v-Motion in a upgrade

[juanspt]

Hello,

I have a new vcenter server 6(windows), I've added a host esxi 6.0 updated.

Also I have a vcenter 5.5 with two esxi 5.5 with production vms.

I want to add this two 5.5 host to the vcenter 6, I understand this is no problem.

My question is can I move machines between 5.5 hosts to 6.0 host with no power off, with v-motion?

I know for v-motion you have to have the correct licence. We have standard licence for 6.0 vcenter and hosts. And 5.5 hosts have 5.5 licence. I supose I have to change the licence to 6.0 in the hosts to can do v-motion? Or conserve 5.5 licence?

The idea is when I move all machine from one 5.5 host to upgrade this host to 6.0, but in this interval I don't know what is the correct license procediment.

Thanks,

BR,

Juan

[AdrianTT]

Hi Juanspt,

If you upgrade a host in an existing cluster from ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.0 you can vMotion the VM from a ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.0 host; the underlying requirement for the vMotion to succeed is that the CPU architecture is the same for the hosts in the cluster or you have enabled Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) for the cluster at a compatible level for all hosts. There is no need to power off the VMs to vMotion them in this scenario.

In terms of the licencing; as long as each host has a vSphere Standard or above licence assigned this should work without issue. You can upgrade your licences on the my VMWare portal, install the new vSphere 6 licences, have them both in coexistence during the upgrade and assign them and then remove the vSphere 5 licences after the upgrade has been completed or assign evaluation licences whilst you migrate.

Kind regards,

Adrian

[juanspt]

Thank you Adrian, and I suposo I have no problem when I connect the host ESXi 5.5 to new Vcenter 6?

My idea is: disconnet hosts 5.5 from Vcenter 5.5, and then connect to the new Vcenter6. Also add to the cluster with existing esxi 6. The proccesor is the same.

Thanks,

BR,

[AdrianTT]

Hi Juan,

There is no problem with connecting the ESXi 5.5 to the new vCenter; you should be able to Disconnect your ESXi 5.5 hosts from the current vCenter, connect them to the new vCenter, vMotion the machines to the ESXi 6 host. If you are planning to upgrade your hosts to ESXi 6 all you need to do is place the ESXi 5.5 host into maintenance, upgrade it to ESXi 6, configure as required and then remove the host from Maintenance Mode and move the workloads back.

Kind regards,

Adrian

[juanspt]

Thank you so much!