First of all, I'm not sure if I'm putting this in the right spot but please move it if it fits better somewhere else. I'm in the process of implementing new servers in our datacenter and wanted to post here to make sure I have my process correct. I need to install ESXi 5.1 on 3 new hosts, get the hosts added into our VirtualCenter server, and migrate all the VM's to the new hosts.
I'll start with what we have:
1 VMware VirtualCenter server Version 2.5.0 Build 147633
3 VMware ESX Hosts Version 3.5.0 Build 153875
Equalogic SAN - not changing
Upgrading to:
1 VMware Vcenter server (use old VirtualCenter server if possible)
3 VMware ESXi Hosts Version 5.1
Question 1 - Can I use the existing VirtualCenter server and add the new hosts to that, or do I need to install a new VCenter server?
Question 2 - Can I Vmotion the VM's from the old hosts to the new ones? If not, can I simply import the VMware files on the new hosts?
Question 3 - I know there is backward compatibility issues, but moving forward so many versions also concerns me. Will the VM's run on the new hosts?
Question 4 - Is there anything I'm missing?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks, Adam