Mount the VCSA ISO file, then browse into the following folder :
D:\vcsa-ui-installer\win32
Then execute the installer.exe application
Click on Upgrade
Click Next
Accept the EUL agreement and click Next
Input the information to connect to the source appliance
and the information of the host or vCenter that manages that VM
Accept the self-signed SSL certificate to continue
Input the information of the ESXi or vCenter target to deploy the new VCSA virtual machine
Accept the self-signed SSL certificate to continue
Give the name of the target VM and its root credentials
Here I have given the FQDN name as VM name, but you can also do the opposite :
- rename the source vCenter VM with .old at the end
- give it the original name of the source vCenter VM so it can take the same
- but it is not important because you can always rename it afterwards
Select the deployment size for vCenter
Select the datastore to store the VM
Configure the network settings
Review and click Finish to deploy
Just wait until the Stage 1 is completed
Stage 1 is completed, now click on continue to launch Stage 2
If you get this message it is because it expects to have an FQDN instead of an IP, in my case, it was the information of the ESXi host managing the vCenter Server
Check the Pre-upgrade result and resolve as many issue as possible, the warnings can be ignored but you still should give some attention to it
Select the data you want to migrate and upgrade
Click on Next
Make sure you have a backup for the source vCenter before upgrade, click on Finish when you are ready
Upgrade is in progress, let it run till the end
Completed, you can now connect to the vCenter Server at version 8.x
