VC Upgrade 2.0.1 to 2.0.2 to 2.5?

[IB_IT]

All,

We have virtual center 2.0.1 in production now...we would eventually like to upgrade to 2.5, but that will not happen until much later in the year (if that). In the mean time, we would like to upgrade our VC server to 2.0.2 update 2 to fix some known issues. Does anyone see an issue with upgrading VC from 2.0.1 to 2.0.2 now...and then later on upgrading from 2.0.2 to 2.5?? During this time I want to keep all ESX 3.0.1 hosts running on 3.0.1 UNTIL we upgrade to VC 2.5. At that point I would upgrade the hosts to 3.5.

It doesn't make this clear in the install and upgrade pdf (or I missed it), but I want to essentially skip an ESX host upgrade, and wait until I am at VC 2.5 before I start upgrading hosts.

Steps I am proposing:

1. upgrade VC 2.0.1 to 2.0.2 update 2

2. keep all ESX hosts running on 3.0.1

3. much later, upgrade VC 2.0.2 update 2 to VC 2.5

4. continue with upgrading ESX hosts to 3.5 (and rest of upgrade procedures)

Has anyone done this? Thanks for any and all feedback!

[dominic7]

You can upgrade directly from VC 2.0.1 -> VC 2.5. I personally don't see a point in upgrading to VC 2.0.2.

pg.4

Otherwise your plan looks like it will work. You can run (almost) any version of ESX with VC 2.5, I think I still have an ESX 2.1.0 box somewhere and it works fine with VC 2.5.

[java_cat33]

Hi - I have one client that is using VC 2.5 with no problems (all hosts are 3.0.x)

I agree with Dominic7 - just upgrade to 2.5 and miss the step of 2.0.2 update 2

[IB_IT]

thank you both for the replys. I agree with you both. I would much rather jump to VC 2.5. BUT...as is with most scenarios that leave you wondering why one would follow this in such a way, it is not up to me. Our SANs have not been reregistered with VC2.5/ESX3.5. Upper management will not buy into an upgrade with a platform that won't support our SAN's (even though they will actually support them, they just haven't reregistered them and updated the SAN compatibility guide yet). Meanwhile, we still sit at VC 2.0.1 and all the associated bugs. I do not want to upgrade all my hosts to ESX 3.0.2 just to upgrade them a few months later to 3.5. I DO however, want to upgrade VC to 2.0.2 update 2 because I think it is worth the benefits short term as we have a few of the "known bugs" with 2.0.1 that are remedied in VC 2.0.2 update 2.

I hope this clears up any questions as to why one would do such an upgrade path....there is a method to my madness, though

[dominic7]

Just a FYI before you upgrade to VC 2.0.2. Only ESX 3.5 needs to be certified for SAN compatibility, VC is supported as long as it meets the VC requirements which AFAIK has not changed in some time.

VC 2.5 really is a worthwhile upgrade, while VC 2.0.1/2.0.1 had serious performance issues if you tried to scale it near it's limitations ( 100 hosts ).