6.5.1

Table Of Contents
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vCenter Server 5.5 ports that are in use by vCenter Server and vCenter Single Sign-On are
preserved. You cannot change ports during the upgrade. For information on required ports, see
Required Ports for vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller.
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vCenter Server services are no longer deployed separately from vCenter Server. Separately
deployed 5.5 services are upgraded and migrated to the vCenter Server virtual machine or physical
server during the upgrade process. For details on service migration, see Distributed vCenter Server
5.5 for Windows Services Relocation During Upgrade or Migration and Example Upgrade Paths for
vCenter Server version 5.5 to version 6.5.
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The installer automatically migrates the database from Microsoft SQL Server Express to the
PostgreSQL database that is included in vCenter Server. For information about migrating from
Microsoft SQL Server Express to Microsoft SQL Server before upgrading to vCenter Server 6.5, see
the VMware knowledge base article at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1028601 and the Microsoft
documentation. To upgrade without migrating to the PostgreSQL database, see the VMware
knowledge base article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2109321.
Note If you are using an external vCenter Single Sign-On, you must upgrade it to
Platform Services Controller 6.0 before upgrading your vCenter Server 5.5 instances to 6.0. See Upgrade
vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 on Windows.
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For information on the vCenter Server upgrade process, see About the vCenter Server for Windows
Upgrade Process.
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For information on vCenter Server behavior in mixed version environments, see Upgrade or Migration
Order and Mixed-Version Transitional Behavior for Multiple vCenter Server Instance Deployments.
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For information about upgrading vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5, see Upgrade vCenter Single Sign-On
5.5 on Windows.
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For information on post-upgrade steps, see Chapter 5 After Upgrading or Migrating vCenter Server.
Prerequisites
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Verify that your configuration meets the upgrade requirements. See vCenter Server for Windows
Requirements.
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Complete the preparation to upgrade tasks. See Before Upgrading vCenter Server
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Verify that you have made a backup of your vCenter Server configuration and database.
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To verify that the VMware Directory Service is in a stable state and can stop, manually restart it. The
VMware Directory service must stopped for the vCenter Server upgrade software to uninstall
vCenter Single Sign-On during the upgrade process.
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Download the vCenter Server Installer. See Download the vCenter Server Installer for Windows.
Procedure
1 Download the vCenter Server for Windows ISO file. Extract the ISO file locally, or mount the ISO file
as a drive.
vSphere Upgrade
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