Upgrading standalone ESX 4.0 host with local storage to ESXi 4.1 on a USB stick

[heldstma]

We have a standalone host with a single raid array that is local to the server at a remote site of ours. The issue from what I have researched, is that you need to reformat the raid array if you install ESXi 4.1 on that host. Since there is no shared storage, the only option would be to copy the data from one server to another, or perhaps install ESXi on a USB stick.

It seems to work pretty well in a test environment. Are there any caveats I may have missed when I take a system that can boot locally to ESX 4.0 and change it to boot from a USB stick with ESXi 4.1? In my test environment, I know that you cannot install ESXi 4.1 on a USB stick if that system had ESXi 4.1 installed on local disk. It ended up giving me the PSOD when it discovered another installation of ESXi.

Thoughts??

Matt

[Dave_Mishchenko · Accepted solution]

As you've noted a new ESXi install will wipe the install partition. If you just have a single array then you'll want to go the USB root. If the datastore were on a seperate LUN or array then you would be OK to install ESXi over ESX. As long as the boot order is set correctly you'll be fine.

In my test environment, I know that you cannot install ESXi 4.1 on a USB stick if that system had ESXi 4.1 installed on local disk. It ended up giving

me the PSOD when it discovered another installation of ESXi.

What sort of system were you using for test?

Dave

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