move to the VMware5

[homermg]

Hi all,

I'm just planning to move our infrastructure from VMware 4 ESX and ESXi to the VMware5.

1. My plan is just install a new VMware Center 5, a new VMware Host 5 and a new Storage.

2. The next Step were to use vmotion and storage motion to move the guest's from ESX4 to the new ESXi5 Host and to the new storage.

3. Than reinstall the empty ESX4 host with Vmware5 and so on till all Host an on VMware 5

I don't want to upgarde the VMwareCenter because my Database seem to be corrupt, because of the size of it, they are lots of wrong entries. and lots of people write it is better way to reinstall the host than to upgrade them. My old storage will be replaced with the new one, so i will switch off the old storage aftre i have all the data on the new one.

and one of the important things why we are would like to go on VMware 5 is the volume support of 64TB(RAW). So i want to install a WIn2008 32bit on the new host and install a raw device with GPT table on this guest with 10 TB volume size.

What do you thing guys about it? do you see any wrong thoughts? or you have any suggestions for me?

Thanks

[aravinds3107]

I don't want to upgarde the VMwareCenter because my Database seem to be corrupt,

At a first point you need to upgrade the vCenter server to 5. You wont be able to manage the ESXi 5.x host using vcenter 4.1, Check Interoperability Matrix

Also refer upgrade guide http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-upgrade...

[weinstein5]

I have moved the discussion to a more appropriate thread

[homermg]

no i don't want to upgrade the vmCenter, I just want to install a new Vm Center 5 and connect my old and new hosts with it

[weinstein5]

Check the upgrade guide - that is one of the upgrade scenarios described in the guide - 

[aravinds3107]

Yes it is possible, check the upgrade guide and Migrating vCenter Server to a different host machine

[homermg]

Hi all

i think i missunderstood me

I don't want to migrate vm center and slq database

I want just to create a new infrastructure, just instal a new VMWARE ESXi 5 Host + new Windows 2008 64bit on it and  a new VMWarecenter with new database.

Next step is to add the one old esx 4 host to the new vmwarecenter 5 and vmotion all the guest to the new esxi5 host. After that do a clean reinstal of the esx4 to esxi5. and this way with all the host.

So there is not really a migration, except the host where i can't do the vmotion because of cpu compatibility in this case i would try an upgrade to esxi5.

[dhawlu]

Hi,

For moving to vSphere5 you can take the following steps.

1. install new vCenter server on VM or Physical machine (Since you dnt want to upgrade vCenter).

2. Install ESXi 5 on new servers.

3. Create new Cluster of ESXi servers on new vCenter server.

4. Remove ESXi servers from old vCenter server and add it in the new VC. (Afcourse u need to create seperate cluster for ESXi4 servers)

5. Present the same LUN which is mapped to ESXi4 server to ESXi 5 servers.

6. Powerdown the Virtual machine from Old ESXi server and migrate to New ESXi server.( You need to repeat this for VMs which needs to be migrate)

7. Present the new LUN to ESXi 5 servers and sVmotion the VMs (to be at the saferside i am suggesting to first move the VMs on ESXi 5 with old storage).

7. Test the 1st VM after migrating from old servers to new.

8. After all the VMs are migrated upgrade the VMFS from VMFS3 to VMFS5 (This does not required downtime)

9. Remove the old ESXi server from Cluster and resuse for some other purpose if you want to.

I hope the above steps will help you in migration.

Other VMware experts please correct me if i have missed any steps.

Cheers,

D.D.