Upgrade from Virtual Center 2.5 and ESX 3.5 to vCenter 4.1 and vSphere 4.1

[Kevan]

Hi

We are about to start the upgrade from Virtual Center 2.5 and ESX 3.5 to vCenter 4.1 and vSphere 4.1.

Currently we have 4 ESX server and are about to introduce a 5th.

We are considering not upgrading the curent instalation of Virtual center but starting afresh.

Would this work and apart from losing history and the current resource pool's would there be any other draw backs.

We would instal vCenter 4.1 on a new physical server. I would then install vSphere 4.1 on the new ESX server and attach it to the new vCenter 4.

Would I then be able to disconect the current ESX 3.5 servers from the Virtual Center 2.5 and connect the to the vCenter 4.1?

I would then in turn move all the VM's off of an ESX 3.5 server and upgrade it to vSphere 4.1 and continue until all the Servers had been upgraded.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

REgards

Kevan

[Troy_Clavell]

your plan is fine. This is just my opinion, I would run vCenter as a VM. This gives you the features of DRS/HA for you vCenter VM.

Also, do not upgrade the virtual hardware on any of your guests until all your hosts are at 4.1. The guest tools are backward compilable, so you should be fine there.

Finally, if managing VI3 Hosts in vCenter 4.1, you will need to leave you old license server online until the VI3 Hosts have been upgraded to vSphere4.

[AndreTheGiant]

Would I then be able to disconect the current ESX 3.5 servers from the Virtual Center 2.5 and connect the to the vCenter 4.1?

You can simple attach to the new vCenter Server. Just keep the old license server (untill you have not upgraded all hosts).

Andre

[Texiwill]

Hello,

I made a couple of posts with my upgrade saga starting with http://www.astroarch.com/blog/?p=69

They may be of interest to you. Going from VC2.5 to VC4.1 often requires upgrading other components as well.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky VMware Communities User Moderator, VMware vExpert 2009, 2010

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