With the release of vSphere 6.0 update 2, migration of windows based vCenter server 5.5 and 6.0 to vCSA is supported. If you are running with windows based vCenter Server 6.0, You will be able to migrate to the vCenter Server appliance using this migration tool. With vSphere 6.5, option to Migrate windows vCenter to vCenter Appliance is included with the vCenter Server installer. There are below improvements made on the migration tool which allows you to select the granular migration data during the migration.

• Configuration
• Configuration, events, and tasks
• Configuration, events, tasks, and performance metrics

We will see the detailed procedure to Migrate Windows vCenter Server 6.0 to vCenter Server appliance 6.5 in this article.

Migrate Windows vCenter to vCenter Appliance

The Windows VCenter Server must be v5.5 or v6.0 (any build/patch) to migrate to vCenter Server appliance 6.5. If windows based vCenter is v5.0 or 5.1 upgrade to 5.5 first and then migrate to VCSA 6.5.  Download VMware vCenter 6.5 from the VMware website. The place installer folder in any windows based server or shared folder.  From the Source windows based vCenter Server, From the vCenter installer -> Open “migration-assistant” folder and execute the “VMware-Migration-Assistant.exe”

Enter vCenter Server SSO administrator password and hit enter.

It will execute the series of commands, Scripts, and Prechecks for the migration. It also displays the source configuration & destination configuration information along with source windows vCenter server information. Once you got the message ” waiting for migration to start”. you need to start the Migration from vCenter server appliance 6.5 Installer.

Start the vCenter Server appliance installer and Click on Migrate.

Click on Next to start the Migration of windows vCenter to vCenter server appliance 6.5 and Accept the End-user license agreement and click on Next.

Specify the source Windows vCenter Server, vCenter SSO or Platform Services Controller information that you want to migrate. You need to make sure the migration assistant is running on the source vCenter Server.   Input SSO username and password. Click on Next.

Specify the target ESXi or vCenter Server, where you want the vCenter server appliance 6.5 to get deployed.  Click on Next.

Specify the VM Name for the appliance and root password for the target appliance VM. Click on Next.

Specify the Deployment Size. There are 5 deployment sizes ( Tiny, Small, Medium, Large & X-Large). Based on your infrastructure, Select the Deployment Size. You can also customize the storage size for your Deployment. Click on Next.

Select the Datastore for the deployment and click on Next.

Specify the temporary network identity for the vCenter server appliance. This network setting will be used to copy data from the source vCenter Server. After the data has been copied, the network identity of the source server is also copied to the appliance and then the source server is shutdown. Click on Next.

Review the Migration settings and Click on Finish.

It will take a few mins to complete Stage 1 of migration. In Stage 1, the New vCenter Server appliance will get deployed to the specified destination server.

You can monitor the same from the vCenter Server or ESXi host. New vCSA appliance 6.5 is deployed on the specified ESXi host.

Once Stage 1 of Migration of windows vCenter server 6.0 to vCenter server appliance 6.5 is completed, Click on Continue to start the Stage 2 of migration procedure.

Click on Next to start Stage 2 of the migration.

If the Source windows server is part of the Active Directory domain, Specify the AD credentials to join the destination appliance to the same AD domain.  Credentials provided must have access to join a machine to the domain.

You can select the type of migration data that you wish to copy from source windows vCenter 6.0 to vCenter Server appliance 6.5. The source server data will remain unchanged during this data migration.

Select the Checkbox ” join the VMware’s Customer Experience Improvement Program” if you want to provide feedback about VMware products to VMware. Click on Next.

Review the migration settings and click on Finish.

The source vCenter server will be shut down once the network configuration is copied and enabled on the destination vCenter Server. Click on Ok to start the migration.

Data transfer and appliance setup is 3 step process:

1.Copy data from source vCenter Server to target vCenter Server

2. Setup target vCenter server and start services on target vCenter appliance

3. Import the copied data to the target vCenter Server.

Once the migration is completed, you can notice that my Source windows based vCenter server 6.0 is powered down and migrated to the vCenter server appliance 6.5.

I am able to access my newly migrated vCenter server appliance 6.5 using the same hostname and IP address as my windows based vCenter Server. It also copied the configuration data too.

That’s it. We are done with the Migrate Windows vCenter Server 6.0 to vCenter Server appliance 6.5 in simple easy procedure. I hope this is informative for you. Thanks for reading!!. Be social and share it on social media, if feel worth sharing it.