Can 3.5 VC manage Vpshere clients?

[wmnoober]

Hi all,

I'm new to vmware & i have an existing 3.5 setup in

my environment. We have a need to purchase more ESX servers. New

purchase will apparently be Vshpere.

Will my current VC be able to manage the new VM clients on Vshpere?

[weinstein5]

No VC 2.5 cannot manage vSphere 4 hosts - you have one of two options -

1. Buy you vSphere licenses and see ifVMware will downgrade the licenses to ESX 3.5 -

2. Upgrade your existing vCenter server because vCenter 4.0 can manage both ESX 3.5 and vSphere ESX 4.0 hosts -

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful

[kac2 · Accepted solution]

do not add any new vSphere hosts to your existing setup. vCenter 3.5 cannot manage vSphere hosts. You must first upgrade vCenter to 4.0 Update 1, then you can start adding new ESX 4.0 hosts and start your upgrade process of the remaining 3.5 hosts.

[wmnoober]

hi guys, thank you for you response.

so ideally, my VC must first be upgraded to 4.0 U1 & then it can manage both the existing VMs on 3.5 as well as newly created VMs? Will there if any cause & effect If I choose to upgrade the 3.5 clients slowly over a period of time & not adopt a big bang approach?

[kac2]

Correct. Upgrade vCenter first. Then you can manage all your hosts.

If I can make a suggestion about upgrading 3.5 hosts...

You can updgrade from 3.5 to 4, but it will be much easier to do a clean install of the host, reconfigure it, and add it back to vCenter.