Vcenter upgrade from 5.1 to 6

[Manky]

Hi,

Got a request from client to upgrade vsphere environment from 5.1 to 6. Upgrade include below.

Please suggest what is the best practice for upgrade. Should i upgrade vcenter first and then vclient , update manager, host. What things need to be checked/backed up before upgrade.

1. Vcenter

2. Vclient

3. Update Manager

4. Host

Thanks in advance.

Manky

[rcporto · Accepted solution]

Your upgrade order look OK and I recommend you take a look at these KB articles for some best practices:

VMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.0 best practices

VMware KB: Best practices to install or upgrade to VMware ESXi 6.0

If you have any additional VMware products installed, take a look here for update sequence: VMware KB: Update sequence for vSphere 6.0 and its compatible VMware products

[SavkoorSuhas]

The upgrade would be:

1. SSO first to PSC. In 5.1 we have SSO which upgrades to PSC node in 6.0

2. Then the vCenter 5.1 node to 6.0 management server node

3. Then the Update Manager

4. Finally the ESXi host.

The client will prompt for update during login, so that can be done anytime.

Upgrade can be done with Embedded PSC or External PSC.

vCenter 5.1 Simple Install - Embedded PSC is a straightforward upgrade.

vCenter 5.1 Simple Install - External PSC, requires the 5.1 SSO to be installed on a different machine, re-point the vCenter components to the new SSO. Perform the upgrade to PSC first and then vCenter and finally discard the old 5.1 SSO on the vCenter machine.

vCenter 5.1 Custom Install - External PSC would be again to upgrade SSO node first and then the vCenter node.

Suhas

[Manky]

Thanks Richard.....shared links are helpful. will follow and share the result very soon. Appreciate the help.

[Manky]

Hi Suhas.....may be this coming weekend the activity will be carried out for upgrade. Will definitely need some expert advise. Thanks for support