Upgrading VMware vCenter from 6.0 to 6.7U1b and using Veeam BR 9.5 U4?

[cerberus]

Hello folks,

I am planning to upgrade my vCenter server from a windows based VM running 6.0 to the vCenter Server appliance version 6.7U1b (latest off VMware site).

We use Veeam B&R 9.5 Update 4 and we do VM level backups of a bunch of VMs using CBT.

If I stand up a new vCenter server and move my hosts to it this would mean there is a new MoRef ID - and IIRC this will cause Veeam to require a full backup of the VM instead of only backing up the changed blocks using CBT? I am trying to avoid this pitfall as some of my VMs are massive in size and take a long time to do a full backup.

[anthonyspiteri79]

Hey there.

If you are doing an upgrade/migration then this should not result in new IDs being created as all existing data from the source vCenter are moved across to the new vCenter. Going from Windows to VCSA should not impact that.

[cerberus]

That's good to know, the plan is to "migrate" from the windows based vCenter server to the appliance, not sure if upgrade paths are an option, i'll need to look into that.

If we were to stand up a new VC (thus new MoReF ID), Veeam would require a full backup of the VMs? There is no way "around this" from within Veeam?

[anthonyspiteri79]

We do have an vCenter Migration Utility https://www.veeam.com/kb2136 that can help with the remapping, however you really want to be migrating from Windows to the VCSA with the whole vCenter state moving across with it.

There should be an upgrade path...but this would depend on your version of vCenter. Best to take a look at the VMware guides to make sure.

[cerberus]

I did see that KB but it is for an older VC version, though the links in that blog led me to a newer blog post for VC 6.7 (https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2018/1 ... tions.html) which states it also moves MoReF ID, this is somewhat reassuring but i'll need to play with this. Unfortunately I don't have a "test" environment to try this on

Oh well, absolute worst case scenario I have to do a full backup which isn't that bad, just takes a few days.