9.5 U3 needed to migrate from ESXi 4.1

[davide.depaoli]

Hello,
I'm working at new customer who has an old ESXi 4.1 standalone server hosting 4 VMs.
Now He is buying a new server/storage infrastructure and I have to migrate from the old one to a new infrastructure.
To do the migration I would like to use Quick Migration, but the latest Veeam B&R release supporting ESXi 4.1 is the 9.5 U3, that is not available to download (the oldest available here https://bit.ly/31aygSP is the 9.5U4).
tIs There any other website (official or not) where to find the 9.5U3 ?
Any other suggestion to do the migration will be welcome.
thanks in advance.
Best regards
Davide

[Mildur]

Hi Davide

I recommend to try to get it with the help of veeam support.
They have access to the older veeam versions.

[Regnor]

The KB articles of each release still contain a valid download link.
Here's the one for 9.5U3a: https://www.veeam.com/kb2646?ad=in-text-link

[rennerstefan]

Hi,
what is the new vSphere version supposed to be?
Even if you install the old 9.5U3 to have 4.1 support, you won't have support with the newer vSphere versions with it.
Also, does the standalone ESXi hold a VMware license as without you won't be able to use the VADP!?
As always on such old releases you may need to perform a multi-step migration if you want to have support on it all the way through from Veeam but also VMware.
Thanks

[soncscy]

Davide,

To be honest, consider Stefan's point carefully, and I'd just as soon recommend use Agent Backups (presuming these are relatively modern OSes) and do an Instant Recovery to the new environment.

You're doing a new backup of these machines anyways on the new environment, and I think it's far less trouble to just use Veeam's agent to virtual platform abilities.

Just an idea I think to consider.

[davide.depaoli]

Hi,
what is the new vSphere version supposed to be?
Even if you install the old 9.5U3 to have 4.1 support, you won't have support with the newer vSphere versions with it.
Also, does the standalone ESXi hold a VMware license as without you won't be able to use the VADP!?
As always on such old releases you may need to perform a multi-step migration if you want to have support on it all the way through from Veeam but also VMware.
Thanks

Hi,
the new vSphere is 6.7 (ESXi and VCSA). The 9.5.0.1922 has the support for vSphere 6.7.
For now the goal is to migrate somehow the VMs to new servers. the final step will be to install latest Veeam B&R release.
Thanks
Davide

[davide.depaoli]

The KB articles of each release still contain a valid download link.
Here's the one for 9.5U3a: https://www.veeam.com/kb2646?ad=in-text-link

Thank you so much.

[davide.depaoli]

Davide,

To be honest, consider Stefan's point carefully, and I'd just as soon recommend use Agent Backups (presuming these are relatively modern OSes) and do an Instant Recovery to the new environment.

You're doing a new backup of these machines anyways on the new environment, and I think it's far less trouble to just use Veeam's agent to virtual platform abilities.

Just an idea I think to consider.

Hi,
Unfortunately the VMs are win srv 2003 32bit and WinXP. This is the classic "no budget" customer, where philosophy is doing the best with minimum expense and "don't not touch what works".
I have found this and now we have to remedy somehow.
Thanks for the idea.

[rennerstefan]

Hi,
the new vSphere is 6.7 (ESXi and VCSA). The 9.5.0.1922 has the support for vSphere 6.7.
For now the goal is to migrate somehow the VMs to new servers. the final step will be to install latest Veeam B&R release.
Thanks
Davide

Ok then it will be good to go. I was more thinking that you want to upgrade to later versions of vSphere and the step th 6.7 was what I meant as "multi-step" migration when coming from the old version.
Never the less I would recommend you to run a full backup of all data before starting the migration so that you always have a good path back in case something doesn't work.
I know the situation you are facing very well.

[davide.depaoli]

Hello,
I resume this post because I'm still looking for a solution to migrate these old VMs. Is not possible to do a veeam backup because the ESXi is a free version with locked vStorage API.
Now I'm looking for an old version of Veeam Agent for windows compatible with Windows 2003 and, if possible, with WinXP (the mandatory job is to migrate the Win2003 VM).
Of course google in this case is not my friend, I could not find any download for this Veeam Agent.
Could someone help me ?
thanks in advance
best regards
Davide

[Regnor]

There has never been an agent for XP or 2003.

In your case, either do an offline migration and move the VM files with SCP for example. Or use VMware Converter, but I'm not sure if this will work for 2003.

Though the best will be to get those systems on a supported Windows version. If you migrate them now, they'll probably keep running on the new environment for the future.

[andrie]

Hi,

VMware converter is not available anymore: https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2022/0 ... nload.html

[rennerstefan]

I resume this post because I'm still looking for a solution to migrate these old VMs. Is not possible to do a veeam backup because the ESXi is a free version with locked vStorage API.

In my eyes you only have 2 options really with those old VMs:
- migrate them offline, shut them down and COPY them to the new host... with the copy you can still boot on source again if something goes wrong
- get a VMware Essential license which is fairly cheap (<$500) and use the methods already mentioned. Way cheaper and better than messing something up now and then paying 1000s of $ to fix it. Plus running a production on not licensed servers and with no support is never a good idea anyway.

Thanks

[davide.depaoli]

There has never been an agent for XP or 2003.

In your case, either do an offline migration and move the VM files with SCP for example. Or use VMware Converter, but I'm not sure if this will work for 2003.

Though the best will be to get those systems on a supported Windows version. If you migrate them now, they'll probably keep running on the new environment for the future.

Hello,
I am looking for any way to avoid copying with scp.
Fortunately, a converter is installed on the server (this vm is a p2v conversion), but there is not enough space on the datastore to duplicate the vm and I have no other storage to use as a temporary datastore.