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,

[schepp]

As I said I did the same thing today.

I installed a new windows 2008 R2 Server, installed a MS SQL 2008 R2 Server on it and created a blank database.

Then I created a 64 Bit DSN for the vCenter and a 32 Bit DSN for the Update Manager (still needs a 32 Bit DSN ).

After that I installed the vCenter Server, the Update Manager, etc. and removed the ESX hosts from the old vCenter and added them to the new one. Licenses are transfered automaticly, you only need to remove them from the old vCenter afterwards.

The migration of the ESX hosts is done in a few minutes without any interuption for the users.

Regards

[DSTAVERT]

No matter what I am going to do I always practice. Even things I have done dozens of times. Things change over time and from version to version.  Nothing I hate worse than being half way through a process needing to make a decision and not understanding the consequences of the choices. If you don't have a test lab I would get one. Your test lab can be a simple as VMware Workstation to encapsulate a test scenario and a few hosts, to a replica of your existing infrastructure.  Workstation is probably something you should have anyway. Incredibly easy to create couple of ESX(i) hosts and a vCenter server environment and go through the steps.