9 Clicks to Upgrade vCenter appliance from 5.1 to 5.5

Now worries to un install and re install  just few clicks to upgrade and only 2 clicks to update.

Step0.  Deploy a New vCenter appliance (vCSA 5.5) in the same network as your existing vCenter appliance, Power on the VM once it is deployed. Make sure it has an IP address to connect, while deploying DO NOT assign a DNS name to the VM. Take a snapshot on your existing vCenter appliance or simply clone it.

Step1. Connect to the Newly Deployed appliance over the admin UI https://vCSA_IP_Addr:5480, accept the eula and choose the option to upgrade from the previous version and click Next.

Step2: From the new vCSA copy the upgrade key, (from the below screenshot it starts from BEGIN 648) Now connect to your existing vCenter appliance over the admin UI https://existing _vCSA_ip_addr:5480 and go to the upgrade tab paste the copied key and click on import key and stop vCenter.

New vCSA appliance:

Existing vCSA appliance: Once the import is successful this generates another key as shown below:

(BEGIN 460), now copy this key and paste it in your newly deployed vCSA and click Next

Step3: Select the checkbox to replace the certificates and click Next as shown in the below diagram

Step4: Set your SSO administrator password here your existing admin@system-Domain is changing to adminsitrator@vsphere.local with a new password

Step5: Confirm the hosts need to checked with pre upgrade checker and click Next 

Step6: Review the results shown after scanning the hosts with pre-upgrade script:

Step7: Confirm the checkbox make sure you have a copy of the vCenter appliance or a snapshot on the existing vCSA and click Start

Step8: Once the upgrade is completed successfully, it will shut-down your source vCSA and the newly deployed vCSA becomes your production vCenter appliance. Make sure your vCenter Server is running.

In few minutes your vCenter is upgraded to 5.5.