From the documentation, 6.5.1 support Physical to Virtual and Virtual (from a ESXi) to Virtual (to another ESXi)
What's about using VMware Converter to clone a Virtual vCenter running on a ESXi 5.1 (Standalone unique Lab server) to a VM that will be hosted by a VMware Workstation 8 as to have a failover vCenter instance to run updates from the update manager on the unique ESXi and not to have to use command lines to update that sole server ?
Another tought. Is the server running on VMware Workstation have to be considered as a Physical node under Heartbeat definition in relation with the server running on the ESXi 5.1 ?