ESXi5 + SAN upgrade

[alainrussell]

Hi,

We are currently using a Dell MD3000i and 4.1U1, we've ordered a new Equallogic PS4100X and I would like to use vmfs5 on this SAN from the outset - the only issue we have is the MD3000i is not on the VMware HCL for ESXi5. Ideally I don't want to upgrade the vmfs on the new SAN so want to upgrade in the following order:

VCenter

ESXi5

New vmfs (Equallogic)

Move VM's from MD3000i

What are the risks of doing this with the MD3000i not being on the current HCL - will it still work, or would it be too much of a risk?

Thanks

Alain

[PduPreez]

Hi

Here is a post with the same Question: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/327472

My 2 Cents.

I believe this should work fine. I guess they cannot test all the SAN devices ,especially older ones, to add to the compatibility list.

Although it is always better to be safe than sorry

I would try and get a "spare" host and load it with esxi 5.0 present a LUN from the Dell MD3000i and see that it works.

As long as it can see the storage it should be fine, because ESXi 5 will recognize vmfs3 Datastores

So I would do:

vCenter

ESXi 5 (only 1 host to double check)

Present new LUN (format vmfs5)

Move a VM from old to new

If all works

Upgrade the other hosts

regards

Pieter

Please award points if this is helpful or correct.

[alainrussell]

Great, thanks for this. Will give it a try as you suggest when the new SAN arrives.

[huwy]

I'd be interested to know how you got on with this Alain as I am looking to do the same?

Thanks,

Huw

[alainrussell]

This worked perfectly actually, no issues at all apart from a slightly slower boot (early versions of ESXi5 had an iSCSI boot bug) but that is fixed in the newer version with a patch. We ended up keeping the MD3000i and using it as a backup store for Veeam.

Hope that helps.

Alain

[huwy]

Thanks Alain.

[lobo519]

Good to hear - I am in the exact situation and plan to use my MD3000i for Veeam backups as well!

good to hear it all works!