6.5.1

Table Of Contents
8 Upgrade your VMs and virtual appliances, manually or by using vSphere Update Manager, to perform
an orchestrated upgrade. See Upgrading Virtual Machines and VMware Tools.
When you upgrade vSphere, you must perform all procedures in sequence to avoid possible data loss
and to minimize downtime. You can perform the upgrade process for each component in only one
direction. For example, after you upgrade to vCenter Server 6.5, you cannot revert to vCenter Server
version 5.5 or version 6.0. With backups and some planning, however, you can restore your original
software records.
Overview of the vCenter Server Upgrade Process
VMware provides many options to upgrade to vCenter Server 6.5.
You can upgrade or migrate your vCenter Server version 5.5 or version 6.0 installation to version 6.5
using the method that best addresses your deployment goals and requirements.
Figure 12. vCenter Server High-level Upgrade Tasks
Choose
your
upgrade
method
Start vCenter Server upgrade
Verify you meet the
upgrade requirements
Prepare the
upgrade environment
Ugrade vCenter
Server on Windows
Migrate vCenter Server
on Windows to vCenter
Server Appliance
Upgrade vCenter
Server Appliance
Complete post-upgrade
tasks
Upgrade to vCenter
Server 6.5 is complete
vSphere Upgrade
VMware, Inc. 9