migration VMs from ESXi 6.0 to Esxi 7.0

[GeorgeAnton]

Hi to All

We have 3x VMWare ESXi host  in a Cluster Envronment running vSphere 6 & vCenter 6.0, we have already purchased 2 new Servers and a new shared storage (where if  we want we can present it on the old cluster).

We're planning to migrate  all the virtual machines to a new Cluster hosts running VMWare ESXi host vSphere 7 and vCenter Server 7, which is the best  approach to migrate the Virtual Machines in this configuration?

 

Thanks

 

[hadjer1]

Hello,

You can present the shared storage to both groupes of hosts as a datastore.

1) in esxi 6.0, migrate the VM to the shared storage .

2) shut down the VM and remove it from inventory.

3) in esxi 7.0, browse the shared storage , navigate to the folder of the VM and add it to invetory, the power on the VM. you can optionally upgrade the hardware version to match the new hosts

With this approach the downtime will be like 5 minutes.

[GeorgeAnton]

Hi 

 

thanks for your reply how can upgrade the hardware version to match new hosts?

[hadjer1]

You're welcome, just a right click on the VM and then upgrade hardware, but be careful it is irreversible.

[GeorgeAnton]

Do you know if it possible using VMware replication to move the VMs from the old ESXi 6.0 hosts to the new ESXi 7.0 cluster?

[hadjer1]

What is your vSphere replication version ?

on other thought, you can use VMware standalone converter if you can tolerate a downtime, just know that it is no longer supported by VMware (there are some rumors suggestion a new version soon) and for windows machine it must be powered off. a second option is to use a backup software to backup the machine form the old plateforme and then restore it on the new one.