ESXi Upgrade

[ITGURU]

I've inherited a 2 host, 1 san network currently running esxi 5.0.0 i understand that I can upgrade to 5.5 using the existing license which will then allow support of Windows Server 2016.

 

As a Hyper-V expert, what it the upgrade process for Esxi? Do i need to move all VMS off the host to the second host, upgrade the 1st host via bootable disk, then move the VMs back from Host 2 to Host 1 with the new version?

 

What about drivers, and iscsi links to the datastores on the SAN..i assume they have to be reconfigured through the Vsphere client?

 

Any advise or help guides would be appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[kmount]

5.5 is end of life come September you want to be upgrading beyond that assuming your hardware is on the HCL.

 

If you have vCenter (think of this like SCVMM in Hyper-V land) you can automate the updating centrally.

 

But yes, the idea is you do vCenter first, then the hosts - you can boot from an ISO if you really want to but if you have vCenter+Update Manager in place you can upload the vendor ISO here and have it push it out + then the patches that follow.

 

Drivers etc are all included in the vendor ISO assuming your servers are a relatively well known brand.

 

Bit more info about the set up and we'll be able to steer you.

[ITGURU]

5.5 is end of life come September you want to be upgrading beyond that assuming your hardware is on the HCL.

 

If you have vCenter (think of this like SCVMM in Hyper-V land) you can automate the updating centrally.

 

But yes, the idea is you do vCenter first, then the hosts - you can boot from an ISO if you really want to but if you have vCenter+Update Manager in place you can upload the vendor ISO here and have it push it out + then the patches that follow.

 

Drivers etc are all included in the vendor ISO assuming your servers are a relatively well known brand.

 

Bit more info about the set up and we'll be able to steer you.

 

I wanted to switch to Hyper-V but the 2 servers have no local raid controller or drives, they are dells R620's and booting from SD cards so cant go with my original plan so seems i'll have to stick with VMware for now.

 

I gather I can upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5 to give me the server 2016 support but appears i'd have to purchase a new license to get to version 6?

 

They are currently running ESXi Standard 5.0.0 licensed for 2 physical CPUs

[3s-gtech]

IME, upgrading from 5.0 to 5.5 is a case of putting the installer on a USB stick, booting to it, and selecting to upgrade. Settings will remain. If uptime is critical, you'll need to transfer VMs across - otherwise you can leave them. Drivers - have you installed any outside of those shipped?

[ITGURU]

IME, upgrading from 5.0 to 5.5 is a case of putting the installer on a USB stick, booting to it, and selecting to upgrade. Settings will remain. If uptime is critical, you'll need to transfer VMs across - otherwise you can leave them. Drivers - have you installed any outside of those shipped?

 

That's good to know settings remain - so if I reboot hosts the VMs will go offline but then once back online they will automatically reconnect ?

As for drivers - I have no idea - the original servers were set up by an outside company years back.

 

Is there any way to find out if any additional drivers have been added?

[ITGURU]

IME, upgrading from 5.0 to 5.5 is a case of putting the installer on a USB stick, booting to it, and selecting to upgrade. Settings will remain. If uptime is critical, you'll need to transfer VMs across - otherwise you can leave them. Drivers - have you installed any outside of those shipped?

 

On the dell site under the product downloads there is a esxi 5.5 download for dell servers, should i use that rather than the generic vmware one?

[kmount]

Yes, always use the vendor ISO (for drivers, etc)

 

Going to 6.x won't cost you anything as long as service/support is paid up with VMware - if its not you probably want to figure that out.

 

Being SDCard boot makes a lot of sense for ESXi, no need for raid controller, spinning disks etc.

 

If there's really no vCenter then the VMs won't roam from host to host anyway, so you have no choice but downtime - but as there's a SAN one would hope there's a vCenter setup too to make this easier for you.

 

I'd check your VMware support entitlement and plan to go up higher.

[3s-gtech]

That's good to know settings remain - so if I reboot hosts the VMs will go offline but then once back online they will automatically reconnect ?

As for drivers - I have no idea - the original servers were set up by an outside company years back.

 

Is there any way to find out if any additional drivers have been added?

 

Yeah, I always manually shut my VMs down beforehand but not that necessary. The upgrade carries your VM settings, IP etc etc across, if it goes well. I once had an upgrade break the host entirely, but because the VMs were on separate storage it took no time at all to rebuild it anyway, and just reattach them.