Company had single vSphere 4.1 vCenter server with two clusters (ESXi 4.1 hosts), one supporting virtualized servers (Server Cluster 1) and one supporting View 4.6 (View Cluster 1)
Wanted to move to vSphere 5.1, but wasn't ready to move to View 5 at the time.
Installed new vSphere 5.1 vCenter server, created cluster (ESXi 5.1) and manually migrated virtualized servers (Server Cluster 1).
We now are ready to move to View 5.2 ... couple questions:
Should we consolidate back to a single vCenter? The downside that I see if not being able to move the clusters independently ... such as moving the server environment to vSphere 5.5 ..eventually. What is the real benefit of maintaining a single vCenter - we are a small shop 8 hosts, 75 virtualized servers, 350 desktops.
If we maintain two separate vCenter instances, should we upgrade from 4.6 to 5.2 or install fresh? I have been a fan of fresh installs because it gives you an opportunity to have a clean start.
What has been the experience with upgrading? Easy, moderate, difficult? Are there good guides to assist with an upgrade?
What has been the experience with a new install? Any issues with the migration (or lack there of)? I'll assume that all pools will have to be recreated.
Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Dan