How to Upgrade vCenter Server 7.0 to 8.0 in Detail

Upgrading from vCenter 7.0 to 8.0

VMware announced a new version of VMware vSphere on August 30, 2022. This new release of vSphere is packed with many new features as well as many deprecated features. In VMware vSphere 8, you could recover vCenter 8 with the latest configuration in a cluster.

We have demonstrated in previous blog posts how to upgrade VMware vCenter 6.7 and 7.0. In this post, I will provide a walkthrough of upgrading vCenter 7 to 8 for you.

How to Upgrade vCenter Server 7.0 to 8.0

Now that we’ve reviewed the high-level process let’s go through the upgrade step by step. The upgrade process consists of two stages:

• Deploying a new VMware vCenter Server 8.0 virtual appliance.
• Exporting of source data and setting up all VMware vCenter Server 8.0 appliance services.

Note: To upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) from version 6.5 or older, you must first upgrade to version 6.7 or 7.0, and then upgrade to version 8.0. This may also be found on the Upgrade Path tab of the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix.

Stage 1. Deploying the New VMware vCenter Server 8.0 Virtual Appliance

1. Download the VMware vCenter Server 8.0 ISO file from VMware’s website and mount it to your local computer, then launch the installer.

2. Select Upgrade to start deploying a new VMware vCenter Server 8.0 virtual appliance.

3. Accept the license agreement and click Next.

4. Enter FQDN, SSO administrator account, root account password, the FQDN of the vCenter Server/ESXi host that manages the appliance, and the login credentials for the managing vCenter Server/ESXi host.

5. Select the target where to deploy the VMware vCenter Server 8.0 appliance.

6. Select the target vCenter Server’s folder and compute resource where the new appliance will be deployed.

7. Enter a new VM’s name and set root password, then confirm it.

Note: If you want to use the same name as your vCenter 7.0, you need to rename your 7.0 virtual appliance to a different name first, otherwise it fails.

8. Specify the deployment size. The installer will default select the smallest deployment size that matches your current configuration. This selection will consider the existing CPU, RAM, and storage allocations. This step is also a great time to ensure that your vCenter Server deployment size matches your current or planned environment.

9. Select the datastore and network for your new virtual appliance. Then go to Finish.

After completing Stage 1, you will get to the Phase 2 of the Upgrade process of vCenter 7 to 8.

Stage 2. Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 to 8.0 - Exporting Source vCenter Data

1. The installer will run a Pre-Upgrade check on your source vCenter Server appliance, then click Next.

2. Select what data you want to copy from the source VCSA 7.0 to the new VCSA 8.0 appliance.

3. Choose if you wish to join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP).

4. Finally, review the information and confirm that you have a backup of the source vCenter Server appliance and click FINISH.

The installer will warn you that it will power down the source VMware vCenter Server appliance once it exports the network configuration to the VMware vCenter Server 8.0 appliance. Once completed, you can now log on to the vCSA and confirm that we are running vCenter 8.0.

Efficient Virtual Machine’s Backup for VMware vSphere 8

vCenter Server is a very convenient official platform for centrally managing multiple ESXi virtual machines, patches, and automate ESXi host configuration, etc. However, it does not provide the feature of virtual machine backup. Therefore, you cannot try VMware vCenter backup virtual machine. And that makes backup software the commonly accepted choice to protect VM data, and by far the most convenient.

Here I introduce you to a VMware backup software AOMEI Cyber Backup, it supports VMware vSphere 6.0 to 8.0 and enables you to backup multiple VMs in 3 simple steps. And it offers you the following benefits

✦ Agentless Backup: create complete and independent image-level backup for VMware ESXi and Hyper-V VMs.
✦ Flexible vSphere Backup: batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server, or multiple VMs on a standalone ESXi host.
✦ Multiple Storage Destinations: backup to local drive, or network destinations like Windows share or NAS.
✦ Automated Execution: schedule to automate backups daily, weekly, or monthly with email notifications.
✦ Role Assignment: allows one administrator to create sub-accounts with limited privileges.

AOMEI Cyber Backup supports VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions. Next, I will show you how to perform vSphere backup and restore via AOMEI Cyber Backup. You can click the following button to download the 30-day free trial.

*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.

4 easy steps vCenter backup VM via AOMEI Cyber Backup

1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to Add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click … > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and then set Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, Schedule, and Cleanup.

• Device: batch select large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server for centralized backup.
• Target: select to back up to a local path, or to a network path.
• Schedule (optional): perform full, differential, or incremental backup, and automate execution according to the frequency you specified.
• Cleanup (optional): automatically delete the old backup copies that exceed the retention period you specified.

3. Run Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately, for restoring, progress checking and schedule changing.

4. When restoring, you can also restore to new location to create a new VM in the same or another datastore/host directly from the backup, saving the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.

Summary

With the release of VMware vCenter Server Appliance 8.0 (vCSA), this article demonstrates the detailed steps to upgrade vCenter 7 to 8. Powerful vCenter allows administrators to improve control, simplify day-to-day tasks and reduce the complexity and cost of managing an IT environment.

Meanwhile, do not forget to make a backup of your vCenter Server Appliance and virtual machines.