3.0.x to 3.5 Upgrade

[Brian_Wing]

Howdy Y'all,

I'm getting ready to start upgrading my 3.0.x servers to 3.5 also upgrading the VMConsole system we have. I'd love to hear any stories (horror/success/otherwise) on your experiences with this (save the 64bit client gripes {just read that thread}). :smileysilly:

We are utilizing Dell Poweredge 2950/6850 hardware for our Infrastructure servers.

Also interested in hearing any experiences with iSCSI SAN with Netapp backend storage.

Thanks

Brian

[dominic7]

The upgrade from ESX 3.0.x -> 3.5.0 is pretty painless. I still prefer to build new systems from scratch but I've also done a fair amount of in-place upgrades ( maybe 20 hosts or so ). It's pretty straight forward, download the .zip and expand it ( to your local host system, or an http server ). I prefer to use the http method, if you go this route remember to either allow the required http port through the local firewall or disable it for the upgrade.

If you have to take downtime anyway, remember to update the VMtools. Also remember to update the hosts with the latest patches before they come up.

Otherwise it's a pretty eventless upgrade... just the way I like em.

[ctfoster]

I'd go along with dominic - I've reinstalled using the iso without any issues on 2950's with iSCSI (CX3 backend). Upgrade VI console first and backup your database.

[Brian_Wing]

Moving along... I have upgraded a "lab" 3.0.2 system to 3.5 and all seems well.

[azn2kew]

Only several problems people facing with upgrade is the performance stats history lost and hosts not being connected to VC server and can be restored if you backup your database before upgrade. Also during VC upgrade it gave you an option to keep existing data. Also if you can't connect esx hosts best is to restart the hostd service "service mgmt-vmware restart" most likely resolve or connection issue. There are several solutions to each unique scenario is all test and trials.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

iGeek Systems LLC.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

[Raist]

I'm in the process of doing this exact upgrade, and haven't run into any real problems. Our environment started back in the 1.x days so the nic type is vmxnet which I've found to be a problem, basically when migrating the machine with vmxnet instead of flexible the machine looses network connectivity, or should I say the connectivity breaks. The link shows as being active but the client cannot get "out of the box", a quick nic disconnect and reconnect fixes that problem.