Upgrade from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5 ?

[Rnutter0]

Trying to see if I need to start the process of getting approvals to move my ESXi farm from 5.1 to 5.5.  At this point, I am running 4 hosts supporting about 20-25 VM's depending on the number of projects I am supporting at any given time.

I have vCenter server helping to manage this.

I have been looking at 5.5 but dont see a lot of differences for an install of my size.

Would appreciate any suggestions/pointers

Ron

[rcporto]

I think you should start look the new features of version 5.5: New features in VMware vSphere 5.5 (2058665)

And here is another blog post with a summary of what's new in vSphere 5.5: A Summary of What’s New in vSphere 5.5 | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs

[JPM300]

Hey Rnutter0,

The articles Richardson Porto laided out should direct you in the right direction, however here is the long and short of it:

You will upgrade your enviroment in this order:

SSO

Web Client

Inventory Service

vCenter

Other plugins AKA Update Manager, SRM, ect

ESXi hosts upgrade - This can be done with Update Manager, Stand alone upgrade, or a fresh install

Vmware tools on all VM's

Upgrade hardware version of your VM's if you so choose.  Just remeber if you decide to go to hardware version 10, you can then ONLY manager your VM's with hardware version 10 through the WebClient, so its highly reccomended that you keep your vCenter version 8 or 9 if its virtual as it avoids management issues if you have problems with vCenter(AKA your having vCenter issues but you can't managed it because its down there for you can't get to the web console).

Hope this has helped.

[Rnutter0]

Since I am using vCenter appliance version, sounds like that is the starting point to get started.

Reviewing the vSphere Platform What's New pdf now.  Seeing a few things that would benefit us even though we only a 4 host implementation.

Appreciate the pointers on where to keep the hardware version for vCenter.  Dont want to start going upstream without a paddle.

Got some reading to do as well as setting this up in the lab before committing to what wont be a small upgrade process.

Ron

[JPM300]

Yeah if you run the vCenter Appliance, typically everything is rolled into that appliance so it makes the ugprade / installation process much easier.