Is it possible to have SCOM 2016 and SCOM 2022 instances with the same Management Group name?

Question

Hi,

In order to move from SCOM 2016 to 2022, my customer has requested if it is possible to do the following:

• Build a new SCOM 2022 environment with the same Management Group name, alongside the existing 2016 instance.
• Use the 2022 Ops Console to push the upgrade of the latest agent onto the clients, so they now report to the new environment.
• Retire the old environment

Instinct tells me it is not a good idea, but I can't find any conversations about it online. The MS page about parallel upgrade here:

[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/scom/deploy-upgrade-agents-parallel?view=sc-om-2022

seems to suggest it is possible, but there is nothing to say if MG name uniqueness is a requirement.

Answer 1

Hi,

The installation wizard shows us we need to ensure the MG group name is unique when we setup SCOM 2022.

Answer 2

Hi Dominic @Dominic Williams

What you are doing is callled parallel migration (or also side-by-side) migration and is a common scenario with one important remark: The Management Group name must NOT be the same, it MUST be different for each MG.

I am not quite sure why your customer requested that the Management Group name should stay the same, but this is not supported.

Regards,

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(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)
Regards
Stoyan Chalakov

Answer 3

Thanks XinGuo and Stoyan. It's what I thought, but it always helps to have Microsoft officially confirming it.