Best way to downgrade ESXi 5.5 to 4.1 ?

[lyngsie]

Due to some NetApp firmware limitations, I have to downgrade some ESXi 5.5 hosts to version 4.1 U3. I cannot use the Shift + R rollback feature. Should I create a host profile for each host, and then apply it after clean install of 4.1? Or is there another easier way to downgrade from 5.5 to 4.1?

[john23]

Host profile would not be recommended, 5.5 has lot of other parameters added and changed compare to 4.1.

[a_p_]

I don't think a host profile created from a v5.5 host will work on a v4.1 host, so you may need to at least reinstall one of the hosts, configure it and create a host profile from this one.

Although I assume you are aware of this, please ensure that:

• the VMs still running on virtual HW version 7 (i.e. a HW version supported by v4.1)
• the datastores still using the VMFS3 format?

André

[lyngsie]

Okay, so it seems I have to setup first host manually and then create the profile. Thanks.

a.p.:
Thanks for the information. I am aware of the prerequisites om 4.1.