Virtual Center Upgrade - 2.5 to 4.x

[jmmorrell]

Is there any documentation regarding the upgrade process to go from 2.5 to 4.x?

Any warnings to be aware of? I started the upgrade and canceled when it came to a dialog regarding the database upgrade/create new.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[aldikan]

Hi,

In my experience this was smoothest upgrade to date..., no issues to report, even Update Manager was updated on the first try ( had issues with U2 and U3 before)

You are correct, upgrade process will need to upgrade your existing database.

I had not used any upgrade documentation, not sure if it exists

HTH,

Alex

[Troy_Clavell]

VI4 are you referring to or 2.5.0U4. VI4 isn't GA yet, so there would be no documentation on it. As for U4 you could look at the upgrade guide

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_upgrade_guide.pdf

[jmmorrell]

Is it just a straight forward install? No issues going from 2.5 to 4?

What version did you upgrade from?

[jmmorrell]

Yes referring to u4, not vi4. Thx

Have you done the upgrade before? Is this disruptive to your VM's?

[Troy_Clavell]

yes, the upgrade process if very straight forward. Just ensure you have a good backup of your DB as the upgrade will touch it.

[jmmorrell]

Ok. I've never done a backup of the vcenter db. Is there a doc outlining the steps?

[Troy_Clavell]

if you don't have Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express install it, log in to your DB server, right click on your DB, go to tasks and choose backup.

[Roysan]

I just did a fresh install on a new server and had some problems with using the proper user accounts...I have to manually install the License server, Consolidation, and Update Manager. I then also had to use an editor on the ESX server to change the IP address. An IN PLACE upgrade should be easier.

[admin]

There are no problems with the upgrade. Just make sure to backup your database, just in case. During the installation (upgrade), you should choose to upgrade the db. The new db schema will be applied and the data will be preserved, so you should be able to continue your work without any problems and data loses. If you choose to create a new db, this will first drop your old database and then create the new tables, so in this case you will lose all the data from the VC. I suggest you to use the upgrade option, but firstly backup you db, as I said, just in case

[jmmorrell]

No need to uninstall previous version first?

[admin]

No need to uninstall the previous version. Just start the installer and the process should be straight forward. It should detect that you have a previous version and warn you that will upgrade it and will upgrade the database also. Choose to upgrade the database. Have in mind that if you are using Update Manager, you should upgrade it too. Here you can read the U4 Release Notes: vi3_vc25u4_rel_notes. You might find something else useful.