We have 2 physical locations connected by 10GB connection. Each location has a VMware Datacenter with 2 clusters, one cluster for Primary hosts that runs current VMs and the other one is for DR for other location's primary cluster. Its a vSphere 5.1 environment. We are planning to create new vSphere ESXi 6.5 environment and moving 5.1 Hosts gradually to it. So we will remove a Host from 5.1 (VMs will be moved to other other Hosts before removal), and use it to fresh install 6.5U2 and VCSA with embedded PSC followed by creating new Datacenter and Cluster.
1. The Host that will be removed is in existing vSphere HA, do we need to do anything in HA configuration before removing the host or just remove it from cluster and it will automatically adjust HA? Just need to make sure that after removing the host, the 5.1 cluster should work with other Hosts as it was working before.
2. After removing the Host, it will still be running on its own. It still has Datastores, Networks and Switches. We want to start installing ESXi 6.5 U2 ISO on it. Do I need to do anything with regards to existing resources before I boot from ISO and start installation?
3. During the installation, the Host will be completely erased/formatted, right? Will it have any effect to the Datastores or other resources – say will any of the Datastores be erased? If there is any effect, the same Datastores are being used by 5.1 Hosts in the cluster, so that will be a problem?
4. I also want to update all drivers on Host. Should I use “ESXi 6.5 U2 Driver Rollup (Includes VMware Tools” ISO file for installation or “VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi ISO) image (Includes VMware Tools)”? The Host is HP Proliant BL660c Gen9.
5. After ESXi 6.5 U2 installation, I will install VCSA with PSC to it?
6. After VCSA is created on the Host, I have to create Datacenter and Cluster? And also configure Host?
7. How can I move VMs from 5.1 to vSphere 6.5? Is the VM -> Export of OVF and Import OVF the only option?
8. Our current VMs are Hardware version 7, 8 and 9. We want to use the latest version 13 in 6.5. Will the old VMs support version 13 when imported/moved? Most of the VMs running on Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2012 R2 OS.
Main thing at this moment is that, removing a Host and start fresh install of 6.5 without affecting current production VMware environment.
Appreciate your expert opinions. Thank you.