Hardware upgrade from 4 to 7 windows 2003 servers

[BillK201110141]

I just upgraded my Commvault software to version 9, with de-dup.

I noticed that my FC tape is only moving at 100bm stream.

I read about upgrading hardware to version 7.

I'm have 14 VM to upgrade all win 2003. All have the latest tool installed from 4.1

Is there any got ya's  I should look out for before I start powering down?

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

before you upgrade the virtual hardware, you must upgrade the VMware Guest Tools.  Then while the guest is in a powered off state, you can upgrade the virtual hardware.  From there, power on the guest, log in, let windows find all the new device drivers and then reboot again.  From there log in and remove all the grayed out devices within devices manager... We usually reboot one more time after that.

As for gotcha's.  If you are concerned you can always snapshot the guest prior to the upgrade and if there are any issues, revert back.

See KB article on how to properly remove the old drivers

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=269155

[RParker]

Upgrading the hardware will not make a difference, at least for that.  You end up with more capability but it won't be faster.

[BillK201110141]

Thank You, for the advise.

I had no problems with moving to hardware level 7.

All I have to do now is snap shot clean up.

[BillK201110141]

I check the windows drivers after updating to hardware 7 level, Thay are all the same version level.

Which is funny because windows processes new hardware detected and install base system devices like PCI to PCI bridges.

When I looked at windows driver versions thay are the same as hardware 4 level. CommVault support requested this change

be done. I need the IT Support Support Guy.