In one of my environments I was still running SQL Server Express 2005 with both vCenter and VUM attached to it. I decided that with my upgrade to vSphere 5, I should go ahead and do the full upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 as well.

My plan is as follows.

  1. Install SQL Server 2008
  2. Backup the databases from 2005
  3. Do a Restore of the Databases to Sql Server 2008
  4. Uninstall the old versions of vCenter and VUM
  5. Create New DSN for Sql Server 2008
  6. Install vCenter and VUM while allowing it to upgrade the restored databases
  7. Uninstall Sql Server 2005 Express
Sounds easy Right? Well there are a couple of tricky part which I am going to explain
I would in no way, shape, or form consider myself a Database guy, so if anyone out there has any other suggestions of
changes in settings or anything. Please don’t hesitate to let me know and I will update the doc.
1.First I installed SQL 2008 R2. I won’t go into my full install here as there are plenty of docs out there that cover this specific area. Such as the install doc from Microsoft.
2. I backed up both my vCenter and VUM database in Sql Server 2005 Express. Its a pretty easy process
  • Connect to the instance with Management Studio
  • Right-Click on the database-Tasks-Backup….
The only thing to note here is that when you choose the location of the backup, you have to give it the full path…including full file name. Otherwise it gets upset at you.
3. A restore is pretty much just the same thing in reverse. However before starting, please Detach the databases from their old instances. To do that, Right Click on a Database-Tasks-Detach….Alright, on to Restoring!
Restore Database
4.   Uninstall vCenter Server and VMware Update Manager
It’s just the standard Add/Remove Programs, or appwiz.cpl…whichever you prefer.
5. Create New DSN
(Note: VUM needs a 32bit DSN Create ODBCs with VMware)
This one always gets me. I don’t know why, I just always make it a lot more complicated than it needs to be.
Launch Data Sources(ODBC), under Start-Programs-Administrative Tools
In this picture, the Existing DSN is still there.
Click Add
Name the DSN. Because there is a drop-down when choosing which SQL Server, I always think it is going to populate with choices for me. However it doesn’t. What you can do though is just type the instance name into that box, and it will work just as well. For instance if you use the default SQL server instance, you can just type the host name of the SQL Server in there.
Change the Default Instance to what you vCenter DB name is…
After this I next my way through and choose to test the datasource at the end just to make sure it works.
Hooray! Now just go ahead and install vCenter and VUM to your hearts content. You can check my links to see my previous experience in a different enviornent with upgrading to the latest version:
After those installs, I uninstall SQL Server Express 2005. BOOM!
Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions!
Other References that might be useful
Categories: vCenterVMware

1 Comment

Installing vSphere 6 | vNoob · June 25, 2015 at 11:02 am

[…] Then I create the DSN. I have some older instructions in this post here […]

Leave a Reply