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GWOD1
Contributor
Contributor

vShpere 4.1 to 5.1 upgrade - Advice?

Hi;

We are migrating from vSphere 4.1 U3 to 5.1. (We are only going to 5.1 due to the model/age of our Host HW)

We have two production ESXi Hosts in a Datacenter/Cluster on a physical vCenter 4.1 server, with only 10 server VMs. (These 10 VM's are

accessed by about 5000 local users)

I have a Third ESXi host that I installed v5.1 on, and set up vCenter 5.1 on a VM using the Simple install.

I setup the V5 Datacentre/Cluster and vDist Sw, and I feel I'm at the point where I can migrate.

(All ESXi boxes have 6 NICs and 4 FC HBA's.  Two NICs on each are for VMkernel, and the other 4 are uplinks to the V4.1 vDist switch.)

The hosts are such that they can handle the load as each Host is upgraded and the VMs vMotioned back and forth.

I don't really have a way to test the migration, and I'm wondering how best to move the Hosts from the old vCenter 4.1 to the new

vCenter 5.1.    VMFS version would be upgraded later.

There's no problem with segmentation as they are on the same network and VLAN.

Any words of advice?

Thanks.

Gregg

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sakthivelramali
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi

1. To remove the ESXi/ESX host from vCenter Server:

    Click Inventory in the navigation bar, expand the Inventory as needed, and click the appropriate managed host.

    Right-click the managed host icon in the inventory panel and choose Disconnect (wait for the task to complete).

    Right-click the managed host icon in the Inventory panel and choose Remove.

    Click Yes to confirm that you want to remove the managed host and all its associated virtual machines.

2. To add the ESXi/ESX host to a new vCenter Server:

    Connect the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client to the new vCenter Server.

    Click Inventory in the navigation bar.

    Expand the Inventory as needed, and click the appropriate datacenter or cluster.

    Click File > New > Add Host.

    In the first page of the Add Host wizard, enter the name or IP address of the managed host in the Host name field.

    Enter the username and password for a user account that has administrative privileges on the selected managed host.

    Click Next.

Thanks

Sakthivel

Thanks Sakthivel R
admin
Immortal
Immortal

1. Firstly backup your vcenter database followed by backing up your vcenter SSL keys C:programdataVMwareVMware VirtualCenterSSL. Log into your vCenter server as the service account that is running the vCenter services. Either burn or mount the vCenter 5 iso image to the DVD drive of your vCenter server. It will either auto start or if you have auto start disabled you can browse the DVD and double click autostart.exe. First thing we are going to do is test our current ESXi servers to see if the VPX agent is ready to be upgraded. NOTE: In vSphere 5, there is no more ESX servers, so you must plan to re-install your hosts to ESXi.


vcenter 5

2. Select vCenter Host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker and click Install. Click Next at the Welcome screen.


vcenter 5

3. The wizard will pick up your existing DSN, enter in the username and password to authenticate to your database. Alternatively you can select Use Windows Credentials if the user you are logged in with has access to your database, or Use Virtual Center Credentials. Click Next.


vcenter 5

4. Select Custom Mode. Click Next.


vcenter 5

5. Select your hosts and click Next.


vcenter 5

6. Click Run precheck and when finished click Next.


vcenter 5

7. As you can see my host has passed, you can also click on View Report if you wish. Click Next.


vcenter 5

8. The Pre-Upgrade Checker has now complete, click Finish.


vcenter 5

9. Click on vCenter Server and click install to being the vCenter 5 installation wizard.


vcenter 5

10. Select your language and click Ok.


vcenter 5

11. The wizard picks up that you have a previous version of vCenter and that an upgrade to vCenter 5 will take place. Click Next.


vcenter 5

12. Click Next to the End-User Patent Agreement.


vcenter 5

13. Agree to the license agreement and click Next.


vcenter 5

14. Enter in your username and organization followed by your license key, or leave empty to install in evaluation mode. Click Next.


vcenter 5

15. Click Yes if you are continuing in evaluation mode or click no and enter in your vcenter 5 license key.


vcenter 5

16. Your preivous DSN is found, click Next.


vcenter 5

17. Make sure you take a backup of your existing database before upgrading. Also backup your SSL keys. Select Upgrade and click I have taken a backup. Click Next.


vcenter 5

18. You can select Automatic or Manual here, I select Automatic to have vCenter upgrade my vCenter Agent on each host automatically. Click Next.


vcenter 5

19. Enter in your password for the vCenter Service and enter in your FQDN for your vCenter Server. Click Next.


vcenter 5

20. Select your installation Directories for vCenter 5 and click Next.


vcenter 5

21. Check your port settings for conflicts, most of these ports are from your existing vCenter 4. Click Next.


vcenter 5

22. Check the Inventory Service Ports for conflicts. Click Next.


vcenter 5

23. Select the Inventory Size that corresponds to your environment. Click Next.


vcenter 5

24. If you power on more than 2000 virtual machines simultaneously then select this box, otherwise click Install.


vcenter 5

25. The vCenter 5 upgrade begins.


vcenter 5

26. Click Finish.


vcenter 5

27. Back at the welcome screen, install the vSphere Client. This will upgrade your existing client. The installation is very basic so I won’t provide any screen shots. Once the new vSphere Client is installed, double click it to launch it. Enter in your vCenter ip address or hostname followed by your username/password or you can tick the box to use your current Windows session credentials.


vcenter 5

28. Select Install this certificate… and then click Ignore.


vcenter 5

29. You are now logged into your new vCenter 5 Server.


vcenter 5
Omega201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi!

From what I understand, you should be able to do eject the nodes from the 4.1 cluster and add it to the new vCenter server. Out of curosity, any specific reason why you are using Distributed switch.

** If you found this note/reply useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" ** Rehman Memon follow me on twitter @RehmanMemon
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

On older clusters we haven’t started migration to vDS yet.One big downside of vSwitch to vDS switch is that you cannot do vMotion from vSwitch to vDS even though you would name the port groups identically.

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GWOD1
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry, just assumed that vDist was the way to go - I have had no issues using it.  Can you tell me why it shouldn't be used?

Thanks.

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Omega201110141
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi!

No issues at all, it "all depends" Smiley Happy , since you have only 3 hosts, I thought it would not be necessary unless you are using advance networking features and potentially could have saved you on licensing, as DV switch is part of enterprise plus.

** If you found this note/reply useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" ** Rehman Memon follow me on twitter @RehmanMemon
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GWOD1
Contributor
Contributor

Ok thanks - We're part of a government organization, so Licencing is taken care of.   They negotiated Enterprise Plus.

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