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jlee2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The (un)official 3.0.1/2.0.1 Upgrade Report Thread

I thought I'd start a thread for people to report how their upgrade to ESX 3.0.1 and VC 2.0.1 went. I'm mostly looking for persons upgrading from 3.0.0/2.0.0 but ESX 2.x upgraders feel free to post also. Be sure to include details like your SAN or RAID controller, are you using vCPU or Vmotion, any additional steps you had to take, etc, etc. I'm looking to move my 3.0.0 box to 3.0.1 on Thurs. evening so I'll be sure to post back my results. Any other early adopters?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Good idea. I was about to go ahead with the upgrade but I think I'll hold off for a few days until most of the issues have come out of the woodwork.

Seen a couple of issues posted on here already.

esnmb had a problem with Vmtools: http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=56855&tstart=0

Also looks like you can't double click datastores to browse them anymore:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=56861&tstart=0

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esnmb
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

One server went fine. The other is missing the tools.

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whynotq
Commander
Commander

the ESX server upgrade went well, but why does upgrading the tools cause the VM to reboot, doesn't even ask....

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shub
Contributor
Contributor

I would also be interested in knowing the time it takes to convert a filesystem from V2 to V3. We are using EMC SAN connected storage.

The documentation says 15 minutes but I imagine it is dependant on size?

We will be using the migrating from a 2.5.3 server to a new 3.0.1 server method and would like to know how that has worked for anyone.

mike

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ANSA
Expert
Expert

My server hung at the 25% mark while installing the upgrade files. The upgrade was from the install CD which checked correct re: the MD5 checksum. The CD also passed the 'test' prior to the upgrade.

I'm in the process of rebuilding.

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sbeaver
Leadership
Leadership

Has anyone tried the Upgrading Hosts on SAN Using VMotion with Datastore Relocation?

Steve Beaver
VMware Communities User Moderator
VMware vExpert 2009 - 2020
VMware NSX vExpert - 2019 - 2020
====
Co-Author of "VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center"
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach
Come check out my blog: [www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog|http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/]
Come follow me on twitter http://www.twitter.com/sbeaver

**The Cloud is a journey, not a project.**
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jasonboche
Immortal
Immortal

My server hung at the 25% mark while installing the

upgrade files. The upgrade was from the install CD

which checked correct re: the MD5 checksum. The CD

also passed the 'test' prior to the upgrade.

I'm in the process of rebuilding.

Youch... :smileyshocked:

VCDX3 #34, VCDX4, VCDX5, VCAP4-DCA #14, VCAP4-DCD #35, VCAP5-DCD, VCPx4, vEXPERTx4, MCSEx3, MCSAx2, MCP, CCAx2, A+
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kix1979
Immortal
Immortal

I've done a few datastore migrations/migration from 2.X to 3.0.1 and it worked pretty well. It missed the IP addresses, so I had to fix that, but pretty slick for a one-way tool. Definately will help with SAN refreshes!

Thomas H. Bryant III
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Bart_VK
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have upgraded my server today to VI3.01 to call it like that ( 4 x ESX 3.01 + Virtual Center 2.01 + Virtual Client ). This was on 4 Dell PowerEdges 2950 and on a EMC SAN storage infrastructure. The Virtual Center server is running virtual in my VI3 environment. The upgrade was without any problem and took about 10 minutes per server once I VMotioned my VM's away from the ESX server.

My Dell PowerEdges have a QLA2340 and QLE2460 HBA, under ESX 3.0 this combination gave errors at the end of boot time, because these HBA use a different driver and ESX could only load 1. In ESX 3.01 these HBA's use the same driver and some my HBA problems are resolved. So I am quite happy with this update

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Mork
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I only have 1 Prod VM on 3.0.0 and the others are in my test environment, so I did the upgrade yesterday.

Licensing and VC went smoothly as did the VI Client on our PC's.

I scp'd the update tarball to the 2 Prod and 2 test hosts and used esxupdate to update the hosts.

I think I made a small mistake in that I updated the hosts before my VC, but I only had one minor issue.

One of my test hosts couldn't reenable HA after the VC agent updated itself but a reboot didn't fix this. I had to remove the host from VC and re-add it, then it worked fine.

