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theostler
Contributor
Contributor

ESX 3.02 migration to 4.1 - newbie help required

Hi all,

Newly qualified VCP4 here with first VMware project and no one else in the company with VMware experience. Looking for any assistance that the kind souls here can provide

I have been asked to handle a move from ESX 3.02 to vSphere 4.1

Current environment

2 ESX 3.02 hosts - approx 20 VM's across the 2

VMware vCentre Server is a VM hosted on one of the hosts

Need to move the whole lot to brand new kit (server and SAN). No reuse of old kit. No

My plan was to:

1. Install ESXi (Standard edition) on new kit and physically install kit at client site

2. Ensure n/w visibility between old/new kit

3. Identify machine to be used for vCentre Server (must be on domain and meet minimum hardware specs) and (ideally) install SQL Server

4. Install vCentre Server (to centrally manage vSphere environment). If full SQL Server not available on vCentre Server host then we can use SQL Server Express edition which can be part of installation

5. Create standard switches on each host to mirror what is on their existing setup (not using Enterprise Plus so no Distributed switches/Storage vMotion, etc)

6. Add new ESX hosts/storage to new vCentre Server

7. Add existing ESX hosts/storage to new vCentre Server

a. Use Update Manager on vCentre Server to Upgrade old ESX boxes

b. Use Update Manager on vCentre Server to Upgrade VM tools on old hosts

c. Use Update Manager on vCentre Server to Upgrade virtual machine hardware on old hosts

8. Use VMotion to migrate all VM's from old hosts to new hosts

9. Remove old hosts from new vCentre Server

10. Remove old storage from vCentre Server (would the old storage be visible under the new environment in the first place though)

My concerns

1. The current SAN, an MSA1000, is not on the VMware compatibility list so I’m concerned the new environment won’t be able to see the old storage.

2. I was intending using a physical server for vCentre Server, but it needs to remain as a VM, so this will clearly change my steps 3 and 4

My questions, if anyone can spare a minute, are:

1. Can/How do I do this, given that the existing vCentre Server is already virtualised. I don’t know quite how to approach what I was planning in steps 3 and 4, given the VM.

2. On reflection, would it be better to not upgrade the old kit (having it there in the background as my fallback if necessary), given that the current SAN solution is not supported in vSphere (That’s not to say it won’t work through). If I upgrade the VM’s/Hosts and anything goes wrong I fear I’ll have an unusable environment given the non-supported SAN.

3. Can I simply transfer the VM’s from the old setup to the new and upgrade the VM Tools and then hardware on each VM when on the new hosts? How would I actually accomplish moving the VM’s from one SAN to another?

4. Would I install the new hosts with evaluation licencing and once I have all of the data, etc transferred across close down the old hosts and transfer the licences?

I appreciate this is asking a lot from a newbie but I don’t have anyone else to bounce questions off and would be extremely grateful for any pointers the community can provide.

If my thinking is completely wrong and there is a better way to do this, again I'd be grateful for the advice.

Thanks again

Steven

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weinstein5
Immortal
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Welcome to the Forums - Since the old ESX hosts will not be running in the new environment why not use VMware Converter and just migrate the VMs to the new environment or something like FastSCP and copy the VMs to the vSphere environment since VI-3 VMs can run on vSphere the difference between the two methods is converter will give you the ability to upgrade the VMs while FastSCP you will have to manually upgrade the Vms and VMware tools -doing this you save time by not having to upgrade the old environment which might not work if the machines do not support vSphere, do not have to worry about support for the old SAN -

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theostler
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weinstein5,

thanks for the prompt and very helpful reply. Convertor seems the sensible way to go!!

One final question then. They have informed me they are running 3.02 Enterprise and want to upgrade to vSphere Enterprise. Can I install ESXi in the new boxes in full evaluation mode, do all of my stuff between the 2 hosts and then simply transfer the licences across from the old to the new systems (obviously reducing the feature set in so doing).

Thanks again. Your quick and helpful reply has made things a whole lot clearer for me.

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weinstein5
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If the old servers are going to be decommissioned there really is no need to upgrade them to vSphere - just build out the new environment with the new licensing, set uup converter point it at the VMs in the old environment and migrate the to the new environment - and if the concern is in regards to the licensing build the new environment with evaluation licenses and when the migration is done bring down the old environment - upgrade the vi-3 licenses to vsphere and apply them to the new environment -

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