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mjcb
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Another Upgrade 3.0.2 to 3.5 question

Hello,

I have a cluster of 4 ESX 3.0.2 hosts. I want to upgrade the cluster to version 3.5 and was wondering if I can do the following:

1. Remove host 1 from the cluster

2. Rebuild and configure host 1 with ESX 3.5 from scratch.

3. Add ESX 3.5 host back into cluster

4. V-Motion VMs off of host 2

5. Rebuild and configure host 2 with ESX 3.5 from scratch.

6. Do the remaining 2 hosts the same way as the first 2.

Will the V-Motion work from a 3.0.2 to a 3.5 ESX host?

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azn2kew
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You first need to upgrade Virtual Center 2.5 server and than upgrade your ESX 3.5 hosts sequentially. Place ESX in maintenance mode and migrate all VM to other ESX hosts and neither install ESX from scratch or upgrade as well. I prefer to do from scratch much better. Once ESX is upgrade rebooted and add ESX host to VC and reconfigured HA, DRS, VMotion and networking etc...and repeat the same process until your ESX clusters upgraded. Make sure to backup your SQL database first as well.

People are having issues with ESX 3.5 Update 1 .iso package so I would wait until everything is cleared but ESX 3.5 is stable enough for production as well. ESX 35./3.0.2 should work together as well so you have no problem at all.

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

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!! Regards, Stefan Nguyen VMware vExpert 2009 iGeek Systems Inc. VMware vExpert, VCP 3 & 4, VSP, VTSP, CCA, CCEA, CCNA, MCSA, EMCSE, EMCISA

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azn2kew
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You first need to upgrade Virtual Center 2.5 server and than upgrade your ESX 3.5 hosts sequentially. Place ESX in maintenance mode and migrate all VM to other ESX hosts and neither install ESX from scratch or upgrade as well. I prefer to do from scratch much better. Once ESX is upgrade rebooted and add ESX host to VC and reconfigured HA, DRS, VMotion and networking etc...and repeat the same process until your ESX clusters upgraded. Make sure to backup your SQL database first as well.

People are having issues with ESX 3.5 Update 1 .iso package so I would wait until everything is cleared but ESX 3.5 is stable enough for production as well. ESX 35./3.0.2 should work together as well so you have no problem at all.

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

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!! Regards, Stefan Nguyen VMware vExpert 2009 iGeek Systems Inc. VMware vExpert, VCP 3 & 4, VSP, VTSP, CCA, CCEA, CCNA, MCSA, EMCSE, EMCISA
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chandlm
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That's how I did my upgrades. There have been some issues with VMotion between the versions though

Oops...yeah VC 2.5 would be most helpful... Smiley Wink

Troy_Clavell
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your plan looks great. This is all assuming you have VC 2.5 installed first. Any other version of VC will not be able to manage your 3.5 enviornment.

I agree with Stefan, I prefer a fresh install of ESX, it is just cleaner.

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kjb007
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My lab environment is a mix of 3.0.2 and 3.5 co-mingled in a cluster, and I used a similar approach to update my ESX servers to 3.5 I also suggest not using 3.5 Update 1 from a cd, you can use update manager to do that once all is done.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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mjcb
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Great,

I already have VC 2.5 installed and plan on doing a clean install. This should be easy.

Thanks for all the help.

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mjcb
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Well.. I did a fresh install of a host in one of my clusters from esx 3.02 to esx 3.5 update 1 and I can't vmotion vm's over to the new host. If I power a VM off, then I can move it to the new host, other wise I get an 'Operation Timed out' error message.

I see that there are others that have this, but it involves modifying the vmx file. This would be crazy for me as I have over 100 vms in this cluster. Anyone have a solution to this.

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mjcb
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Well,

I went away for an hour to a meeting and when I got back, the vmotion was working. Don't think it was anything I did. I am upgrading another host tomorrow, so I will see if the same thing happens.

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