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pegasus20111014
Contributor
Contributor

VMware vCenter 5.1 to 5.5 U1 Upgrade and Distributed Switch - Question

We are planning to upgrade our vCenter 5.1 server to 5.5 U1.  We are using a distributed switch (with LACP).  This will be the first time for us updating a vCenter server with a distributed switch.  Is there anything to be aware of?  Will the hosts and virtual machines on the distributed switch stay connected to the network during the vCenter upgrade?

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SanjaySP1
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi, Yes the hosts will stay connected as they communicate over vmk0 interface & with respect to virtual machines check the type of port binding used in their dv port group. Static Binding is the default, It is recommend to use the same especially during upgrade and maintenance because with Static Binding even when vCenter is down a VM which has been provisioned before vCenter went down can easily be powered on and will have network access.

vNEX
Expert
Expert

Hi,

vDS upgrade its separate process apart form other VI "components"... and last step you have to complete after successful upgrade

of vCenter server, Hosts, VMs and Datastores. It's similar as transition from VMFS3 to VMFS5 because vDS 5.5 is compatible only with ESXi 5.5 hosts ...

For general update/upgrade steps refer to KB below:

VMware KB: Keeping a vSphere environment up to date

Will the hosts and virtual machines on the distributed switch stay connected to the network during the vCenter upgrade?

vCenter/vDS upgrade is non-disruptive process which does not have any impact on running VMs or hosts so no downtime is expected...

It's recommended to backup vDS configuration before vCenter/vDS upgrade for more details see:

VMware KB: Exporting/importing/restoring Distributed Switch configs using vSphere Web client

For step by step scenario of vDS upgrade see:

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc%2FGUID-330A0...

For transition to Enhanced LCAP see:

https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.networking.doc%2FGUID-0D1EF...

Regards,

P.

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