Upgrading from vSphere 4.0

[tlpitch]

Presently we have 2 ESX hosts running version 4.0 on vmfs3. We are adding 2 additional hosts and more storage, I want to upgrade everytghing to ESXi 5.0 on vmfs5. The approach I'm considering is introducing ESXi 5.0 hosts to the vCenter server (after I migrate to vCenter 5) and migrating the current VMs to the new hosts. How should I handle ugprading the file system on the current system to enable vmfs5? Any thoughts here?

Thank you!

[a_p_]

Upgrading the file system to VMFS-5 is optional and your ESXi 5 hosts will be happy with VMFS-3 too. With that said, install the new hosts, upgrade the old hosts and once all hosts which have access to the old VMFS volumes run on version 5 upgrade the VMFS datastores.

André

[iw123]

Upgrade all your hosts to ESXi 5 then upgrade your shared datastores to vmfs 5. 

[skhoury · Accepted solution]

Upgrade vCenter to 5.0 first.  Build out your new ESXi hosts and configure your new storage devices/LUNs on VMFS5.

Move your VMs to the hosts on the new datastores.  Note that you can't upgrade the datastore if VMs that are hosted on pre-5.0 hosts are stored on it, i.e. VMFS5 requires ESXi5.

If you want to take advantage of all VMFS5 has to offer, you will basically need to wipe the previous storage location clean and start fresh.  When you upgrade from VMFS3 to 5, your existing block size persists.  So if it's anything other than 1MB, then it will remain as such.  There are other relics that stick around.

Here is a nice upgrade reference:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMFS-5_Upgrade_Considerations.pdf

Here's a straight forward walkthrough:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/networking/upgrading-local-vmware-vmfs-3-datastores-to-vmfs-5/4943

[tlpitch]

skhoury,

So if I'm reading this literally I can leave the hosts on the VMFS-3 volumes while I upgrade them to VMFS-5? I was planning on doing a Storage vMotion and moving the VMFS-3 VMs to VMFS-5 datastores. Is that still advisable or can I just do an inplace upgrade?

"The other critical considerations with a VMFS-3 to VMFS-5 volume migration is wheather or not the virtual machines onthe volume can be running. With ESXi 5, they can be running during the upgrade!"

Also, just for clarification this is a 4.0 version, not 4.1. That doesn't change anything does it?

Thank you!

[skhoury]

That's correct, you can do a live none-disruptive inplace upgrade from VMFS3 to VMFS5.  I would still take proper backups though, just in case.

Your thinking is correct though - Storage vMotion the VMs to the newly created VMFS5 datastore.  That way you can altogether remove the VMFS3 datastore instead of upgrade them.  Then you'll be able to take advantage of everything VMFS5 offers.

But if that scenario isn't realistic for your situation or you just don't care for the new features, then an inplace upgrade is definitely an option for you.

Coming from 4.0 won't make a difference.

[alwaysnodowntim]

This should help you understand the benefits of VMFS-5.  Please see the link below.

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/07/13/vsphere-5-0-what-has-changed-for-vmfs/