So when it comes to updating and migrating vCenter to a new server at the same time.... in past versions such as vCenter 2.5 and VMware Infrastructure 3, vCenter could just be easily re-installed and connected to the existing SQL database without problems, or in the case of vCenter 4.x up to 5.0, after vCenter started accreting a bunch of extra seemingly excessive moving parts and extra databases, there was an easy to use tool "datamigration" included in the vCenter install DVD, and I must of used it to moved 4 or 5 vCenter installations to 64-bit Server 2003 and Server 2008 R2.

Today I am looking at the vCenter 5.5 Update 1 ISOs, and there seems to be no working datamigration tool after 5.0.

This is a major problem, because these vCenter 5.1 Update 1 and 5.5 servers running on Windows Server 2003 64-bit and 2008 R2 64-bit are ending Microsoft's support end of life time.

And the SQL servers, which are separate, were already upgraded to Server 2012 R2 many months ago.

So the really dumb question is.... How does one Update vCenter 5.5 to Update 1 and simultaneously migrate it (Or migate then update) to a new Windows server instance, without breaking anything or losing any of the data or configuration related to vCenter?

Does someone have a complete list of what needs to be moved to successfully migrate, and some proven tools and methodology, seeing as VMware doesn't seem to be providing squat?