VMware Cloud Community
jim33boy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Upgrade Vsphere 4.1 to 5.5 then 6.0

Hello,

Currently running Vsphere 4.1 u1 3 host cluster with VMFS 3.46. The storage is shared from a SAS atached SAN. The SAN and hosts are connected via dumb pass through SAS switches. The hypervisor is running on internal SD card. The SAN datastores are using VMFS 3.46. I plan to upgrade from 4.1 to 5.5 and then to 6.  I understand from reading the documentation that the SAN attached datastores will not automatically update the VMFS version from 3.46 to 5 however I would like confirmation. I would like confirmation that the hypervisor installation can be upgraded without impacting the VMFS datastores. I am aware that vsphere 5 and 6 can host VMs residing on VMFS 3.46 datastores.

Am I correct in my assumption that the VMFS 3.46 datstores will not be impacted?

Thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
rcporto
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

During a ESXi upgrade the VMFS is not upgraded, so you can leave your VMFS at version 3 until all your hosts is upgraded to version 5.5 or later.

---

Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
4 Replies
rcporto
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

vSphere 6.0 do not support VMFS 3, so I really recommend you upgrade your VMFS version to a newer version. See: Frequently Asked Questions on Deprecation and End of Support (EOS) for VMFS-3 in VMware vSphere 6.0....

---

Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto
Reply
0 Kudos
jim33boy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Hello,

I understand that VMFS 3 is not suggested. My question is whether there is any danger to my existing VMFS 3.46 datastores when upgrading my hypervisor from 4.1 u1 to 5.5 and then to 6.0. I don't want to hit the case where I upgrade one host to 5.5 and tyhen the 4.1 u1 hosts can no longer manage the VMs on the 3.46 VMFS datastores.

Thanks again

Existing VMFS-3 datastores can still be seen and accessible to the VMware ESXi 6.0.x ESXi hosts.

There is currently no immediate need for intervention. Although it is recommended that existing VMFS-3 datastores are upgraded to VMFS-5.

It is also recommended to migrate virtual machines from existing VMFS-3 datastores to new or existing VMFS-5 datastores.

Reply
0 Kudos
rcporto
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

During a ESXi upgrade the VMFS is not upgraded, so you can leave your VMFS at version 3 until all your hosts is upgraded to version 5.5 or later.

---

Richardson Porto
Senior Infrastructure Specialist
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/richardsonporto
Reply
0 Kudos
jim33boy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks, that's what I was looking for.

Reply
0 Kudos