Upgrade VMs from ESX 2 to ESX 3

[ElGarufo]

Hi guys,

Ive been reading a lot of about this (Upgrade VMs from ESX 2 to ESX 3, here in the communities), well, here are my "deductions":

- WINDOWS VMs (2000, xp and 2003) :

1- Backup of the VM

2- Copy (Veeam SCP?) the VM files from ESX 2 to ESX 3

3- With the VM power off in the ESX 3 vmfs volume, upgrade hardware and VMWare tools in only one process:

=> Using vmware-vmupgrade.exe -u user [-q

My questions are:

- Its this ok?, only with this process both? (hardware and vmware tools)

- What changes am i going to find in the VM after the upgrade?: I saw that the IP address its lost....anything else?

-What about LINUX machines?, how can i do that???

Thank you

[cperreault]

Do you have a SAN in your setup or are the VM's local to your ESX server?

I would power down the VM's first (if you can afford the downtime) and then perform your upgrade....

When I preformed my upgrade last week (2.5.4 to 3.0.2) I did not have any IP issues with the windows or linux VM's but one thing I did run into was the VMTools did not always install successfully (even if the logs said they did). I tried running the VMTools RMP and on every Red Hat box, I had to re-run the tar-ball tools in order for the NIC on the VM's to work properly.

Your plan sounds pretty good.... Good luck with your upgrade!!

OH! One other thing... Make sure you don't have any hardware compatibility issues with your servers and VI3! I found some really "quirky" stuff with older Compaqs and bios settings!

[ElGarufo]

Well, in my case i have two ESX, one with esx 2, and the other one with esx 3. I have enought space in the san, so i can have one lun in each other. So, the only thing i have to do, its to put the VMs from one esx (2) to the other (3)....and then do the points i put before....

[cperreault]

Remember... You will have no conrtol of the VM's on the VMFS3 LUN until you do the tool upgrade.

But your plan seems sounds.

Good luck.