Fresh install vs in place upgrade question.

[itvmmgrs]

Hi, this is my first post ever. I'm a long time lurker. I have 12 ESX 3.02 hosts with some 100 VMs. I just finished upgrading VC to 2.5 and I'm about to upgrade ESX to 3.5. I plan to go the fresh install route. I've read the upgrade docs but still have a question... In the past I would put the ESX host in maintenance mode then remove it from the cluster, boot to new software disc and do a complete fresh install. I give it the exact same name and IP. Do I have to remove it from the cluster doing a fresh install?

I kind of wanted to keep the historical data for the host in VC and I fear removing it and adding it back will hose the historical data.

Thank you in advance.

-Brian

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Forums - I do not see how you will get around losing the hostorical performance data and do a fresh install because you will have to remove the VM from the cluster - so if you want to keep the data you will have to do an in place upgrade - but my recommendation is to do a fresh install just to make sure all all software is up to date -

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[itvmmgrs]

Thank you. That's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure.

I too prefer the fresh install route.

This is a great forum

-Brian

[khughes]

I don't quite see how you will be able to salvage the historical data either, not to mention its going to be a completely fresh build. If you really want to keep track of your historical data, find the stats you want to keep, save the trends and store them somewhere safe for reference. It sounds like you knew this already but the fresh build and reseting your historical data is the better way to go instead of upgrading and keeping it.

• Kyle