The GUI upgrade wizard prompts you for information about the vCenter Server Appliance 5.5, vCenter Server Appliance 6.0, or Platform Services Controller appliance 6.0 that you want to upgrade, deployment information for the new 6.5 appliance, and the types of data that you want to transfer from the old to the new appliance. It is a best practice to keep a record of the values that you entered.

You can use this worksheet to record the information that you need for upgrading a vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On, a vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an external vCenter Single Sign-On, a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller, a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an external Platform Services Controller, or a Platform Services Controller appliance 6.0.

Table 1. Required Information During Stage 1 of the Upgrade
Required for Upgrade of Required Information Default Your Entry
All deployment types FQDN or IP address of the source appliance that you want to upgrade -
HTTPS port of the source appliance 443
vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name of the source appliance
Important: The user must be administrator@ your_domain_name.
[email protected]
Password of the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user -
Password of the root user of the source appliance -
All deployment types

FQDN or IP address of the source server on which resides that appliance that you want to upgrade

The source server can be either an ESXi host or a vCenter Server instance.

Note: The source server cannot be the vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade. In such cases, use the source ESXi host.
-
HTTPS port of the source server 443
User name with administrative privileges on the source server
  • If your source server is an ESXi host, use root.
  • If your source server is a vCenter Server instance, use user_name@your_domain_name, for example, [email protected].
-
Password of the user with administrative privileges on the source server -
All deployment types

FQDN or IP address of the target server on which you want to deploy the new appliance.

The target server can be either an ESXi host or a vCenter Server instance.

Note: The target server cannot be the vCenter Server Appliance that you want to upgrade. In such cases, use an ESXi host as a target server.
-
HTTPS port of the target server 443
User name with administrative privileges on the target server
  • If your target server is an ESXi host, use root.
  • If your target server is a vCenter Server instance, use user_name@your_domain_name, for example, [email protected].
-
Password of the user with administrative privileges on the target server -
All deployment types

Only if your target server is a vCenter Server instance

Data center from the vCenter Server inventory on which you want to deploy the new appliance

Optionally you can provide a data center folder.

-
ESXi host or DRS cluster from the data center inventory on which you want to deploy the new appliance -
All deployment types VM name for the new appliance
  • Must not contain a percent sign (%), backslash (\), or forward slash (/)
  • Must be no more than 80 characters in length
VMware vCenter Server Appliance
All deployment types Password for the root user of the appliance operating system
  • Must contain only lower ASCII characters without spaces.
  • Must be at least 8 characters, but no more than 20 characters in length
  • Must contain at least one uppercase letter
  • Must contain at least one lowercase letter
  • Must contain at least one number
  • Must contain at least one special character, for example, a dollar sign ($), hash key (#), at sign (@), period (.), or exclamation mark (!)
-
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an external vCenter Single Sign-On
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an external Platform Services Controller
Deployment size of the new vCenter Server Appliance for your vSphere environment
  • Tiny

    Deploys an appliance with 2 CPUs and 10 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 10 hosts or 100 virtual machines.

  • Small

    Deploys an appliance with 4 CPUs and 16 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 100 hosts or 1,000 virtual machines.

  • Medium

    Deploys an appliance with 8 CPUs and 24 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 400 hosts or 4,000 virtual machines.

  • Large

    Deploys an appliance with 16 CPUs and 32 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 1,000 hosts or 10,000 virtual machines.

  • X-Large

    Deploys an appliance with 24 CPUs and 48 GB of memory.

    Suitable for environments with up to 2,000 hosts or 35,000 virtual machines.

Tiny
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an external vCenter Single Sign-On
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an external Platform Services Controller
Storage size of the new vCenter Server Appliance for your vSphere environment
Note: Consider the database size of the appliance that you want to upgrade and the types of the data that you want transfer to the new appliance. For an external database, see Determine the Oracle Database Size and the Storage Size for the New Appliance.
  • Default

    For tiny deployment size, deploys the appliance with 250 GB of storage.

    For small deployment size, deploys the appliance with 290 GB of storage.

    For medium deployment size, deploys the appliance with 425 GB of storage.

    For large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 640 GB of storage.

    For x-large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 980 GB of storage.

  • Large

    For tiny deployment size, deploys the appliance with 775 GB of storage.

    For small deployment size, deploys the appliance with 820 GB of storage.

    For medium deployment size, deploys the appliance with 925 GB of storage.

    For large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 990 GB of storage.

    For x-large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1030 GB of storage.

  • X-Large

    For tiny deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1650 GB of storage.

    For small deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1700 GB of storage.

    For medium deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1805 GB of storage.

    For large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1870 GB of storage.

    For x-large deployment size, deploys the appliance with 1910 GB of storage.

Default
All deployment types Name of the datastore on which you want to store the configuration files and virtual disks of the new appliance
Note: The installer displays a list of datastores that are accessible from your target server.
-
Enable or disable Thin Disk Mode Disabled
All deployment types

Name of the network to which to connect the new appliance

Note: The installer displays a drop-down menu with networks that depend on the network settings of your target server. If you are deploying the appliance directly on an ESXi host, non-ephemeral distributed virtual port groups are not supported and are not displayed in the drop-down menu.

The network must be accessible from the source server on which resides that appliance that you want to upgrade.

The network must be accessible from the client machine from which you perform the deployment.

-

IP version for the appliance temporary address

Can be either IPv4 or IPv6.

IPv4

IP assignment for the appliance temporary address

Can be either static or DHCP.

static
All deployment types

Only if you use a static assignment for the temporary IP address

Temporary system name (FQDN or IP address)

The system name is used for managing the local system. The system name must be FQDN. If a DNS server is not available, provide a static IP address.

-
Temporary IP address -

For IPv4 version, a subnet mask as a dot decimal notation or a network prefix as an integer between 0 and 32

For IPv6 version, a network prefix as an integer between 0 and 128

-
Default gateway -
DNS servers separated by commas -
All deployment types

Only if you use DHCP with IPv4 and have a Dynamic DNS (DDNS) server available in your environment.

Temporary system name (FQDN) -
Table 2. Required Information During Stage 2 of the Upgrade
Required for Required Information Default Your Entry
vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On vCenter Single Sign-On site name -
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded or external vCenter Single Sign-On
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an embedded or external Platform Services Controller

Data types to transfer from the old appliance to the new appliance

In addition to the configuration data, you can transfer the events, tasks, and, performance metrics.

Note: For minimum upgrade time and storage requirement for the new appliance, select to transfer only the configuration data.
-
  • vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 with an embedded vCenter Single Sign-On
  • vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller
  • Platform Services Controller 6.0 appliance

Join or do not participate in the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).

For information about the CEIP, see the Configuring Customer Experience Improvement Program section in vCenter Server and Host Management.

Join the CEIP