ESX 4.1 to EXSi 5.5 upgrade clarifications

[Noctis0791]

Hi Experts,

We are shooting to upgrade our ESX 4.1 host to ESXi 5.5 but I'm having confusion while reading the related VMware articles for our goal.  Can you shed me some light by answering these questions?

1.  Which is safer, upgrade via Update Manager or via ESXi installer on a CD or USB?

2.  If we'll go with the Update Manager path, is this the correct path for us?  Upgrade vCenter to vCenter 5.5 > Install Update Manager 5.5 to the vCenter server >  Upgrade the HOST to ESXi 5.5 via Update Manager. 

3. We have vCenter 4.1 running on Windows 2003 server.   Can we do a vCenter upgrade to 5.5 and run it on the same server?

Thank you very much!

Arnel

[SureshKumarMuth]

Hello Arnel,

First of all you have to check if the upgrade is supported. If your current ESX 4.1 was upgraded from ESX 3.x previously then upgrading this host to ESXi 5.5(in place upgrade) is not supported.

vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center

1.  Which is safer, upgrade via Update Manager or via ESXi installer on a CD or USB?

You may use update manager if you have more hosts to update.

2.  If we'll go with the Update Manager path, is this the correct path for us?  Upgrade vCenter to vCenter 5.5 > Install Update Manager 5.5 to the vCenter server >  Upgrade the HOST to ESXi 5.5 via Update Manager. 

Correct

3. We have vCenter 4.1 running on Windows 2003 server.   Can we do a vCenter upgrade to 5.5 and run it on the same server?

vCenter Server 5.5 removes support for Windows Server 2003 as a host operating system.

Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5 best practices (2053132) | VMware KB

Regards,

Suresh

[Noctis0791]

Hi Suresh,

Thanks for your quick response.  As per my manager, it was a fresh ESX 4.1 install.  It didn't come from an upgrade.  We just have a single host to upgrade.  What will be our upgrade path if we will go with the interactive upgrade using CD/USB containing the ESXi 5.5 installer?  I think we still need to install vCenter 5.5 along the way since we won't be able to manage the new ESXi 5.5 host with vCenter 4.1, is that right?  Please advise.

Thank You!

Arnel

[SureshKumarMuth]

What will be our upgrade path if we will go with the interactive upgrade using CD/USB containing the ESXi 5.5 installer?

Ans: You may go for CD/USB mode. Take necessary back up of VMs from local volumes.

I think we still need to install vCenter 5.5 along the way since we won't be able to manage the new ESXi 5.5 host with vCenter 4.1, is that right?

Yes, to manage ESXi 5.5 host you require VC 5.5 or later versions. But, you cannot go for inplace upgrade option for your current VC 4.x to 5.5 due to OS limitation (windows 2003). Check vcenter installation guide and proceed accordingly.

[Noctis0791]

Thanks Suresh!  Really appreciate it.  One more thing, though. What do you mean by this "Take necessary backup of VMs from local volumes." ?  Copy the VM files from the datastore?  What will be the best way to backup the VMs prior to an upgrade? How do you guys normally does this? Apologies as I'm really new to this and this will be the first ESX Host project that I will handle so I'm really in need of advice from Experts regarding this stuff.

Thank You!

Arnel

[SureshKumarMuth]

You may export the VMs which are in local datastore as OVF or you may copy the VM files from the local datastore to SAN/NFS datastore or can download the files to your local machine using download option in browse datastore option.

Regards,

Suresh