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Esxi 5.1 to 5.5 Upgrade Media Decision

Greetings,

I am in the process of looking to upgrade my Dell and Cisco hosts from 5.1 to 5.5.  Would it beneficial for me to utilize the available Dell Customized ESXi5.5 Image as well as Cisco's custom image for these host upgrades?  I am interested to know if these custom images have updated drivers that the standard ESXi 5.5 iso from VMware doesn't have.

Also,  if I go the route of using the customized Dell and Cisco images, will I need to apply the 5.5U1 Driver Rollup 2 afterwards?  I am not seeing any documentation if the Dell and Cisco images contain these driver updates or not.

Or should I just scrap the idea of using the custom Dell and Cisco images and just upgrade the host using the VMware-ESXi-5.5U1-Rollup_2ISO.iso images.

Any thoughts on this is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

2 Replies
grasshopper
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Firstly, it should be noted that the "Driver Rollup" is not to be used for upgrades.  This performs a clean installation.  This is a less than desirable naming standard on VMware's part as it causes confusion.  You should always click the "Read More" link on the my.vmware.com download.  In the case of the rollup, it will tell you "This image should not be used for ESXi upgrades".  Now, personally I prefer a clean install most times but it is possible that this could be an unexpected surprise for people (i.e. they think they were upgrading but got a clean install instead).

If you want to use the VMware Official ISO to perform an upgrade, instead of the rollup, choose VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update01-1623387.x86_64.iso, then use VMware Update manager to get the missing bits (i.e. CIM providers, hardware drivers, etc.) for your Dell or other clusters.  Of course you will need to have the relevant bits manually uploaded to VUM or have VUM configured to talk to the appropriate VIB depot for each respective vendor.

Another option (and in many cases is flat out mandatory) is cooking your own ISO that includes all the VIBs you want.  You can use PowerCLI ImageBuilder for this, or check out ESXi-Customizer. [<-- BTW, tons of good content on that site so look around].  Nowadays, most folks cook their own because it allows you to inject the VIBs you need to get the host network connected (i.e. async 10Gb NIC drivers).  This is a deep topic that deserves some study / practice in the lab.  Once you've done it you will see it's not too difficult but it's quite intimidating at a glance.

No matter which option you pick you should still point VUM to grab all the critical updates from VMware, or manually install them if they were not in your custom ISO (i.e. the heartbleed, or other patches).  Personally, I'm a fan of using the vendor provided ISO (i.e. Dell, HP, etc.).  Totally your choice though as the bits can be added either way.

Hopefully some others will chime in with any useful tips and links as well.

sparrowangelste
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

the customized versions would have vibs specifically for your hardware which the vmware iso might not.

I would normally use the vendor iso and run the updates as needed.

--------------------- Sparrowangelstechnology : Vmware lover http://sparrowangelstechnology.blogspot.com
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