Upgrading vCetner 7 to 8

[nunciate]

Just wanted to see if there are any pitfalls to upgrading our vCetner from 7.03 to 8.0 U2.
From what I remember in the past we had to do some magic where we renamed the existing vCetner virtual appliances.
Created new ones with the same name and a temp IP. Then we did this migration to get everything moved from the old to the new.
Then put the original IP on the new Center.

My concern is the MoRefIDs will be migrated with the VM so that I don't have to re-run full backups.
I also remember there was a took to sync up the MoRefIDs but that it didn't work very well.

Does anyone who has done this upgrade want to let me know their experience?

[Mildur]

Hi Alan

If you follow the official upgrade process, all vCenter configuration including the MoRefID should be the same after the upgrade. And Veeam will continue the existing backup chains.

I also remember there was a took to sync up the MoRefIDs but that it didn't work very well.

Our tool to sync the MoRefID is currently not working in v12 and later.

Best,
Fabian

[chris.childerhose]

We have done the upgrade in some of our DCs, and so far, no issues. Backups continue on as normal with no problems as of yet which is a good thing. So upgrading should not cause you any issues. My experience so far.

[nunciate]

That is great news. Perfect. I still need to apply the latest version of Veeam so we can do the Center upgrade but that is good to know.

[Mildur]

Keep in mind the current CBT bug with ESXI 8.0 U2. For now, only update your vCenter to v8 U2. Wait with the ESXI hosts until VMware has solved this issue.

VmWare kb article: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/95940

Best,
Fabian

[chris.childerhose]

That is a good call out by Mildur on the CBT bug. I am on the update that is affected, but I don't hot extend my disks normally in my lab.

[nunciate]

Thanks, yea we are not upgrading ESXi on the host servers yet. We have 8 hosts in our DR location that don't support it so we have to plan to replace that hardware first.

[chris.childerhose]

That is precisely our ongoing project to replace HW and then upgrade to v8, so hopefully, by the time that happens, the bug will be fixed with VMware. Fingers crossed LOL