upgrade

[Thash]

I'm just new on virtualization infrastruture now i want to upgrade from 4.1 to 5 or 5.1, so what i want to know which procedure i must follow, for instance do I have to reinstate/renew my licences so that I can get  the licenced 5/5.1 software. secondly on the time of upgrade there will be no disturbance on the current environment.

[a_p_]

To be able to answer your questions, you need to provide some details.

• which license edition do you use?
• do you currently use ESX or ESXi?
• was your Subscription (SnS) active at the time vSphere 5 was released?
• do you use vCenter Server to manage the hosts?
• are the VM's located on shared storage (i.e. can vMotion/DRS be used)?

André

[Thash]

I`ve got vcenter server  and my host are being managed by Vsphere client, I`m on Vsphere 4 standard, using ESXi, currently having 5host each licenced for 2 physical CPUs. the two additional host are still on evaluation mode. I can migrate the VM from one datastore to another but I don`t have Vmotion & DRS.

[a_p_]

From your answer, I understand you don't use shared storage!? In this case upgrading requires some downtime. The first step is to ensure your hosts are supported (see http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl) by ESXi 5.1. If this is the case, you could either install a new vCenter Server (in case you don't use features like vDS and don't need the logs) or upgrade the existing vCenter Server to 5.1. Once this is done upgrade the hosts one-by-one (with the VMs on that host cleanly shut down, not suspended) either by using Update Manager or interactively via CD.

Regarding incensing (you unfortunately didn't answer the question about SnS), I'd suggest you login to your My VMware portal to see whether your existing licenses show up as upgradable. Whichever option you choose, I'd recommend you have an up-to-date backup of the VMs.

André

[Thash]

Thankx Andre @least you gave me same green light