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Upgrading to VMM in System Center 2012 SP1

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager

If you have an existing deployment of System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), you can upgrade to VMM in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This upgrade is a fresh installation of System Center 2012 SP1. It uses the retained database from the System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager deployment.

Warning

If you are planning to upgrade two or more System Center components, we strongly recommend that you first consult the guide Upgrade Sequencing for System Center 2012 SP1. The order in which you perform component upgrades is very important. Failure to follow the correct upgrade sequence might result in component failure for which no recovery options exist. The affected System Center components are:

  1. Orchestrator
  2. Service Manager
  3. Data Protection Manager (DPM)
  4. Operations Manager
  5. Configuration Manager
  6. Virtual Machine Manager
  7. App Controller

Important

An upgrade from the Beta version of System Center 2012 SP1 to the RTM version of System Center 2012 SP1 is not supported.

Some data in the VMM database, such as Run As account credentials and passwords in guest operating system profiles, is encrypted using the Windows Data Protection application programming interface (DPAPI). To retain this encrypted data during an upgrade, the VMM management server must be installed on the same computer where VMM was previously installed. Also, you must use the same service account of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager service that you used in your previous installation of VMM.

You can perform the installation of VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 either on the same server where System Center 2012 – Virtual Machine Manager is currently installed or on a different server. However, if you install VMM on a different computer or use a different service account, this encrypted data will not be retained.

The following topics provide information to help you with this upgrade:

For information about performing a new VMM installation in System Center 2012 SP1, see “VMM deployment” and other Virtual Machine Manager topics in the TechNet Library.