vcenter 5.1 U3 "embedded" Windows --> upgraded to 6.0 u2 non-embedded, appliances?

[TedH256]

Been trying to find this from the documentation, but not seeing exactly what I'm looking for - hoping one of you just happen to know!

I need to get a vcenter system to vsphere 6.0 u2 with the appliance version of both vCenter and the PSC --  currently at 5.1 U1a with both vcenter and the SSO components running on a single windows server.

I know (or believe) that I have to upgrade to 5.1 U3 before I can upgrade to 6.0 - but what I am not sure about, is whether a 5.1 U3 windows can in fact be upgraded to a non-embedded PSC and vcenter?

I need the upgraded PSC to join an already existing vsphere SSO domain (the existing system is stand-alone).

So is the path:

1)upgrade in place to 5.1 U3, then

2)upgrade to embedded vcenter/sso appliance, then

3)install new non-embedded appliance that has been installed into the existing vsphere domain, and then

4)re-point the vcenter to the newly created SSO?

Tips/pointers/gotchas to be aware of are all appreciated!

[vHaridas]

Am not sure if you can migrate vCenter 5.1 to appliance 5.1. Also vCenter appliance 5.1 has limitations on number of hosts and VMs supported.

I would suggest you to upgrade Windows vCenter to 5.5

Using vCS to vCSA migrator, migrate Windows vCenter 5.5 to vCenter Appliance 5.5. Make sure you use the same build version for conversion to appliance.

Upgrade vCenter Appliance to  6 u2.

Move PSC to external server or repoint vCenter appliance to external PSC server.

VMware KB: Repointing the VMware vCenter Server 6.0 between External Platform Services Controllers w...

vSphere 6.0 Documentation Center

[kermic · Accepted solution]

I guess there still is no easy and way from the supported options to go from older Windows vCenter to newer Appliance via upgrade process (as we normally understand upgrades).

Most likely you will have to do a migration.

I did something similar here a few months ago - had a 5.1 Windows VC and needed to upgrade to 6.0 appliance. Only in my case the appliance was supposed to have an embedded PSC. Anyway, after reading lots of migration articles, I ended up using the inventory snapshot fling: InventorySnapshot‌ which did not do everything, however saved me quite a few hours of manual steps.

In case you decide to go the same road (which is most likely not the only option), the general steps might be:

1) Install a new appliance 6.0 running PSC

2) Install a new appliance 6.0 running vCenter1, add it to the SSO domain of PSC created in step 1)

3) Migrate the inventory objects from the old vCenter to new one

The inventory snapshot fling does not migrate / copy everything. AFAIR it can't do things like distributed switches and tags (I might be wrong on some of these so double check) however in my case I was more concerned with folder structures and for those it did save me a couple of hours. Don't remember now how I moved the customization specifications, however that was a scripted export / import kind of thing as well. I also used RVTools to create a inventory information snap before migration so that I could easily look up any objects in case they would get lost during migration, however I did not have to.

Depending on your infrastructure complexity and vCenter inventory objects in use, you will most likely have to do some additional research and work in order to move things to new vCenter. There are lots of posts and even ready scripts out there for vCenter migrations.

Hope this helps.

[TedH256]

Excellent answers both of them - I obviously have a ton to consider, but did not already know about either of these "flings". So, while they are not officially supported it seems they offer a path to what we want.

So now I just need to choose the path