ESXI 4.1 upgrade to ESXi 5.5

DonVitoCorleone · ‎02-03-2015

Sorry for a very basic questions but I am very VMnewbe. We have 5 hypervisors 4.1 in two different locations. On vCenter we have a claster of it.

The 4.1 is a bit old and we need to upgrade it to 5.5. My question is:

1. Does it require only CD with ESXi 5.5. and do the upgrade during the boot?

2. Do we need to upgrade licenses as well?

3. Do our vCenter, vSphere, vMotion will work after upgrade? Will they require licenses upgrade?

4. Can I do a backup of whole ESXi with configuration and VMs?

Thank you for clarifications

rcporto · ‎02-03-2015

1. Does it require only CD with ESXi 5.5. and do the upgrade during the boot?

To use the interactive upgrade will require the CD, but remember that you will need first upgrade the vCenter server.

2. Do we need to upgrade licenses as well?

Yes, you will need license for version 5.x.

3. Do our vCenter, vSphere, vMotion will work after upgrade? Will they require licenses upgrade?

Yes if your 5.x licenses supports this features.

4. Can I do a backup of whole ESXi with configuration and VMs?

Backup is always recommended 🙂

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Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto

DonVitoCorleone · ‎02-03-2015

Hi there,

Thank you for your answer.

According the backup, yes that's right but I am wonder of I can do a backup of whole content, all ESXi configuration + VM by one click

or I have to do:

and next

2. each VM one by one by: exporting to OVF ?

DonVitoCorleone · ‎02-03-2015

One more question,

Why do I need to upgrade vCenter first? and how to do it?

Tom

BenLiebowitz · ‎02-03-2015

An older version of vCenter cannot manage hosts that are newer than itself, that is why you need to upgrade vCenter first.

vSphere 5.5 Installation and setup guide:

Ben Liebowitz, VCP vExpert 2015, 2016, & 2017 If you found my post helpful, please mark it as helpful or answered to award points.

rudranjansaha · ‎02-03-2015

Personally I would NOT upgrade, and I would install new. (it's quicker, easier, and works!)

1.Check if hardware is supported by ESXi 5.5, see VMware HCL

2. Insert the ESXi 5.5 installer CDROM in Server CD-ROM drive

3. Boot Server from CDROM

4. Follow the Wizard

5. It's done in 15 minutes.

6. When asked to Preserve VMFS (your VMs on your datastore select YES)

As for vCenter Server, this needs to be upgraded first, same applies, insert CDROM, Perform a Simple Installation, and it will be upgraded.

As for a Good Document, there are the VMware Documents here:-