VMware vCenter Server (+ ESXi Hosts) 5.5 to 7.0 migration project

[AussieAdmin]

High level VM information:

Roughly 70VMs deployed mostly as Windows 2016 + 2019 Servers and a few legacy 2008 Servers + a couple of Linux boxes, all running Virtual Machine version 8.

Existing VMware setup:

1 x VMware vCenter Server 5 (5.5.0, 2183111) - Installed on:
Windows 2008 Server

VMware vSphere 5 (ESXi, 5.5.0, 2456374) - Installed on:
4 x HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v3 @ 2.30GHz
3 x HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697 v3 @ 2.60GHz

Storage Array
Nimble Storage Array - Production VMs

Migrating to:

1 x VMware vCenter Server 7 Standard – To be installed on:
Existing VMware vSphere 7 Host

VMware vSphere 7.0 (ESXi 7.0 Update 3n)  - To be installed on existing HP Servers:
4 x HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v3 @ 2.30GHz
3 x HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 - Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697 v3 @ 2.60GHz

Storage Arrays (Same Storage, no change)
Nimble Storage Array - Production VMs

Migration plan in brief:

1. The Production Storage array will be connected to and visible by both the ESXi 5.5 hosts and the new ESXi 7.0 hosts. In other words, no data will be transferred or migrated off to another Storage Array.
   
   
2. One of the HP ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers in production is not used and will be the first server to host the new VMware vSphere 7.0 deployment.
   
   
3. After the first VMware vSphere 7.0 host has been built, configured and updated, we will then deploy / configure the VMware vCenter Server 7.0 on that same host.
   
   
4. After the new vCenter server is ready we will then start moving existing legacy 5.5 VMs from the old vCenter Server 5 to the new vCenter Server 7 deployment.
   
   
5. The plan to move / migrate the VMs from the vCenter Server 5.5 to the vCenter Server 7.x is to shut each VM down, then remove it from the vCenter 5.5 inventory and then add it to the vCenter Server 7 inventory followed by powering up the VM which would be done manually one VM at a time. All vCenter 5.5 VMs are currently running VM version 8. To be clear, there would be no direct communication between the vCenter 5.5 and 7.0 servers (as we believe that is not supported), instead the VMs would simply be removed from one vCenter Server instance and added to the other.
   
   
6. After all the VMs currently hosted by the first ESXi 5.5 host have been moved across to the first ESXi 7.0 host, that source ESXi 5.5 host will then be rebuilt as the second ESXi 7.0 host and then added to the vCenter server 7. This procedure will then continue doing one host at a time until all the legacy hosts have been rebuilt.
   

Concerns and questions:

1. Does this seem like a viable plan, or are we missing anything obvious?
2. Assuming the VMs boot post moving them to the vCenter Server 7 are there any consistency tests that can be performed to ensure the VMs are indeed in a healthy state?
3. What is to be done (if anything) about the VMs original Virtual Machine version 8 configuration that all the VMs was originally built on. Is it recommended to update to the latest Virtual Machine version and if so is that a potentially a risky task?
4. We assume it’s a good idea to immediately update the VMware tools version for the VMs as soon as they have been booted on the vCenter Server 7?
5. We are using Veeam backup for all the VMs. Plan is to create a new backup just prior to moving of each VM to vCenter Server 7 and then use that backup as an emergency recovery in case the VM breaks after moving it.

Answers to any of the questions or additional feedback is appreciated!

[Scott Vessey]

Confirming that I can see this post, me adding a reply will also bump it for you.

[Lukasz Zasko]

Hi,

Please remember that after migration to vSphere 7.0 it is good to change VMFS on datastores (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2147824)  and VDSes to newer version (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc/GUID-330A0689-574A-4589-9462-14CA03F3F2F4.html)

[Rob Bishop]

1. Yes a viable plan.
2. Not necessary, if they boot without errors and you can access them your fine.
3. Complete the migration and once everything is OK start looking at upgrading hardware versions and VMTools to the latest versions as soon as possible as there are lots of security issues with being that far behind.
4. Hold fire in case you have to move it back otherwise you'll be uninstalling the new version and re-installing the old, I've had issue in the past running much higher versions of VMTools on older versions and 5.5 to 7.0 is a big jump!
5. It's always good practice to take a backup, nothing wrong with with this approach. I'd also take a snapshot before powering on.

Additional thoughts:

Make sure you add the new Nimble VIB's for 7.0

Once completed create new datastores with the latest version of VMFS and do a storage vMotion to move them. Once completed you can delete the old datastores, as well as getting all the benefits of the latest VMFS version you'll also get rid of any orphaned files and you'll be amazed how many you find!

Start budgeting for upgrading to 8.0 as 7.0 goes end of life 02nd Apr 2025 and I don't believe the E5-2600 range are on the HCL for 8.0