Migrate or build new Vcenter

[VMmikey]

I have an upgrade question. Now that Vcenter is x64, I'll need to build a new Vcenter. The current VC's DB is on oracle. Does anyone have instructions on upgrading vcenter with a remote oracle db? Or does it make sense to just start with a fresh DB? If so, what data would I lose? My understanding is only alerts and events and the rest of the configs/settings would come back over when I attach the new VC to the esx hosts. Is this correct?

Thank you,

[AntonVZhbankov]

1) Make DB backup

2) Upgrade!

That worked for me

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MCSA, MCTS Hyper-V, VCP 3/4, VMware vExpert

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[bsti]

In my case, I had to build a new VC Server on a totally different physical server. I was able to backup my database on the old server, restore the database backup on the new server, then install VC. During the install, it gives you the option of either creating a new database or using an existing one (leaving the data intact). That worked for me.

[VMmikey]

I can't just upgrade. I have to build a new VC since the current vcenter machine is 32bit. This is step 1 for me. What else do I have to watch out for?

[Troy_Clavell]

if you are going from a 2.5 instance to a 4.x instance, make sure you copy the SSL directory off the old vCenter Host

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1014314

As stated above, you should just make a backup of your DB and use then connect back to it from the new vCenter Server install.

[VMmikey]

Interesting. If I did that, will it upgrade the DB too? thanks,

[Troy_Clavell]

it will upgrade the schema, but not the build.

[VMmikey]

Do I need to hold on to the old database? We're not doing DRS/HA yet, and frankly we're barely making use of alarms and events at this point. I was wondering if it would make more sense to create a new database in sql or something.

[bsti]

That's up to you. The main thing I was concerned about keeping was performance data. If you don't have a lot of data you want to save, then making a new DB makes sense.

[Troy_Clavell]

there is no technical reason why you need to use the existing DB, you can create new one. The below may help getting some information exported out of your old instance and into the new, even if using a new DB

http://technodrone.blogspot.com/2010/01/vcenter-powercli-migration-script.html

[VMmikey]

Do you know exactly what I'd lose if I were to just use a new database?

Thank you,

[Troy_Clavell]

At a high level, historical data. Below is a deep dive on what is actually stored in the vCenter DB

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/81313

[VMmikey]

When i disconnect a host from 4.0 vcenter so that I can connect it to a newly created 4.1 vcenter, do the VMs also get disconnected? My intention is to leave them powered on, and after the host gets connected to the new 4.1 vcenter (with couple of 4.1 hosts), vmotion them off (after I've configured the vmotion settings, etc). Then, upgrade the migrated host. Then, i'd upgrade the VMs to the latest version of vmware tools.Will vmotion still work in this case?

Thanks,

[bulletprooffool]

No.

You can disconnect an ESX host from the VC, then add it to the new VC, withou shutting down the ESX host, oir the VMs.

VMs will continue to operate, though you will just lose HA / DRS for the failover period - end users will not see any difference.

I'd build the new Database and start afresh as it sounds as though you do not have much to lose on the old VC - and to be honest I am a big fan of a fresh clean environment once in a while.

Good luck

[schepp]

I'm just in the middle of a migration to a fresh vCenter because we wanted to renew the hardware and use the latest software (win 2k8 R2 SP1, MS SQL 2k8 R2)

The old database started as MS SQL 2003 Express and was migrated several times, lately to a SQL 2008 Server, so I prefered a fresh install instead of a migration this time.

I just installed a second vCenter Server, disconnected the hosts from the old one and connected them to the new server. Everything went fine and without any downtime.

No late night weekend migration necessary. Thanks VMware

Regards

[VMmikey]

Will Vmotion of VMs still work even though the host versions will be different if I connect the 4.0 host to a 4.1 cluster? I'll need to vmotion them over to esxi 4.1, so that I can upgrade the 4.0 to 4.1. Then, I can upgrade VMs to the latest vmware tools, etc. I cannot bring them down all at the same time. I can only upgrade them one at a time.

Thanks,

[schepp]

yes, vMotion between different ESX(i) versions is possible.

Regards

[VMmikey]

Question on storage. I'll probably need to create the new Vcenter on the existing 4.0 datacenter, so that I can plug into the same datastores as the existing hosts and VMs. This way I'll be able to vmotion them off. If so, i'll need to upgrade vmware tools on vcenter at some point, right?

Or is there a better way to go about this?

Thank you,

[schepp]

? The vCenter doesn't need access to the storage. Only the ESX hosts do, but since you don't change anything on the ESX hosts you don't need to worry about that.

Regards

[VMmikey]

Sounds good. If i create the new 64bit vcenter instance, I'll be working inside of a new datacenter and joining the hosts to it. Any gotchas that you can think of?

Thanks for your responses!