vSphere 6.0 Update 2m is here with VCSA Migration Tool

Today, VMware has released the new VCSA vSphere 6.0 Update 2m that has the official Windows vCenter Server to vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Migration Tool.

The migration tool was available as a fling for over a year now and we have received a very good response in terms of the usage.

And there were many customers who wanted this to be available as a feature as the vCenter Server Appliance is almost at par with the Windows vCenter Server.

The vSphere 6.0 Update 2m is an automated end to end migration tool from a Windows vCenter Server 5.5 to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 Update 2.

Another thing to note is that installing or upgrading is not supported with this release. The m in vSphere 6.0 Update 2m denotes Migration.

Image Credit: VMware

Only vSphere 5.5 (including all patch/update releases). If you are running vSphere 5.0 or 5.1, upgrading to vSphere 5.5 is required before migrating.

Both physical and virtual vCenter Server 5.5 installations are fully supported with the vCenter Server Appliance Migration Tool with vSphere 6.0 Update 2m release.

This release will upgrade your existing Windows vCenter Server and migrate to the VCSA, they are inseparable at this time.

Once you finish downloading the bits, you will have run the Migration Assistant tool on the existing Windows vCenter Server.

It also supports different topologies as part of the migration. The Migration Assistant only needs to run on the vCenter Server and SSO Server if the components are distributed.

The Migration Assistant Tool performs the pre-checks of the vSphere environment, displaying current configuration, registered extensions, destination configuration, and migration settings.

The other is the data transport mechanism between the source Windows vCenter Server 5.5 and the target vCenter Server Appliance 6.0 Update 2.

Once the Migration assistant tool finishes performing the job, you can now run the CLI installer. You will notice that while vSphere 6.0 Update 2m has templates only for “Migrate” for vCenter Server 5.5 as opposed to Install and Upgrade.