vCenter 5.5 to VCSA 6.5 upgrade/migration (with SRM)

[MikeErter]

Hi vSphere Pros!  

Has anyone done or does anyone have any advice on upgrading a Windows vCenter Server 5.5 and vUM to vCenter Server Appliance 6.5? 

There is also Site Recover Manager in the environment (Two physical datacenters in different states, each with its own vCenter. SRM is used to protect one of the datacenters to the other datacenter which is (obviously) the recovery site).

VMware has an 'update sequence' published as a KB, but I am not certain if that applies to an upgrade scenario, in terms of the order you would perform the upgrades.

Thanks!

[BSheets]

I am working through this process right now. I will be doing the upgrade in the next couple weekends. My current plan is

Upgrade vCenter to 6.5

Upgrade ESXi to 6.5

Upgrade vSphere Replciation (NOT SRM) to 6.0 https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=21366...

Upgrade SRM to 6.0

Upgrade vShiled 5.5 to NSX https://pubs.vmware.com/NSX-62/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.nsx.upgrade.doc%2FGUID-8CB3066A-C434-41...

This is not a tested / confirmed method yet. Just my working plan, I will update with adjustments and the results of my upgrade.

[virtualosa]

This is really a problem, the order listed in the other answer is incorrect, the hosts have to be done last after everything. Review the order here:

Update sequence for vSphere 6.5 and its compatible VMware products (2147289) | VMware KB

Also, vCenter 6.5 is only compatible with SRM 6.5, so looks like we'll have no SRM until we get it to that point. I'm in the same boat as you, but my question now is if we'll even be able to upgrade SRM to 6.0 (before upgrading that to 6.5) while running vCenter 6.5 since they're not compatible.

See the compatibility here: VMware Product Interoperability Matrices

Let me know what all you've found so far...

[battybishop]

As virtualosa has said the previous response from BSheetsis wrong it is critical that you check the compatibility matrix and refer to the update sequence guide from VMware. SRM 6.5 will only work on vCenter 6.5 and vCenter 6.5 only supports SRM 6.5 !

[RamseyVL]

How are you getting on Mike? I am planning to do pretty much the same thing with the exception of SRM, I only have VR, VRO AND VCOPS to worry about. I am trying to use the Migration Assistant that is embedded in the VCSA ISO but its failing on a bunch of prechecks pertaining to Database errors and Certificate errors. Logged a call with VMware but its going no where to be honest. Have you tried using the Migration Assistant?