vCenter 5.5 Database support & ESXi 5.5 Guest OS support

[Sam30]

I'm planning to upgrade my vSphere Suite, below are the details:-

Current Config:-

vCenter 5.0.0, 455964

ESXi 4.1.0

External DataBase:- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (SP1) - 10.50.2500.0 (X64)   Jun 17 2011 00:54:03   Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation  Standard Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7601: Service Pack 1) (Hypervisor)

Planning to upgrade to:-

vCenter 5.5 Update1b

ESXi 5.5

DB:-Stays the same

My query:-

1) Is above mentioned DB version supported when I uprgade my vCenter to 5.5, I am asking this as the interopability matrix at vmware.com is not working.

2) When I right click on ESXi 5.5 to create new VM at the place where we've to select Guest OS, I see some of the Guest OS list is missing on ESXi 5.5 as compared to ESXi 4.1

I don't see Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard (32-bit),  Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard (64-bit) & Microsoft Windows 2000 server in that list. Can you please confirm once I upgrade the hosts from ESXi4.1 to ESXi 5.5 machines with such Guest OS will still be working fine? Below is the comparison

ESXi 4.1

ESXi 5.5

[a_p_]

I just checked the Interoperability Matrix and it works (see http://www.vmware.com/go/interop). Your SQL version shows up as supported (please double-check anyway).

Regarding the Guest Operating system, I guess that the Windows Versions have just been combined as they don't need to be treated differently anymore. You'll find the supported editions when you click the guest OS in the HCL (VMware Compatibility Guide: Guest/Host Search) - see "Supported Variants"

André