Will downing one of my three hosts cause problems in vCenter?

[Daub84]

I need to update the controller firmware on my three hosts. The only production server VM that we currently have has a very small maintenance window. If I shut down all VMs on one host can I then shut it down/upgrade the firmware on that host without causing problems with the rest of the vCenter environment? If I am able to do that I have another question. Once the hosts are updated that aren’t hosting the production server could I move the production server VM to one of the updated hosts until that host is updated then move it back?

[snekkalapudi]

Are you hosts running in a HA-DRS enabled cluster ?

[Daub84]

No, they aren't.

Thanks

[a_p_]

With the hosts being managed by vCenter Server you should be able to migrate VM's between hosts. However, whether this can be done with the VM being powered on depends on whether you are using e.g. shared storage, compatible hosts (CPUs), vSphere version/edition, ...

André

[Daub84]

I don't mind powering off the VM before moving it. The maintenance window will allow for that much downtime. I'm more wondering about having a host offline for a while and if it will affect vCenter or the VMs on the other hosts.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

One of the reasons for having a cluster is to avoid downtime in case of a host failure, and/or maintenance. As long as the remaining hosts have sufficient resources (CPU, memory) to run the additional VMs, there shouldn't be any issues.

André

[Daub84]

Thank you very much. That's what I was looking for.