Running DB for 5.5 and 6 in parallel on same SQL server

[FreddyFredFred]

I currently have a 2012 SQL server with my vcenter 5.5 DB and a windows vm running vcenter server.

For version 6, I plan to spin a new windows VM and install vcenter on there, do a little testing, then remove the hosts from vc 5.5 and add then to 6. The DB will be on the same SQL server as my current 5.5 DB.

Assuming I use a different DB name, can I use the same windows service account for both 5.5 and 6 and have both run in parallel? My only concern is that the installer for version 6 will do something to the login and change something so it points it to the new DB, thus breaking my currently working setup.

I'm using the instructions from Derek Seamans blog and comparing to the VMware docs. The docs talk about setting up some schemas but I don't recall doing that for 5.5, I think I just did the temp sysadmin thing (like the blog post) and I see my 5.5 install put some entries in the msdb database. This is what worries me with having version 6 on the same server... will it overwrite something in msdb and break my existing setup?

Thanks

[bradley4681]

it shouldn't be an issue if your using a new database name and the user has access to both DBs. You'd have to do a fresh install and not and upgrade, so you'll have to set everything up like its new once vCenter is up and installed. You can't really upgrade a current DB to a new DB name/location.

Just to be safe, shutdown your current vCenter server, make a backup of the current database, and leave the current vCenter off and do the install of the new vCenter to the new precreated DB.