Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance 5.1 to 5.5

This post is really a special post for me because it is my 250th post. We have already discussed about the upgrade from vCenter server appliance 5.5 to 5.5 Update 1. So you may be thinking why again repeated upgrade procedure for vCSA 5.1 to 5.5. Believe me both are entirely different step. We have upgraded vCSA 5.5 to vCSA 5.5 update 1 with the update option available with the admin page of the vCenter Server appliance but upgrading from vCSA 5.1 to 5.5 will not like other upgrades. It is to deploy the new appliance and reconfigure. This process will automates the movement of the database and other settings including network settings from older version of vCSA appliance (5.1) to new version of vCSA appliance (vCSA 5.5).once this movement is completed, new version of vCSA will be powered on with all existing data and older version of vCSA will be powered off. You can decommission the old vCSA appliance.

Procedure to Upgrade from vCenter Server Appliance 5.1 to 5.5

1. We have vCenter Server appliance 5.1 with latest build in our environment. To upgrade this vCSA 5.1 to vCenter server appliance 5.5 Update 1, Download and deploy the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 Update 1. Take a look at the post Download link for vSphere 5.5 update 1 and other softwares.

2. Once you have deployed the new vCenter Server appliance. Let it leave with the DHCP address. Connect to your new vCenter Server appliance admin page using the below format of URL

http://<ip of vCSA 5.5>:5480

At the first time when you access the  vCSA appliance , vCenter Setup wizard will start. Select the option “Upgrade from previous Version” and click on Next.

3. During this step, We need to exchange the keys between both the new vCSA (5.5) and old vCSA (5.1) appliance. To do this, copy the key that is generated from vCSA 5.5 and paste it in the import dialog box of the old vCSA 5.1 appliance.

Again copy the key generated on old vCSA appliance (vCSA 5.1).

4. Click Next, and choose to generate new SSL Certificates

5. Type the SSO admin password. You can use the same password which was used for early version.

7.Below page will displays the hosts which are managed by older vCSA 5.1. Select the hosts from the list which want to managed by the new appliance.

 8. vCenter upgrade checker will report any host problems that may be preventing an upgrade.

9.It will always recommended to take backup or snapshot of your virtual machine before proceed with any upgrade. It will be helpful to recover your VCSA appliance if in case upgrade failed. Select the checkbox “I confirm that i have made a backup/snapshot of the source vCenter Server Appliance and the external database” and click on Next.

 

Once upgrade is completed. vCSA 5.1 appliance will shutdown and new appliance vCSA 5.5 will reboot and it will configured with the same IP address and data of old vCSA appliance (5.1). That’s it. We are done with the upgrade. I hope this is informative for you. Thanks for reading !!!