ESX 4.0.0 to ESXi 5.1 Best Course of Action

[rufus54]

I am waffling between two courses of action:

COA#1:

1. Perform a fresh install of ESXi 5.1 on new hardware
   
2. Migrate the VMs from original host to new host
   
3. Perform a fresh install of ESXi 5.1 on the orignal hardware
   
4. Migrate the VMs back to the original host
   

COA#2:

1. Use the install CD to upgrade ESX 4.0.0 to ESXi 5.1
   

I am partial to COA#2, because less work is involved.  However, I don't like performing upgrades, because the performance of upgrades tend to be less than fresh install.

Has anyone faced the same dilemma?  If so, which COA faired best for you?

[weinstein5]

There are a number of question that have to be answred first to determin which is the best method - do you have shared storage? Do you have vCenter? Are you licensed for vmotion? - either both will work.

I would also take a look at the upgarde guide - http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-upgrade...

[rufus54]

Yes, we have shared storage.

Yes, both ESX 4.0.0 and ESXi 5.1 are licensed for vMotion.

I have deployed a vCenter 5.0 instance.  The existing hosts are managed by a vCenter 4.0.0 instance.

Other information:

45 ESX 4.0.0 hosts and 730 VMs.

[weinstein5]

If you are willing to stand up a vCenter 5.1 - move your 4.- hosts to the new vCenter 5.1 environment - clear the first host off with vmotion - do a fresh install of ESXi 5.1 vmotion the vms back and repeat for the remaining hosts - this method is detailed in the upgrade guide -

[rufus54]

Thanks.