Updating VM ESXi 4.1 to 5.*

[rob998]

Hello,

 

Has anyone got any experience of updating VM from 4.1 to 5.5? Am I kidding myself by thinking it is as simple as booting each ESXi host to the update CD and running the update? Does the vCenter server need to be updated first and is that just a running setup from the CD and upgrading?

 

I am licensed for vSphere 5 Essentials Plus and vCenter Server 5 Essentials

 

I will be updating to server 2012 soon and would like to get the VM update done sharpish so I can concentrate on the 2012 stuff.

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

[3s-gtech]

Usually, it is just that simple. Done three hosts - I had one which failed the update, so I left it for a while and tried with a newer version (I think it was 5.1 instead of 5.0). Worked perfectly second time. Not done 5.5 personally, but the same principles apply.

[TechMonkey]

We did it fine, even after our support company suggested we should leave it to them. Go slow, do a host at a time, make sure you don't need a custom image (some Dell/hp/etc servers have optimised updates available and when updating it will moan at you if you aren't using one and there is one installed currently) and make sure there are no rules stopping VMs moving (which we had for some unknown reason).

 

In fact now I think about it, we did it all through the update manager so didn't need to even visit the hardware.

[rob998]

Thanks for the replies. Update manager sounds good to me just need to see if it is installed. I've inherited this setup from a third party support company :-(

[FN-GM]

Yes use update manager.

 

1. Update your Vcenter

2. Install / Update update manager with the latest version.

3. Update hosts using update manager.

 

I did it myself this week. Dead easy with update manager didn't need to leave my desk!

 

There are some helpful videos on you tube about using update manager.

[rob998]

Thanks for that. I've found update manager.

 

I've checked my licences again and I have the following:

 

vSphere 5 Essentials Plus x1 1 INSTANCE(s)

 

vCenter Server 5 Essentials x1 6 CPU(s)

 

I have 2 ESXi hosts both running 4.1 - does that make sense to anyone (looking at the above)? Shouldn't I have 2 vSphere 5 Essentials Plus?

[FN-GM]

Nope they are fine.

 

The 2 licences are linked together essentials plus is a package you get. You get 1 x VC plus 6 CPUs (usually split between 3 hosts)

 

Update manager is included with Essentials Plus.

[psydii]

Make sure you are running the latest supported firmware on all the hardware involved.

 

We used one of our pool days from our service provider to do it. It worked quickly, without incident so the engineer tidied and documented the rest of the server room while he was there, and resized a few LUNS and better balanced the VMs between available datastores, all jobs we'd have never got to until we hit a critical incident so I'm very happy.

[twin--turbo]

Nope they are fine.

 

The 2 licences are linked together essentials plus is a package you get. You get 1 x VC plus 6 CPUs (usually split between 3 hosts)

 

Update manager is included with Essentials Plus.

 

ESXi is the free standalone vesrion though? should be ESX... Or at least that was/is my understanding since my 3.5 4.0 days..

 

We still run ESX and ESXi but not for Mission Critical Stuff.. Wish we did as the XEN is pants.

 

Rob

[FN-GM]

ESXi is the free standalone vesrion though? should be ESX... Or at least that was/is my understanding since my 3.5 4.0 days..

 

We still run ESX and ESXi but not for Mission Critical Stuff.. Wish we did as the XEN is pants.

 

Rob

 

ESX has long gone. ESXi is the only host OS now.

[twin--turbo]

ESX has long gone. ESXi is the only host OS now.

 

Ahh, loosing touch

 

Would upgrade my home 4.1 but My PC is not powerful enough to make use of later versions.

 

Rob

[rob998]

Thanks for the info.

 

Can i get away with updating the vCenter first then updating the ESXi hosts at a later date? i.e. a few days later?

[Tall_Paul]

I did it last summer. It's not difficult but not a very quick process (I also took the opportunity to upgrade all my datastores to VMFS5 and my VMs to version 8).

 

I had to do a lot of shuffling of VMs between my hosts to put them into maintenance mode, and also shuffle data between my datastores so I could wipe them then recreate them as VMFS5 (it's better to do this that upgrade them).

[TechMonkey]

Thanks for the info.

 

Can i get away with updating the vCenter first then updating the ESXi hosts at a later date? i.e. a few days later?

 

Yep. How you are meant to do it really.

[FN-GM]

Thanks for the info.

 

Can i get away with updating the vCenter first then updating the ESXi hosts at a later date? i.e. a few days later?

 

Yep

[rob998]

Sweet!

[rob998]

All done and dusted! Used update manager and all went without a hitch. Thanks for the information!

 

EDIT - I don't like the Web Client :-(

[FN-GM]

All done and dusted! Used update manager and all went without a hitch. Thanks for the information!

 

EDIT - I don't like the Web Client :-(

 

Easy wasn't it?

 

I am not a fan of it either, but looks like we are being pushed down that route.

[Davit2005]

Done 4.1 to 5.1 over summer hols.

 

As @FN-GM said it is pretty easy there is a guide from VMWare.

 

The only thing the guide seem to emit is the method to upgrade the hosts by creating a Upgrade base line.

 

Done the server and 11 blades over a couple of days then about a spent about a week updating all the VM tools on the individual VM's.

 

SSO installed first, Inventory database upgraded, updated vCenter, updated update manager, then update the hosts but the VIM Setup almost does it for you.

 

All went through fine no problems, don't forget to use a customized image if necessary i.e. for HP's and check the hardware compatibility guide.