Answer: As per me, if you are ready to ignore vCenter history, this is the simplest route that you can go for i.e. building clean VCSA and re-connecting hosts into VCSA. Whatever features you enabled from earlier vCenter need to be re-configured. As you said, HA etc. is not enabled, it reduces complexity for sure. You are correct.

On licensing :

I am not good at licensing but as per me it should not be the problem. You can talk with VMware support/sales.

on SAN:

Yes, you can use same LUNs for 5.5 servers as 5.1. However it would be great if you go for VMFS 5. You have option to upgrade VMFS 3 to VMFS 5 easily but I will suggest you to migrate your data to other LUN , delete evacuated VMFS 3 LUN and build VMFS 5 as new. If you upgrade from VMFS 3 to VMFS 5, you may not be in the position to leverage all features that VMFS 5 offer.

Building from scratch would give you all the features. http://www.vmwarearena.com/2013/07/difference-between-vmfs-3-and-vmfs-5.html

Hope this helps you


----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks & Regards
Vikas, VCP70, MCTS on AD, SCJP6.0, VCF, vSphere with Tanzu specialist.
https://vThinkBeyondVM.com/about
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed here are strictly my own. I am solely responsible for all content published here. Content published here is not read, reviewed or approved in advance by VMware and does not necessarily represent or reflect the views or opinions of VMware.

View solution in original post

2 Replies
vThinkBeyondVM
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

Hi Friend,

Here is the great post that will give you more insight.

Upgrading to the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 from Windows vCenter 5.1 — The Lone Sysadmin

On your queries:

VCSA maximum:

Hosts (with embedded vPostgres database) 100

Virtual machines (with embedded vPostgres database) 3000

Hosts (with Oracle database) 1000

Virtual machines (with Oracle database) 10000

Hence, VCSA is capable of handling your workload.

I'm investigating the theory of building a clean VCSA server, disconnect ESXi hosts 1-by-1 from vCentre and simply re-connecting into VCSA. (rebuilding resource groups, etc as part of the process)

Ignoring the reporting/audit history, I'm trying to determine is this an accepted upgrade route?

Answer: As per me, if you are ready to ignore vCenter history, this is the simplest route that you can go for i.e. building clean VCSA and re-connecting hosts into VCSA. Whatever features you enabled from earlier vCenter need to be re-configured. As you said, HA etc. is not enabled, it reduces complexity for sure. You are correct.

On licensing :

I am not good at licensing but as per me it should not be the problem. You can talk with VMware support/sales.

on SAN:

Yes, you can use same LUNs for 5.5 servers as 5.1. However it would be great if you go for VMFS 5. You have option to upgrade VMFS 3 to VMFS 5 easily but I will suggest you to migrate your data to other LUN , delete evacuated VMFS 3 LUN and build VMFS 5 as new. If you upgrade from VMFS 3 to VMFS 5, you may not be in the position to leverage all features that VMFS 5 offer.

Building from scratch would give you all the features. http://www.vmwarearena.com/2013/07/difference-between-vmfs-3-and-vmfs-5.html

Hope this helps you


----------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks & Regards
Vikas, VCP70, MCTS on AD, SCJP6.0, VCF, vSphere with Tanzu specialist.
https://vThinkBeyondVM.com/about
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed here are strictly my own. I am solely responsible for all content published here. Content published here is not read, reviewed or approved in advance by VMware and does not necessarily represent or reflect the views or opinions of VMware.

deasyp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
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Thanks a million for the prompt feedback!

It's exaclty the route I'd like to take, and it saves a lot of headaches (in my opinion).. I can transition systems with hopefully little disruption using this approach.. the alternate route or trying to upgrade the vCentre install and the DB i think would just overcomplicate and draw out the process.  Granted it's not the ideal way to do it.. we'd all like to do it perfect and by the book, but sometimes you have to take an alternate path.. the finer grained polishing to get it up to the 'perfect setup' will come in time

thanks again!

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