Your source and target systems must meet specific software and hardware requirements before you can migrate a vCenter Server, vCenter Single Sign-On, or Platform Services Controller deployment to a vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance.

Source System

  • Your source system must meet specific software and hardware requirements for vCenter Server for Windows. See vCenter Server for Windows Requirements.
  • Synchronize the clocks on all machines running the source vCenter Server services. See Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network.
  • Verify that your vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller certificates are valid for the vCenter Server or Platform Services Controller and have not expired.
  • Verify that the system network name of the machines running the target vCenter Server services are valid, and are reachable from other machines in the network.
  • Verify that the host name of the virtual machine or physical server from which you are migrating vCenter Server complies with RFC 1123 guidelines.
  • If your vCenter Server service is running in a user account other than the Local System account, verify that the user account in which the vCenter Server service is running has the following permissions:
    • Member of the Administrators group
    • Log on as a service
    • Act as part of the operating system (if the user is a domain user)
    • Replace a process level token
  • Verify that the LOCAL SERVICE account has read permission on the folder in which vCenter Server is installed and on the HKLM registry.
  • Verify that the connection between the virtual machine or physical server and the domain controller is working.
  • Verify that the source vCenter Server instance or Platform Services Controller instance on Windows does not use a DHCP IP address as its system network name.
    Important: Migration from a source Windows machine using a DHCP IP Address as its system network name to an appliance is not supported.

Target System

  • Your target system must meet specific software and hardware requirements for vCenter Server Appliance. See System Requirements for the New vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance.
  • When you use Fully Qualified Domain Names, make sure that the machine you use for deploying the vCenter Server Appliance and the target ESXi host or vCenter Server instance are on the same DNS server.
  • Synchronize the clocks of all target virtual machines on the vSphere network before beginning migration. Unsynchronized clocks might result in authentication problems and can cause the migration to fail or prevent the vCenter Server services from starting. See Synchronizing Clocks on the vSphere Network.