ESXi5.5 upgrade to latest hosted in HP DL380p G8

[BaijuNSHFX]

Hi,

I am new to Vmware upgrade process.

We have few HP Pro DL380p G8 Servers  for our environment with USB bootable flash drive with ESXi5.5.

With a separate VCenter Server with Esxi5.5

I need to upgrade to the latest version, do I need to upgrade / load with latest ESXi 6.5 on USB bootable media ? 

Could you please let me know the procedure with respect this  environment setup.

Thank you.

Regards,

[e_espinel · Accepted solution]

Hello.
I am going to assume that you only have VMware vSphere boot on the USB and that the VMs are on internal disks or external storage.
The first thing would be to verify that the server hardware is supported in the new version that you are going to install, this can be verified in the following link

The easiest and fastest way would be to perform a new installation of vcenter server and ESXi Hosts for version 6.5.

If for any legal reason you need to have the statistics of the vcenter Server and ESXi Hosts, you will have to perform a longer and more complicated update process.

Attached is a link about USB installation
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2004784

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

For the DL380p Gen8 model, use the latest HPE customized ESXi 6.5 U3 PreGen9 image, which includes drivers that are required for this hardware, and the components like the RAID controller. Also consider to upgrade the hosts firmware to the latest HPE SPP that's available for Gen8 servers.

Please note that ESXi hosts cannot be managed by a lower vCenter Server version, so you will need to upgrade vCenter Server first. For the vCenter Server upgrade, I'd suggest that you upgrade to v6.5 first, and to v6.7 in a later step after upgrading the ESXi hosts. That's because vCenter Server 6.7 only supports ESXi 6.0 or later.

André

[e_espinel · Accepted solution]

Hello.
Additionally:

vCenter Server 6.5 can manage ESXi version 5.5 or 6.0 hosts in the same cluster with ESXi 6.5 hosts

Example Upgrade Paths for vCenter Server version 5.5 to version 6.5

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.upgrade.doc/GUID-78B9F91E-36BE-4B76...

[BaijuNSHFX]

Thank you.

HP DL380p G8 are running ESXi5.5 with bootable flash drive.

Our Vcenter ESXi5.5 is hosted one of the boxes.

We have also few Dell PowerEdge T710 Servers as well, I may also need to follow the same procedure for dell servers.

Once again, Thank you

[BaijuNSHFX]

thank you again for the steps details.

[BaijuNSHFX]

André,

Thank you details explanation with steps for the upgrade.

I noted the details given

We also have few Dell PowerEdge T710  servers with ESXi5.5 with bootable flash drive, so I follow the same procedure Dell servers as well.

[BaijuNSHFX]

Andre,

I have verified HP Proliant DL380p G8 & Dell PowerEdge T710 Servers compatibility but it says that server h/w are not supported for Vmware 6.x or 6.5 versions 

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

If both HP and Dell server hardware are not compatible does that mean upgrade from ESXi5.5 to higher version is not possible ?

And HP tech library site says that the server hardware will support Vmware 6.x and 6.5 Versions

https://techlibrary.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/vmware.aspx

Could you please assist me on this clarification.

Thank you

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

According to what I see, the DL380p is supported up to v6.5, and the T710 up to v6.0.

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=server&details=1&keyword=dl...

https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=server&details=1&keyword=t7...

André

[BaijuNSHFX]

Thank you André

[BaijuNSHFX]

André

Once Again Thank you.

I need to upgrade HP DL380p G8 ESXi 5.5  Servers to Ver 6.5 and Dell PowerEdge T710 ESXi5.5 Servers to Ver 6.0

I will follow the necessary steps details given

Since we are using bootable USB Flash drive to host ESXi5.5, I may need to upgrade USB flash drive only correct ?

[a_p_]

>>> Since we are using bootable USB Flash drive to host ESXi5.5, I may need to upgrade USB flash drive only correct ?

Basically yes. However, depending on the USB flash drive's age, and the capacity you may consider to replace the drive.
see "Storage Requirements for ESXi 6.5 Installation or Upgrade" at  ESXi Hardware Requirements

André