Esxi Upgrade from 6.0 to 6.5 BladeSystem c7000 with 16x ProLiant BL460c Gen8

[adri4n]

Hi there,

Just wondering if someone would be able to help me with an ESxi upgrade from version 6.0 to version 6.5. We have an environment which consists of a BladeSystem c7000 with 16x ProLiant BL460c Gen8 and according to HPE it is possible to upgrade to Esxi 6.5 https://techlibrary.hpe.com/us/en/enterprise/servers/supportmatrix/vmware.aspx

However these servers are now out of support.

The current environment has the following:

Model	Firmware Version
BladeSystem c7000 DDR2 Onboard Administrator with KVM	4.70 May 18 2017
BladeSystem c7000 DDR2 Onboard Administrator with KVM	4.70 May 18 2017
HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module	4.41
HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port Module	4.41
ProLiant BL460c Gen8 System ROM (All 16modules)	I31 08/02/2014
ProLiant BL460c Gen8 iLO4	iLO4  2.03 Nov 07 2014
Esxi	VMware Esxi,6.0.0 build:5224934

We now need to upgrade to the following

VMware-ESXi-6.5.0-Update3-14990892-HPE-preGen9-650.U3.9.6.10.1-Dec2019.iso

           + ESXi650-201912002

Firmware:  Gen8  : P03093_001_spp-Gen8.1-SPPGen81.4.iso

ilo4_273.bin

Could you possibly share your inputs and procedure in order to carry out this upgrade?

Regards

Adrian

[a_p_]

The ESXi upgrade is likely the easiest part in this case.

The more complex part is to bring the whole firmware to the current versions. Some of the components may require a multi-step upgrade (e.g. iLO). Please remember that HPE officially only supports SPP based firmware upgrades from two versions (typically 1 year) before.
The currently supported C7000 firmware versions are shown in https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sf000050596en_us&docLocale=en_US. This is not only to run the latest firmware, but also to get rid of flash components (see e.g. https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=a00104740en_us)

Upgrading ESXi can then be done through either Update Manager, the command line, or even through booting from the ESXi ISO image.

André

[e_espinel]

Hello.

Normally it is recommended to update the Hardware first, but if you have difficulties with this you could try updating the software first on a single server. If you have a problem, you should reinstall the previous version. If you do not have problems you can continue with the migration to the new version.

Some years ago, realize this work this way for a customer with these same HP computers. without problems.

I do not know if it can be complicated, but if you can free a server, you could try to install version 6.5 Update 3 on this server and verify that all the Hardware is working fine.

As the vcenter server in version 6.0 was physical, you could also install a new virtual vcenter server (VCSA 6.5 Update 3) inside the ESXi with version 6.5 and perform tests with the new version 6.5. You will have a 60 day trial for this.

If your configuration in the clusters is basic, this means without HA, DRS ..etc. You could begin a migration in stages. If everything goes well up to this point, you can disconnect the ESXi 6.0 one by one and connect them to the new vcenter server version 6.5 Update 3 (this is online and does not interfere with the work of the VMs).

Continuing with the migration you can start moving the VMs depending on your license online or offline to the new ESXi version 6.5, then upgrade the next ESXi host to version 6.5.

Then you will have to update the VMware tools in the VMs and the virtual Hardware depending on the Operating System in each VM.

Your version 6 licenses can be used in version 6.5 and 6.7 as long as your software contract and subscription allows it (contract term)

In versions 6.5 and 6.7 we have 2 clients to connect to the vcenter server or ESXi Host:
vSphere web client (Adobe Flash)
vSphere client (HTML5)

Personally I use the following combination, but only to manage VMware, to surf in the internet I use a more current browser.

Firefox ESR 38.8 (32bits)

Adobe Flash player 29.0.0.113

Both the browser and the flash player must be configured so that they are never updated.

vSphere web client (Adobe Flash)

A browser (32bits) with the Adobe Flash player plugin is required.

To use the vSphere Web Client (Flash), enter the URL:

https://ip_address/ui

vSphere client (HTML5)

A browser that supports HTML5 is required

To use the vSphere Client (HTML5), enter the URL:

https://ip_address/vsphere-client