upgrade hardware version from 4.0 to 7.0

[ahmedvienna]

Hello,

I have just finished installed vSphere 4.0 (Virtual Center & ESX) in my environment.

My vm machines are having a hardware version of 4.0 (aka vm version 4.0).

I want to upgrade them to 7.0.

How can I do that ?

I ve already upgrade the VMware tools.

[Gerrit_Lehr]

Right Click the VM -> Upgrade Virtual Hardware

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[a2alpha]

Now that you have upgraded VMTools on your VMs to the latest version you need to power off the VMs.

When they are in a powered off state, right click and there is an option to 'Upgrade Virtual Hardware'. This will take them to version 7, when you power them on you will see windows installing new devices and if I remember correctly needs a couple of reboots to finish.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[AntonVZhbankov]

1. Upgrade VMware Tools to latest.

2. Power VM off

3. Right-click on VM - Upgrade virtual hardware.

4. Power VM on

5. Wait till new devices are found, drivers installed, reboot

6. Enjoy hardware ver. 7

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[ahmedvienna]

what could go wrong if i upgrade.

Trying to backup some of the machines is a bit difficult because I have so many GB per machine.

[bcetinich]

I have not experienced any problems with the VMs I have upgraded.

You may have issues when you try and vmotion after upgrading but it is fixed by following this KB

[amvmware]

Why not snapshot the VM before the upgrade and then you can revert back to it if you have a problem.

[ahmedvienna]

but i thought a vmware snapshot is only valid for the disks. As I am not aware of what the hardware upgrade does. It may change VMX files etc etc. Would a snapshot be good enough for a full backup ?

[amvmware]

You are correct - i have just checked and the upgrade to hardware version 7 is irreversable.

[a2alpha]

I honestly haven't tried it, but I would have said that a full backup to an external location would be best. If you don't have the disk space then I imagine you could do the following.

Snapshot the virtual machine pre upgrade. Make a copy of the .vmx file

Upgrade vm hardware to 7, power on, run through the installers and reboot. Once it is up and running, and you have tested it then commit the snapshot. Sorted.

If however there is a problem, I would say in snapshot manager, revert to snapshot, (so removing any drivers etc installed). Then replace the now upgraded .vmx file with the original you took and that should be you back to square 1 again.

Hope this helps,

Dan

[mudha]

if you are using 4.0 it shoulb be 7 only did you change something while creating VMs

[Lonnell]

It is possible to take a snapshot before an upgrade from hardware version 4 to hardware version 7. If the upgrade goes wrong you can revert back.

-LJ

[AntonVZhbankov]

No, snapshot won't save you. But you can always do full backup or just clone VM before upgrade.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[Lonnell]

You can revert back to version 4 hardware if you take a snapshot before upgrading to hardware version 7. I have proven this theory in a mixed 3.5\4.0 ESX environment.

-LJ

VCP4

[a2alpha]

This question actually came up on the vi3 to vsphere upgrade partner exam and the answer was to snapshot, the majority of my sites are all upgraded now, but if I come across a 3.5 site I will definately try the snapshot method. As was mentioned earlier, cloning the machine or taking a full backup would also work as long as you have time / space for it.

Dan

[Anaxander]

Has anyone had trouble with the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon that pops up in W2K3 after upgrading to virtual machine version 7? Nothing breaks exactly, but I don't like the prompt. Obviously this is a Windows issue and not a VMware issue, but by adding support for additional hot add/remove devices, this presents a bit of a management problem. How are others dealing with this? Unfortunately many of our users in dev and uat are admins, so there is nothing to prevent their idle hands from removing a NIC because the icon told them it was "safe" to do so.

[a2alpha]

Anaxander, I have lost network connectivity from my Guest machine when I used the safely remove. I forget which network adaptor I selected but I after a reboot it was fine and I just left it alone after that...

Dan