Adding a new v4 ESX box to a ESX 3 farm

[tomagoaluminium]

Can someone point me in the direction for some info on the best way to import a version 4 esx box into an existing esx 3 server farm.

we will need to upgrade the VC to version 4

once we have the new server in the farm, virtual machines will migrate to the server and then we will upgrade the existing version3 servers.

[HannaL]

Sounds like you have the right plan. First thing is to upgrade VC to 4 since a 2.5 VC can't manage a vsphere host. Then just right click add host once all the requirements are met. Then read the Upgrade guide but you have the general idea.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_upgrade_guide.pdf

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009039

Hope that helps

Hanna

[tomagoaluminium]

do you know if the upgrade of the 2.5 VC to VC 4 is an inplace upgrade?

Will the existing MSDE_VC be compatible with the new verison?

[HannaL]

/me points at upgrade guide requirements section.

I do know the answers to those two questions and the answer is yes it is an inplace upgrade for the VC server and no you can not use MSDE for vCenter 4. VMware provides another (better) DB with vCenter4 that is suitable for small environments of upto 5 hosts or 50 VM's called SQL 2005 express. Remember the VC DB isn't really critical especially for such a small environment. The VM info is all stored on the ESX hosts and the VC db mainly just stores performance statistics, resource pool and custom role information so adding the hosts in to the upgraded vc isn't the end of the world for less than 5 hosts.

Hope that helps

Hanna

[tomagoaluminium]

oh that is great news, we only have 2 hosts at the moment, and don't see ourselves getting more than 5.

i might just throw all my questions at you and see how you go.

with the new VC4 do i just use the old licenses for the original 2 esx boxes?

once the 3 machines are in the farm will the existing vms migrate to the new host?

to upgrade the original esx boxes we cannot do an inplace upgrade as their disk setup doesn't have the space for verison 4 to be installed and we will need fresh installation. anything tricky we need to do before migrating machines to 3rd v4 box and then removing 2 v3 box from the farm?

thanks heaps for your help

[HannaL]

In order

1) Sorta kinda not really. Licensing is one of the more complicated parts of the upgrade. You really really need to read the upgrade guide and the release notes and the preupgrade checklist. Basically you will need to have both the old license server for the v3 farm and the new serial number licensing for v4 already set up. You need to do some stuff on your vmware.com store account to get your licenses figured out and I suggest doing that ahead of time.

2) yes, again this is mentioned specifically in the upgrade guide. you will need to upgrade the vmware tools and that will require reboots fro teh vm's but it doesnt have to be done immediately.

3) remove your SAN cables before doing a fresh install so you don't accidentally end up overwriting your VM's on the san, read the Install guide and have backups just in case. you will also need to have root password, ips, gateways, dns fqdn's all written down so you can put them on the new server to match the others.

call support if you need specific help.. I have to go get dinner now

Hope that helps

Hanna

[tomagoaluminium]

thanks heaps...

just wanted a normal users prespective before delving in to the doco for nitty gritty.

cheers

[HannaL]

Cool. Sounds like you are preparing well then. Also make sure to give me points for helping you

Hanna