Hi,
We are in process of upgrade infra. We have ibm servers and esx 4.1.
We are planning to upgrade servers firmware and hardware firmware (supported for 5.5) as well esx upgrade from 4.1 to 5.5.
Please let me know, how should we proceed?
- Should we upgrade server firmware first, then esx upgrade.
Please share any best practice.
-Thanks
A
Better to Upgrade Firmware first then ESXi Upgrade. But my suggestion is always better to fresh install ESXi 5.5 instead of Upgradation since latest ESXi versions always have good performance enhancements on VMFS file system.
Hi,
Overall the upgrade is pretty straightforward, basically as follows (in simplest terms)
1. Backup current VCenter database
2. Snapshot the VCenter server
3. Upgrade VCenter (which upgrades the VCenter and HA agents on all the hosts connected to VCenter), upgrade update manager, web client, etc.
4. If upgrade is successful, commit the snapshot
5. upgrade firmware and then hosts to ESXi 5.0
6. upgrade VMware tools and VM virtual hardware on the VMs
7. Login and check wither everything is working fine. For better safe side you can upgrade the environment with the time gap to analysis the effect if any after Upgradation.
Then
1. Backup current VCenter database
2. Snapshot the VCenter server
3. Upgrade VCenter (which upgrades the VCenter and HA agents on all the hosts connected to VCenter), upgrade update manager, web client, etc.
4. If upgrade is successful, commit the snapshot
5. upgrade hosts to ESXi 5.0
6. upgrade VMware tools and VM virtual hardware on the VMs
NOTE : You cant upgrade directly from version 4.0 to 5.5 Therefore you need to first upgrade your environment to 5.0 along with highest update and then go with the 5.5 version with the same process.
Kindly find the attached file which will show you the whole process of Upgradation. .
like UmeshAhuja says
you need to upgrade from 4.1 to 5.0 first
if your environment isn't to complex you can setup new vcenter 5.5 and add your esx 4.1 hosts
clear one host and upgrade to esxi 5.5 new install setup then do the next ones...etc..
i recommend a second datastore so you can upgrade you VMFS from 3 to 5 with the new file format of 1MB
Thanks everyone...
Doc is really helpful..