Deploy ESX 3.0.2 or EX 3.5 for production?

[einstein-a-go-g]

When we first installed ESX 3.0.0 it was a bag of spanners, plagued with issues, which later with 3.0.2/VC2.0.2 seems to have settled and stablised.

We now have to deploy another few esx servers, should be go with 3.5 for production or 3.0.2?

This is standalone at another site, not connected or managed by existing VC 2.0.2, so the question is:-

either esx3.5/vc2.5 or esx3.0.2/vc2.0.2?

[opbz]

ESX 3.05 is very nice, fast nice features etc... but seems to have a lot of little issues that are very frutrating...

I would go for ESX 3.02 update 1 and wait until ESX 3.05 is more stable

[mcowger]

We have 3.5 in a live environment with no particular issues.

--Matt

[Troy_Clavell]

If you are going to go with 3.0.2 and VC 2.0.2 make sure you go with 3.0.2 Update 1, this will get you almost caught up with all the patching. For VC 2.0.2 make sure you go with Update 3. It fixes a lot of issues with alarms.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/releasenotes_vc202u3.html

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/releasenotes_esx302_update1.html

[bfent]

I would suggest going with v3.0.2u1, giving v3.5 a little more time to mature.

We decided to take advantage of SQL Express and installed v3.5 at our secondary site. We have gotten quite annoyed with the little (minor) issues and are disappointed we didn't stick with v3.0.2 (our main site is v3.0.2).

[einstein-a-go-g]

Thanks Guys, what I suspected!

Your lucky if you've found no issues with 3.5!

I'll stick with 3.0.2 Update 1 and patches, and VC 2.0.2 and Update 3 (didn't know they sneaked this out!)

einstein

PS thats why we got those annoying VC alarms!

[azn2kew]

We run both ESX 3.0.2 and 3.5 in 2 different production and test environment. ESX 3.0.2 Update 1 plus all latest patches should be good and stable at this point. ESX 3.5 initially had problems with storage and license mode issues but has been resolved with latest patches. Due to infantry of the product and not widely deployed, I would suggest waiting another 3 months for it to mateur and work out the bugs and get more feedback from general public. I would say ESX 3.5 has issues with performance with Symantec Antivirus Client 10.1.xx so its your choice. Also if you want to use newly integrated features like Update Manager, VCB, Converter, Storage VMotion and Nested Paged Tables features which is great for Citrix high context switch issues.

Good luck.

"The Power of Knowledge"

[jhanekom]

For me personally, the biggest blocker at present is hardware support.

I do work at a number of HP shops, and ESX 3.5 hasn't been certified on the majority of storage platforms we use. It's a pity, as I have some smaller clients that would be willing to risk the possibility of minor instabilities to gain the new functionality, but not at the risk of no official support.