Install ESXi 5.0 existing 4.0

[PMCmike]

I am currently running a Dell PowerEdge T610 with VMware ESXi 4.0 installed on the SD card of the server.  The guest vm's are installed on the physical hard drives of this server.   I want to install the lastest vmware ESXi 5.0 on this server.

What I would like to do instead of actually upgrading the current ESXi 4.0 on the SD card, is to actually shut down all vm's and the server.  Then I would like to insert a new SD card into the server and install ESXi 5.0 (or latest) on it.  I was told by Dell that this would be the best way to go about this since we don't need to be up on the weekend and I can have the downtime.

When I finish the install onto the new SD card, will the new install of ESXi 5.0 be able to run the current vm's that were running on ESXi 4.0?  Once I setup the new install of ESXi 5.0 on the new SD card will it see the data stores on it's hard drives.  How will this work?  Sorry I don;'t have any experience with this and I just want to get on the right path.

[continuum · Accepted solution]

Your plan is good.
The new installation will see your old datatstores - you just need to register the VMs again and configure the networking

[PMCmike]

I assume the current vm's should be uneffected by the install of ESXi 5.0?  Also if I screw something up or don't get the vm's running under the new install of ESXi 5.0, i could always go back the original SD card with the ESXi 4.0 and be up and running again?

[sparrowangelste]

PMCmike wrote:

I assume the current vm's should be uneffected by the install of ESXi 5.0?  Also if I screw something up or don't get the vm's running under the new install of ESXi 5.0, i could always go back the original SD card with the ESXi 4.0 and be up and running again?

As long as you dont overwrite the VMFS datastore where your vms are located  or update it to VMFS5 you should be be fine going back