Piecemeal migration from 5.5 to 6.0 using new hardware and fresh install.

[JeffD201110141]

I have an existing 5.5 installation and am working towards performing a clean install of 6.0 onto a new SAN.  While the SAN is new, the hosts are not (though I do have one unused host).  Ideally what I'd like to do is the following:

a) Install 6.0 onto a VM on the new SAN and unused host (we'll call it host #1) which also has visibility of the 5.5 SAN.

b) Access the 5.5 datastore from 6.0 and copy the VM's from host #2 to the new SAN/host #1 and upgrade them.

c) With host #2 no longer in use, upgrade the ESXi to 6.0 and join it to the new vCenter.

d) Access the 5.5 datastore from 6.0 and copy the VM's from host #3 to the new SAN/host #2 and upgrade them.

e) Repeat this process until all VM and hosts have been upgraded.

My concerns are this:

1) Will this approach work?  And if not, what is the path of least resistance?  I really want to avoid "upgrading" or even importing my old vCenter database so I can have a completely clean install.

2) Can the two vCenters both access the same datastore without issue, including the vCenter 6.0 install being able to access/copy without upgrading the datastore?

3) Are there any real gotchas when upgrading the 5.5 VM's once I've copied them over and imported them into 6.0?  Or is it just a matter of booting up, upgrading the tools, and letting the drivers refresh?

Thanks in advance!

[vHaridas]

You can do as below for easy migration -

1. Install new vCenter 6.0 on new Server.
2. Install ESXi 6 on Host#1 and add it to vCenter 6.
3. Disconnect Host#1, Host#2 or any other remaining host from old vCenter and add it to vCenter 6.
   1. There will not be any downtime in this process. Disable HA if Hosts are in HA cluster in old vCenter.
   2. If you have standard switchs then no other extra steps are needed.
   3. if you are using dvswitch in old vCenter, then first you need to migrate Host and VMs from dvswitch to standard switch before you perform step#3.
4. Once you have all Hosts connected in new vCenter, Migrate VMs from 5.5 host to esxi 6 Host and perform upgrade using update manager.
5. Perform this steps for all Host until you upgrade all Hosts.