I've had other minor issues with this one particular host, so at this point I won't hold it against the 3.0.1 update Smiley Happy

The big thing for me is that 3.0.1 has fixed an issue I had with my DL585's and our Checkpoint firewall and I can now successfully run my Service Console and VMotion on the same vSwitch and have redundancy for both of these.

I think it also may have fixed an issue for upgrading VM's from 2.5.3 to a 3 cluster via cold migration, but I have yet to verify this with my existing 2.5.3 VM's.

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williamarrata
Expert
Expert

I just finished upgrading my environment from 30 to 3.0.3 with no problems. All I did was move the VM's off the Host I was going to upgrade. Upgrade the host from CD, no problem there, just requires a reboot. Upgraded the license server, this did not require any reboot. Upgraded the Virtual center, just make sure you take it slow and READ. Choose the existing database, no problem there. Updated my VIC. Logged in the VC and disconnected and reconnected hosts. Moved the VM's into the updated host. Reinstalled the VMware tools, this is a reboot. All is good.

Hope that helped. 🙂
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AndreasJansson
Contributor
Contributor

Seams somewhat safe to know that some guys has tested these upgrades since there is no documentation what so ever.(?!)

I upgraded my VC2.0 to 2.01 without problems. I skipped the step with upgrading the license-server. Works fine anyway. Any ideas if this could be a problem when i tomorrow upgrade my ESX3.0 boxes to 3.01 ?

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sbeaver
Leadership
Leadership

Could be the first version of the license server would sometimes not release licenses when a ESX host rebooted and the host could not start any VM's without the License Server being restarted

Steve Beaver
VMware Communities User Moderator
VMware vExpert 2009 - 2020
VMware NSX vExpert - 2019 - 2020
====
Co-Author of "VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center"
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach
Come check out my blog: [www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog|http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/]
Come follow me on twitter http://www.twitter.com/sbeaver

**The Cloud is a journey, not a project.**
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kreischl
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I received the GRUB error but that's because I didn't unplug my SAN cables. Smiley Happy

Other than that, all four ESX3 to 3.0.1 went great along with VC 2.0 > 2.0.1

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virtualRW
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Steve B - Trying the VM relocaiton now. VC and ESX upgrade went fine. Issue with licensing a 2.5.3 for vmotion. Getting error and it will not VMotion for me.

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virtualRW
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Got the "VMs on SAN Using VMotion with Datastore Relocation" working. Works like a champ. Zero Ping loss moving a 2.5.3 vm to a 3.0.1 host.

Looks like it creates DMotion-scsi0:00... temp files on the 3.X host and move the data into them before moving it to the final vmdk.

Works very quick also. jobs are taking less than 4 minutes, vmdk are between 4 -8GB.

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sbeaver
Leadership
Leadership

Excellent good to know. So I take it your LUNS are the exact same size correct. Does that work with different size LUNS? So all you need to do next is update the virtual hardware and upgrade the tools correct?

Steve Beaver
VMware Communities User Moderator
VMware vExpert 2009 - 2020
VMware NSX vExpert - 2019 - 2020
====
Co-Author of "VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center"
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach
Come check out my blog: [www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog|http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/]
Come follow me on twitter http://www.twitter.com/sbeaver

**The Cloud is a journey, not a project.**
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boydd
Champion
Champion

Hmmm - according to the docs - License server upgade was not supported with this release (Did I interpret this wrong). Upgraded my VI3 lab to latest code (esxupdate is slick - maybe renamed RH UP2DATE Smiley Wink ). Upgraded my prod VC 2.0 server to 2.0.1 - went very well (Waiting for hardware to make new 3.0.1 hosts).

DB

DB
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sbeaver
Leadership
Leadership

I guess I missed that because I upgraded my license server and virtual center to the latest version and I am going to submitting change to upgrade ESX. I am going to clear one box at a time and them upgrade

Steve Beaver
VMware Communities User Moderator
VMware vExpert 2009 - 2020
VMware NSX vExpert - 2019 - 2020
====
Co-Author of "VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center"
(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach
Come check out my blog: [www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog|http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/]
Come follow me on twitter http://www.twitter.com/sbeaver

**The Cloud is a journey, not a project.**
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