VI3 and vS5 mixed cluster risks?

[TBKing]

I just dropped a new host into my environment, sensibly built as vS5, to increase capacity, and give us some breathing room as I upgrade from vi3 to vS5.

I was able to add the vS5 host to a cluster with all other hosts as VI3, but a message pops up

"vSphere HA Cluster Cluster01 in Datacenter contains ESX/ESXi 3.5 hosts and more recent host versions, which isn't fully supported."

EVC, vMotion, DRS are enabled.

All of the guests are still at virtual hardware v4.

My upgrade plan was to shuffle hosts in and out of the cluster as I upgrade (fresh install) to vS5.  I planned on completing that over a period of a few days while I keep all of my guests up and on-line.

I did find this article:  http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2011/10/mixing-esxesxi-versions-in-an-hadrs-cluster.html

Basically says don't upgrade components (tools, vm hardware, vmfs) until all hosts are up to speed.

Is there anything else to be aware of?

Any features not supported?

Thanks

[dcsteam]

Which version of vCenter are you running?  If it's not vCenter 5.0, it's not supported to run an ESXi 5.0 host.

Doug.

[TBKing]

Yes, I am on vCenter 5

.. and have the FlexLM running for vi3 host licensing

  ... and hopefully caught all the other tips and tricks for going from 3 to 5.

Thanks

[Techstarts]

you're on right track. I would proceed with upgrade(Fresh Installation) as earlier as possible, once upgrade is successful proceed to upgrade vmware tools and then VM hardware. If you have windows 2008 machine please read this article http://communities.vmware.com/message/1659074

[TBKing]

Thanks for the link.

Does that still apply for v8 virtual hardware?

.. looks like some long weekends coming up :smileyplain:

[Techstarts]

DWO wrote:

Thanks for the link.

Does that still apply for v8 virtual hardware?

.. looks like some long weekends coming up:smileyplain:

Not sure..Need to check this behaviour

[TBKing]

Starting to get vS5 hosts into the cluster.

Obviously, guests still have tools at vi3 level, so when they sit on a vS5 host it registers an "Unsupported" error.

Is there any issue if the VMTools were upgraded to vS5 level and the guest moves back to a vi3 host?

.. I'm NOT upgrading the virtual hardware yet.

Thanks