Migrating VMs from ESXi 4.x to 5.5

[sarkmo]

I am in the process of performing a clean install of vSphere 5.5 on 3 new ESXi 5.5 hosts. We are currently running ESX 4.1 on 4 hosts. I will be installing the vCSA. After I configure the new environment, what is the best way to migrate the existing VMs from the 4.1 hosts to the new 5.5 hosts? Can anyone point me to the right documentation? Is it simply a matter of doing a live migration? Do the VMs need to be upgraded with the latest VMware tools, or is this done automatically when they are migrated?

[VRBitman · Accepted solution]

If I understand your question correctly, continue building the new 5.5 environment with your 3 hosts from scratch "ignoring" your old hosts. Once your new environment is up & running, connect the 4.1 hosts to your new vCenter Server and use vMotion to move the VMs while they're running to the new cluster (live migration with no downtime).

VMTools upgrades do not take place automatically during migrations.

Once your VMs are on the new hosts, update the tools as your normally would and you can then also upgrade the virtual hardware of your virtual machines.

Virtual HW upgrade is optional, though; if you don't have VMs that need the new features you can skip this last step and keep them as they are.

[hareshn]

Agree with VR,

Once vcenter is ready connect all host in the vcenter, after that use vmotion option to migrate vm from old host to new. after that you can upgrade vmware hardware and vmware tools

[ch1ta]

And if vMotion doesn’t work for you for some reason, utilize free migration tools (like Veeam Quick Migration or similar). The former is shipped in free version of VB&R and has proved its reliability for us many times.

Cheers.

[vThinkBeyondVM]

Agree with VR.

In addition to that, if you are using cluster features &  your older ESXi host CPU is different from new ESXi host (Intel vs Intel OR AMD vs AMD etc). Straightforward vMotion will not work. You will have to enable EVC on cluster. Refer:VMware KB: Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support

VMware Compatibility Guide: CPU Compatibility for VMware VMotion