I just did this upgrade last night. The system went into demo mode on the node license. As I'm taking it on up to 8.6 tonight I'm not worried about it, but wanted to let people know there is some process they will have to do if staying at 7.1(5)-Ky...
Actually, I created an ISO of the CD that shipped. Then uploaded that to the datastore and mounted it in the VM. Although it may be easier to do it the way you describe.
Thanks Andrew - fortunately I didn't have to re-install. Just changed the last 6 digits of the MAC to 11:11:11 and the web interface loads.The documentation I have been using for this install is lacking, especially for a non-Linux head like myself.h...