Rule – We can not have any downtime on the ESXi hosts or guest VM’s.
Source –
Windows 2012 VM running vCenter 5.5
Cluster of ESXi 5.5 hosts with 4 VMNIC’s.
The management and vmotion VMkernel adapters are connected to their own separate Distributed switch (vDS). No standard vswitches (vSS)
Destination–
Fresh install of VCSA 6.0
- Validate the ESXi root password. (enabled ssh and putty in)
- Validate console access (iDRAC, HP iLo)
- Backup the clusters HA and DRS settings/rules/overrides. Same with SDRS if used. (screen caps or find a powerCLI script)
- Record the management and vmotion VMkernel adapters VLAN # & uplink#:VMNIC# vDS pairing. Ex. VMNIC3 uses uplink 2 for the Backup vDS.
- Record the guest VM’s port groups (RVTools)
- Have https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2032908handy in case you fat finger a VLAN during the management VMK adapter migration to the vSS.
Edit the cluster’s HA and DRS settings/rules/overrides to restore what was there in the 5.5 VC. Create a storage cluster if you had one. (yes, i am sure there are powercli scripts to do this)