Can i upgrade my ESXi 5.1 hosts to Update1 when vCenter is only at version 5.1..?

[#1]

Hi

I have a query with VUM which we use to update/patch our ESXi hosts.

The build version of our hosts are currently 5.1 (799733).

The build version of our vCenters are currently 5.1 (947673).

I want to patch all the hosts using VUM - it is showing there are 20 updates to apply (17 from VMware & 3 from HP).

When i update the hosts selecting all the available patches/updates the build version of the hosts change to 1117900 which is the latest ESXi 5.1 Update 1!  When referencing VMware's interoperability matrix this configurationh apparently isn't supported!!

Hence i'm concerned that VUM is upgrading the version of ESXi instead of merely applying patches.

Is this ESXi-vCenter configuration supported/usable or should i roll back - thankfully the cluster isn't Live yet..?

The obvious route to take would be to upgrade vCenter and the numerous related components to Update1 first, but other factors don't allow this at present.

I look forward to any advice the community has.

Greg

[#2]

Thats interesting..I was not aware of it.. till i saw the interoperability matrix... I would recommend not to use esxi 5.1 u1 with vcenter 5.1

[GRod78]

Thats what i was thinking - the use of VUM could get you into a nasty situation as choosing which patches might or might not upgrade the version of your host isn't that straight forward to be honest!!!

:smileyconfused:

[SteveGalbincea]

You cannot patch your way to a bad situation with Update Manager - it will not perform an upgrade to 5.1u1 unless you tell it to by loading the ESXi image and deploying it.

[Rodders78]

Steve

I understand your comments and had hoped that was how VUM worked, but it seems that by applying certain patches (some over 300MB in size) the build version of the host is updated to the latest version 1117900.

e.g. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=205120...  - this esx-base 'patch' which displays as an important bugfix in VUM actually upgrades the host build.

Any comments/feedback gratefully received..?

[HariRajan]

HI ,

I have 3 physical ESXI 5.1 and vCenter and VUM 5.1 was running on that . Recently  I have upgraded the vCenter to 5.5 , this time you need to upgrade the SSO and Inventory Service as dependency to 5.5 upgradtion .

Since I am having an existing VUM 5.1 version and vCenter is upgraded to 5.5 , to get the VUM plugin in vCenter , I have forced to upgrade the VUM to 5.5 , and then I can see VUM plugin vCenter 5.5 .

After I only  upgraded vCenter from 5.1 to 5.5 and the 3 ESXI host 5.1 remains same as usual , Only vCenter agents on each ESXI Hosts 5.1 are auto upgraded to 5.5 and thus ESXI 5.1 become visible to vCenter 5.5.

So currently my environment running on

Three ESX1 5.1 and vCenter 5.5, VUM 5.5

As you know VUM is also part of vSphere suite. Also for any OS up-gradation using VUM , we need to add the ESXI image to VUM and it won't come through patch.