RR 6.x and vCenter Server 6.5 (not ESXi)

Greetings. The short answer is yes, this should be just fine. Since you will have VMware 6.5 in the mix however you will want to be on RR 6.1.137 or above, regardless of whether or not you upgrade your hosts themselves (which you do not have to until you are ready to do so, if at all). This reply will also assume you are protecting your VMs agent-lessly, if you aren't and you are still using agents, then the backups will work regardless, however you'll need to upgrade the core to the previously mentioned version to restore.

Do you have the ability/resources of just installing a fresh vCenter VA (the VCSA) that can be up and running, and you can configure it, and whatever settings you want, and then migrate to it to try to minimize your downtime? If so, that is what I'd recommend rather than upgrading my existing vCenter VA (it simply has not gone well for me personally over time and due to the ease of deployment at times it is just as easy to install a new one if you have the available hardware). If you don't and you simply upgrade, and the upgrade works, then realistically no changes have to be made to your RR core, aside from being on version 6.1.1.137 (or above). Older versions will backup VMware 6.5, however they will not restore directly to it, thus you will want to upgrade your core sooner than later (or before). That is again, if everything goes fine with the upgrade.

Otherwise you can:

1) Deploy a new vCenter VA and configure it
2) Before you convert to it, remove your agent-lessly protected VMs, but keep recovery points
3) Add/join the hosts to the new VC
4) From the RR core protect multiple machines > VMware > point to the new VC > Re-add your VMs to protection

Due to CBT being .vmdk based the VMs should just pick up with their next incremental RPs. The only exception (which is rare) is if VMware decides it needs to issue new UUIDs to the VMs, but that is very, uncommon.

Thanks phuffers. I am on 6.1.1.137 and not using agents so shouldn't be any issues there. I think what I'll do based on the information provided is remove the VM's from being protected but keep recovery points, upgrade my existing core, then repoint RR to the new vCenter and re-add machines. Seems simple enough!

Hope I don't encounter the new UUID issue you mentioned though. From my understanding though is if it did then the recovery points wouldn't be valid. Not a critical deal for me at this point in deployment.

Greetings. The short answer is yes, this should be just fine. Since you will have VMware 6.5 in the mix however you will want to be on RR 6.1.137 or above, regardless of whether or not you upgrade your hosts themselves (which you do not have to until you are ready to do so, if at all). This reply will also assume you are protecting your VMs agent-lessly, if you aren't and you are still using agents, then the backups will work regardless, however you'll need to upgrade the core to the previously mentioned version to restore.

Do you have the ability/resources of just installing a fresh vCenter VA (the VCSA) that can be up and running, and you can configure it, and whatever settings you want, and then migrate to it to try to minimize your downtime? If so, that is what I'd recommend rather than upgrading my existing vCenter VA (it simply has not gone well for me personally over time and due to the ease of deployment at times it is just as easy to install a new one if you have the available hardware). If you don't and you simply upgrade, and the upgrade works, then realistically no changes have to be made to your RR core, aside from being on version 6.1.1.137 (or above). Older versions will backup VMware 6.5, however they will not restore directly to it, thus you will want to upgrade your core sooner than later (or before). That is again, if everything goes fine with the upgrade.

Otherwise you can:

1) Deploy a new vCenter VA and configure it
2) Before you convert to it, remove your agent-lessly protected VMs, but keep recovery points
3) Add/join the hosts to the new VC
4) From the RR core protect multiple machines > VMware > point to the new VC > Re-add your VMs to protection

Due to CBT being .vmdk based the VMs should just pick up with their next incremental RPs. The only exception (which is rare) is if VMware decides it needs to issue new UUIDs to the VMs, but that is very, uncommon.

No problem. Ultimately what you are trying to do should be just fine from an RR standpoint. I assure you, from the product standpoint it does work. I even currently have this exact configuration running in an ESXi 6 lab, due to the fact that I wanted to test vCenter 6.5 myself, but left the hosts alone. It does protect/restore just fine on your build and newer.

Sounds great, that's what I wanted to hear too (that the mixed config works fine).