Upgrade/Migrate vCenter 2.5 to 4 on different server

[Box293]

I've been reading the vSphere Upgrade Guide. In particular on page 49 the heading "Upgrading to vCenter Server on a Different Machine and Keeping the Existing Database" seems to match what we are wanting to do.

We have a physical vCenter 2.5u4 with local 2005 SQL and we want to migrate to vCenter 4 on a virtual machine with 2008 x64 with local 2008 SQL.

Some questions I have:

Q1: What happens to all the ESX hosts 3.5u4? Are they automatically pointed to the new FQDN of the new destination server? Are they members of the same cluster .....

Am I looking at basically the same thing except for: a) I am now on vCenter 4; b) My vCenter server name is now different and all HOSTS know about this change.

Q2: What happens to all the Virtual Machines? Are they members of the same clusters / resource pools etc.

Basically Q1 & 2 are the same, the guide just doesn't seem to explain what happens after the upgrade/migrate process as clearly as I would like.

Q3: At what time is it "safe" to uninstall vCenter from the SOURCE server?

VCP3 32846

VSP4 VML-306798

[admin · Accepted solution]

All the hosts reconnection and cluster reconfiguration will happen automatically. You do not have to do anything manually after the migration.You have to make sure that users and groups that legacy VC uses is available on the new setup also.

I think it will be a good idea to un-install legacy VC once vCenter 4.0 is up and running with all the hosts and clusters properly reconfigured.

[Box293]

Excellent, thanks for clarifying that. Am going to do some tests later but sounds pretty straight forward.

VCP3 32846

VSP4 VML-306798

[warax]

Dear All,

Please give me step by step migrate vCenter 2.5 to 4 on different server

Thanks for all your answer,

Best Regards,

Aris