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Bob_Humber
Contributor
Contributor

Order of VMware Tools Upgrade

I am aware that VMware suggest that upgrading to from ESX 3.0.x to ESX3.5/VC 2.5 is a sequence of events where VC upgrade comes first, then ESX, then finally the VMware Tools upgrade.

Does anyone have experience of whether this order must be followed strictly? We have already upgraded VC to 2.5. Because the VMware Tools upgrade involves a reboot of the Windows guests, it would be more convenient for us to upgrade the Tools first, then upgrade the version of ESX as we have some scheduled downtime coming soon. We do not want to risk anything , but I would be glad of any comments on this.

Bob

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

Your upgrade path is correct. You can't upgrade the tools, if they are not needing to be upgraded, meaning if your VM's are running on a 3.0.x host, you can't upgrade the tools with 3.5. Wait till you get on a platform that requires to upgrade of the tools.

1. Upgrade to VC 2.5

2. Upgrade to ESX 3.5

3. Upgrade VM Tools.

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Bob_Humber
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That's not the answer to the question I meant to ask!

I know the VMware suggested order from reading the Upgrade Guide. We are planning the upgrade of ESX to 3.5 over the coming week, but we have the rare opportunity of downtime this weekend. Upgrading the VMware Tools requires a Windows reboot, wherea using Vmotion, an ESX upgrade does not. Therefore we could upgrade the VMware Tools in advance simply by copying the windows.iso from an ESX 3.5 server and mouting it on our Windows guests, and thus avoid more Windows reboots

The question is if anyone has tried this, and does it work OK or cause issues? We will err on the side of caution..

Regards

Bob

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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

That is something i've never done or heard of. Upgading the VMware tools to 3.5 on guests running on 3.0.x OS. If no one else has any input, maybe the best bet would be to open an SR with VMware and get their advice.

Good Luck.... Let me know the outcome.

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