ESXi 5.1 update to 5.5

[eversys]

Dear Experts,

We currently have an ESXi 5.1.0 build 1065491 installed with a Dell Customized Image. We would like to update to VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 (build 2068190). We have downloaded the Dell customized image from VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 Driver Details | Dell US.

Is it a simple matter of booting the VMware host from the .iso and then selecting update as opposed to install? Anything that we should consider before the update?

Thanks for your help.

Oliver

[Anjani_Kumar · Accepted solution]

you are all set but still i like you to check if you verify these things before upgrade.

1. Ensure that sufficient disk space is available on the host for the upgrade or migration. Migrating from ESX 4.x to ESXi 5.x requires 50MB of free space on your VMFS datastore.
2. If a SAN is connected to the host, detach the fibre before continuing with the upgrade or migration. Do not disable HBA cards in the BIOS.
   Note: This step does not apply to ESX hosts that boot from the SAN and have the Service Console on the SAN LUNs. You can disconnect LUNs that contain the VMFS datastore and do not contain the Service Console.

• VMware strongly recommends that you back up your host before performing an upgrade or migration, so that, if the upgrade fails, you can restore your host.
  
  
• After the upgrade or migration, test the system to ensure that the upgrade or migration completed successfully.
  
  
• Reapply your host licenses. For more information, see the Reapplying Licenses After Upgrading to ESXi 5.5 section in the vSphereUpgrade Guide.

Also i would suggest you to read KB article.VMware KB: Installing or upgrading to ESXi 5.5 best practices

And yeah Good Luck for your Upgrade

[eversys]

Thanks for your feedback and links.

VMware 5.1 is currently installed on a SD-card. We have a separate RAID5 array for the datastore. When you mention making a backup of the host... do you mean the vmware installation/config on the SD-card or the datastore with the VMs?

[Anjani_Kumar]

It will be just configuration for your esxi server. they are simple configuration file and can backup so easily in any storage (usb, Datasore etc. ) this is just for precaution.

for method of backup the config you can go through thisarticle. VMware KB: Backing up and restoring ESXi configuration using the vSphere Command-Line Interface and ...

[eversys]

Great thanks - will backup the config using vSphere PowerCLI and the command "Get-VMHostFirmware -VMHost 10.0.0.1 -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath C:\Downloads".

The datastore / VMs won't be touched during the update - right?

[Anjani_Kumar]

correct.

[Viewaskew]

Sounds silly but if you use vCenter, make sure that is upgraded first. I've seen people upgrade the hosts first which will work for 5.1.x revisions but vCenter needs to be 5.5 before it'll talk to a 5.5 host

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=205779...‌

[markdjones82]

If you are using Vmware Update Manager to apply the updates it usually will only update the Vmware core packages.  So, be sure to check your driver versions and make sure they were upgraded.  If not, you will want to create a separate baseline and update those manually.

VMware KB: Determining Network/Storage firmware and driver version in ESXi/ESX 4.x, ESXi 5.x and ESX...