It seems to be a question that often pops up on the VMTN forum, how can I move my ESX hosts to my freshly installed vCenter server? The answer is actually pretty simple:
- Just to be on the save side, set DRS to manual and disable HA on the “old” vCenter server / cluster
- Right click the ESX host and select “Disconnect”
- Go to the new vCenter server and add the host
It’s as simple as that. You don’t even need to shutdown your VMs.
Keep in mind though that you will lose your folder structure as well. (Thanks Joop)
vSphere 4.0 Quick Start Guide
The VC server who sets the vpxuser account password last is the owner of the ESX host.
Duncan, Can’t you just go to the new VC, and add the host. It will tell you that it is being managed by another VC, and it will allow you to re-register with the new VC. I don’t believe you have to disconnect the host before you register it.
Yes that’s also possible, but I like doing things “clean”
but I think you may lost the previous performance data too. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Of course, you are moving from one vcenter to another… which means DB move as well most likely.
You also lose Resource Pools and permissions data, least, that has been my experience so far.