Host-based backup of VMware vSphere VMs.
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kjstech
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Replacing and renaming ESXi 6.0 hosts

Post by kjstech »

Hello,

We have a new Dell FX2 server chassis with 4 FC640 blades installed that will be taking over for 4 Dell R620 1U servers. In total we have 8 VM hosts, 4 will be replaced this year and the other 4 will be replaced early next year.

I have the new ESXi hosts up and running and manually configured each hosts networking and storage for the time being, just to run some test loads. Now I'm at the point where I am ready to add them into vCenter 6 server for management and convert their networking to dV switch and start vmotioning VM's to them and decommissioning the old ESXi servers. VMWware gives you 60 day fully functional trial licence so I can get this done well under 60 days thanks to vMotion. Then when I remove the old hosts I can assign those licence keys to the new hosts. Finally when done I will want to rename the remaining hosts so that all servers are numbered in order. Going from a vm1, vm2, vm3, vm4, vm5, vm6, vm7, vm8 naming scheme to vm01, vm02, vm03, vm04, vm05, vm06, vm07, vm08. The new ones are already named properly so I just have to rename the remaining 4 hosts that are staying with us for another year.

My question is how will this affect Veeam licencing? Will the backups continue to operate, or do I need this completed in 1 business day so that it still sees the same number of overall cores present in the vSphere infrastructure? Once new hosts are added, and then existing hosts renamed, does anything need to be done in Veeam? Or will it just learn of this from vCenter?

Thanks for your help!
DGrinev
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Re: Replacing and renaming ESXi 6.0 hosts

Post by DGrinev »

Hi Keith,

Veeam license doesn't care about the amount of CPU cores, it only counts how many physical sockets are present in the source hosts.
You can read all major points about Licensing in the sticky thread.
So, if you have a license that can cover the sum of physical sockets on all hosts, then you can just add them to the vCenter and begin protecting new VMs, alongside with those that already have been protected. Thanks!
kjstech
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Re: Replacing and renaming ESXi 6.0 hosts

Post by kjstech »

Well when I add the new VM's, then there will be more sockets than licences (for Veeam), but only temporally, because the end game is to remove an ESXi server and move its licence key over to the new ESXi server.

Backups don't start until 8 PM each evening. So I guess if I do one ESXi replacement a day, as long as its complete before the end of my work day (5 PM) and the old ESXi is removed, I should be good.
foggy
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Re: Replacing and renaming ESXi 6.0 hosts

Post by foggy » 1 person likes this post

Don't forget to revoke the license from the old host, it will be automatically applied to the new host once you start backing up VMs running there.
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