esxi server upgrade for 5.5 to 6.5 appliance all or one

[jprovine7]

Is it possible to migrate you virtual servers from a esxi host which is 5.5 to a esxi host that is 6.5 while upgrading the 5.5 to 6.5?

[jprovine7]

Without turning them off first

[daphnissov]

Yes, you can migrate VMs using vMotion from ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 6.5 provided they are controlled by the same vCenter Server and you're licensed for vMotion.

[sjesse]

If you upgrade vcenter, and then a few hosts to 6.5, yes this will work as long as you using the same type of network switches. If you have standard switches on the 5.5 host and a distrubted switch on the 6.5 host the vmotion will fail, complaining about not being able to change network labels. IF that happens you need to add standard switches to the 6.5 hosts using the same portgroup labels then you can transfer them. I just did this a few days ago.

[jprovine7]

even on the cluster where evc mode is not turned on

[jprovine7]

I went ahead and put a ticket in and they sent me this kb article , that say you need to be in evc mode

• https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003212

[jprovine7]

I am planning on doing an upgrade of one cluster, where evc mode is turned on and all the hosts are on a distributed switch no standard switches anywhere. I would assume that the update manages will upgrade the current install from 5.5 to 6.5 using the baseline I created and attached and migrate all the previous settings