In this document we will try to see how to upgrade our vCenter server to the vSphere version 5, We will see all the possible ways to get to this new version, all this will logically depend on the environment we have; We can directly upgrade all the modules on the same server or migrate everything to a new server.

Apart from meeting all the requirements we saw when performing a new installation, we will be able to perform an 'in place' upgrade’ on the same server if its OS. is x64 and is vCenter 4.x. If we do not comply with this, we must migrate our entire vCenter environment to a new server using the VMware Data Migration Tool; for this we must at least have VMware vCenter Server 2.5 Update 6 (this is valid for migrating vCenter from x86 to x64), with this we will be able to export the entire family of components that make up our vCenter (if the databases are local and we use SQL Express, the databases will be backed up automatically and restored later), if the DB resides on a DB server we will upgrade it during installation. If we use Linked Mode, during the installation will remove us from the group, will update vCenter and afterwards we can join again

For security reasons, we will make backups of the databases we have (vCenter Server, vCenter Update Manager and/or, vCenter Orchestrator). And finally we will also copy the certificates that we have on the vCenter server in '%allusersprofile%Application DataVMwareVMware VirtualCenter'.

In-place update of VMware vCenter 5,

In this part of the document we will see the upgrade to vCenter 5 on the server itself, for this we must have vCenter 4.x on a 64-bit architecture and on a supported OS. for vCenter 5 (and a supported database server!), by following the previous steps as a backup we can start the upgrade.

Since it is an installation on the same vCenter server, It will detect that an installation already exists and will perform an upgrade to vCenter Server version 5.0, “Next”,

We will continue the vCenter installation wizard as usual, We will check that certain options will not be configurable, such as where it gets the connection to the vCenter database,

Some extensions will not be compatible when performing this VMware vCenter upgrade 5, so we will need to find/update them later,

Previously, it detected our database connection via DSN, and now it shows that the vCenter database can be upgraded, so we will need to check it “Upgrade existing vCenter Server database” & “I have taken a backup of the existing vCenter Server database and SSL certificates…” And we continue with the upgrade.

It tells us if we want the vCenter agent on the hosts to be updated automatically or manually, And we continue with the rest of the wizard as if it were the installation we saw in the installation document (http://www.bujarra.com/?p=6662).

“Install” To proceed with the local vCenter upgrade,

…We wait a few minutes while it updates the binaries, vCenter configuration and database…

And that's it, we should now continue with the update of the rest of the components of our vCenter environment, in this document we also have Update Manager.

In-place update of the remaining vCenter components,

We continue with the local vCenter upgrade on the server itself, once upgraded to vCenter 5.0 we continue with the rest of the components, in this example we will see the upgrade to VMware vCenter Update Manager 5.

At the beginning of the installation it will already detect that we have an older version of vSphere Update Manager installed on the local computer and that it will update it to the version 5.0, We continue the assistant,

We check if we want it to delete the host upgrade files we have, 'Delete the old host upgrade files from the repository'” And if we want to download the updates immediately “Download updates from default sources immediately after installation”. “Next”,

We will check that certain options will not allow us to configure things like where to get the connection to the Update Manager database,

Previously it detected our connection to the DB using the DSN and now it shows us that the VMware Update Manager DB can be updated, so we will need to check it “Yes, I want to upgrade my Update Manager database” & “I have taken a backup of the existing Update Manager database” And we continue with the upgrade.

“Install” to start the in-place upgrade of VMware Update Manager,

…

List, we will need to continue with the rest of the components and some post-update steps which we will find at the end of this document.

Migrating to VMware vCenter 5 on another server,

In this part of the document, we will look at the migration of a VMware vCenter server 4.0 of 32-bit (which would be applicable to any migration from vCenter 2.5 Update 6) to a new one of 64 Bit. Lo primero de todo será detener los servicios de vCenter Server y los componentes que tengamos (en el caso de este documento, convive junto a vCenter Update Manager).

Será opcional llevarse la BD del Inventario de vSphere, si queremos migrarla haremos un backup de ella ejecutando en línea de comandos ‘backup.bat -file ARCHIVO’ en %ProgramFiles%VMwareInfrastructureInventory Servicesscripts’ y para restaurarla bastará con ejecutar ‘restore -backup ARCHIVO’ en el mismo directorio pero ya en el servidor nuevo de vCenter 5.

En el DVD de VMware vCenter 5, en la carpeta ‘datamigration’ encontraremos un ZIP que debemos descomprimir, es la herramienta Data Migration Tool, con ella podremos migrar todo nuestro entorno vCenter del servidor local a un nuevo servidor actualizando al mismo tiempo a vCenter 5. Esta herramienta nos migrará todos los componentes que tengamos instalados en el equipo donde lo ejecutemos (vCenter Server, vCenter Update Manager y/o vCenter Orchestrator) e incluso si disponemos de SQL Express instalado en el propio equipo nos llevará las bases de datos, eso sí a la hora de restaurar deberíamos indicar a la hora de instalación que usaremos SQL Express igualmente. GOOD, para realizar una copia de seguridad de nuestro viejo vCenter ejecutaremos por línea de comandos en la carpeta ‘datamigration’ ‘backup.bat’ y esperaremos mientras nos guarda toda la información en dicha carpeta.

Ok, pasados unos minutos tendremos listo el backup, ahora debemos mover esta carpeta al servidor que vayamos a utilizar como nuevo vCenter 5.0.

GOOD, now on the new server (en mi caso un Windows 2008 R2) con la carpeta datamigration copiada podremos realizar la instalación de vCenter 5.0 a partir de los datos que tenemos recolectados, ejecutamos en línea de comandos ‘install.bat’. Si la BD de vCenter se encuentra almacenada en un servidor de BD, previamente deberemos crear el DSN de x64 contra la BD, lo mismo con el resto de componentes (en mi caso además crearé un DSN x32 para la BD de Update Manager).

Comenzará la instalación VMware vCenter Server 5 que deberemos continuar el asistente de forma normal,

Deberemos tener en cuenta la opción de BD, if we previously had SQL Express, we need to specify the same now so that the database is restored (if applicable), if we have the database hosted on a database server we will indicate the DSN that we created before running the installation (we will confirm that we have backed up the database and that we are going to update it),

… the upgrade to vCenter will continue automatically 5 and its database…

Similarly, it will continue with all the components that we had in the previous vCenter installation, in this case, having Update Manager, it will also install it and update its database, “Following” to start the Update Manager upgrade wizard,

Just like in vCenter, we must indicate where the database is located, whether in SQL Express or on a network server, in the first case, it will restore the backup made previously and update it; in the second case, it will directly update it to use VMware vSphere Update Manager,

And that's it, wait for the upgrade to finish, we will check that there are no errors and that all components were updated correctly.

Post upgrade,

Once the update process is completed, we will check the database update LOG '%temp%VCDatabaseUpgrade.log'’ and the restoration in 'datamigrationlogsrestore.log'. Additionally, we will review and update the vCenter server name in the 'extension.xml' file’ de cada plugin que encontremos en los subdirectorios ‘%ProgramFiles%VMwareInfrastructureVirtualCenter Serverextensions*’. Si teníamos servidor de licencias, lo instalaremos de nuevo con la licencia anterior e indicaremos en vCenter su nueva dirección. Para acabar actualizaremos nuestros clientes de vSphere 5 o utilizaremos vSphere Web Client para conectarnos!