Migrate to Distributed vSwitches with the vCenter vApp

“In the ghetto, we use one vCenter vApp to migrate another vCenter vApp to Distributed vSwitches”

Or something like that. The background, was I needed to move some hosts and VMs in my home lab to vDS to take advantage of their awesomeness along side vCloud Director. However, as my primary vCenter lived on those hosts as well… what was I to do?

Taking a tip form here (thanks!), the procedure was thus:

Note

I said in the ghetto, and I mean it. This worked for me, it may not for you. Also, doing it this way for more than a small handful of hosts could be quite cumbersome. Also, all that other “YMMV” stuff here.

1. In Fusion or Workstation, import the vCenter 5.1 vApp, power it on, etc.
2. Add your hosts into the new vCenter.
3. Create vDS
4. Migrate the host and VM Networking
5. Now, this is where it gets fun. In the web client, browse to the vDS you created, and export:
   
6. Export all the things:
   
7. Save the file, and on the other side, import it:
   
8. Once imported, verify she’s there:
   
9. Move your hosts back to the original vCenter.

Again YMMV, but there it is, using one vCenter vApp to bootstrap vDS for another.