VMware Cloud Community
alvinswim
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Upgrading to Clean install vSphere by P2Ving Old Vcenter

I've been searching around the forum, and I haven't found any discussion about this.. yet.

I am also not sure if this discussion should be in this forum or a Vmware converter forum.. But I'd like to pose these questions to you all anyway.

Scenario:

We are on ESX 3.5u3 right now, with 22 Hosts and 1 vCenter server(physical). We have chosen to go the Clean Install route for the whole infrastructure. Along with Creating the new vCenter server as a VM on a standalone ESXi 4 host.

Because we are short on hardware, we will be following this course of action.

1. P2V Current vCenter Server to a VM, so that we can still have vCenter functionality during the upgrade/rebuild process

2. Rebuild the Old vCenter Server as an ESXi 4 host.

3. Build the new vCenter 4 server as a VM with Win2k8R2, etc etc., and create a new Database as well

4. Then Rebuild each of our ESX 3.5u3 Hosts 2 at a time as ESX 4u1 or whatever update is the latest.

5. Once all the hosts are rebuilt as ESX 4 we will then shut down the old vCenter 2.5 server VM and decommission it along with the old Database.

5. Then of course we'll convert the VM hardware on each of our hosts one by one.

This is what i gather as a pretty straight forward clean rebuild of the environment.

The questions I have are pretty simple, but I want to get as much input as possible:

1. Will the vCenter Server P2V process freak vCenter out when we restart as a VM?

2. Could I use Vmware converter on the vCenter Server to convert itself to a VM and not create any problems when restarting as a VM?

Any comments are much appreciated.

thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
chilow
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Yes...just point vconverter to an ESX server, provide root/password, choose datastore, and go.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
chilow
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

I did the same process about a month ago. After doing a P2V of the vCenter server it had to reboot a few times to install the VMware tools and other drivers. I would....

Get a good save from the vCenter server.

Shutdown the vCenter services and set them to manual start.

Reboot the server and boot off of the vconverter CD. Follow the prompts..resize the disk if required.

After the convert is done power on the VM and load VMware tools/drivers...reboot a few more times since it is windows.

Make sure to remove any virtual hardware that is not required.

Start the vCenter services and set them to auto start.

-C

alvinswim
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

ah, Cold P2V as opposed to hot/online P2V.

Question is can the Vmware converter CD connect to the ESX Cluster's datastore and put and register a vm on the cluster with the vCenter server down?

Reply
0 Kudos
chilow
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Yes...just point vconverter to an ESX server, provide root/password, choose datastore, and go.

Reply
0 Kudos
alvinswim
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Great, I'm gonna give it a shot and see how that goes. Thanks.. Will update when complete

Reply
0 Kudos
DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

You might want to go through http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere-migration-prerequisites-checklist.pdf and make sure your hardware is all on the Hardware Compatibility List before you begin.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
Reply
0 Kudos
alvinswim
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Yea our stuff is ok, we have M600 blades

Reply
0 Kudos
alvinswim
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

The Cold clone went well.

thanks for the info

Reply
0 Kudos
chilow
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

I am glad things went well.

Reply
0 Kudos