Esxi 5.1 to 6.7 - migrating VMs to new enviroment

[Mixadm]

Hi everybody,

Probably this question has been addressed before with different settings and deployment contexts. However, since this is my first time putting hands on more technical esxi related issues I decided to ask for your help.

On a IBM X3650 M4 7915 it has been set up the following enviroment: 

- 1 x Esxi 5.1 host with 2 VMs (Windows Server 2012 Standard). 

- Everyting is managed through VSphere v 5.1.0

My goal is:

- to install Esxi 6.7 (supported by the hardware) - reading through similar posts I have made it clear that its preferable to opt for a clean instalation rather than upgrade to 6.5 and then to 6.7.

- Deploy two VMs with Windows Server 2019.

- Migrate all services under the OLD VMs to the newly created VMs.

There's no VCenter installed.

Could someone give some suggestions on how do I go about it please?

Many thannks

[e_espinel]

Hello.
I suggest you to backup the 2 VMs with Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition (Free), for the Veeam backup server you can use a PC or Laptop (8GB o more in RAM)  with enough disk space (even use an external USB disk).

The backup would be performed as a physical machine with the IP, user and password of the 2 VMs.

The restore would be done on ESXi 6.7 with the instant recovery option from the Veeam backup server.

Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition

https://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html

Physical to Virtual Migration with Veeam

https://community.veeam.com/vug-hong-kong-and-macau-81/physical-to-virtual-migration-with-veeam-2166