vcenter server upugrade question

[bitwiseguy69]

Ok, I just inherited fixed sort of a mess of vmware hosts and vm's.  I haven't really done any upgrades to vcenter or vsphere before so just wanted to make sure I'm doing things in the correct order.  It's currently running vCenter Server from version 5.5.0b and we want to update to the latest 5.5.0 update 2b.  However, I just noticed that whoever set this up set up the vcenter server as a VM in a cluster on one of the datacenters...I thought that wasn't recommended to do this and have it on a physical host, or does it really matter?

Also, is it usually recommended to upgrade vCenter server first, then the ESXi hosts, then VM's?  Sorry for all the questions, fairly new to this.  Thanks!

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

running vCenter Server as a virtual machine is recommended since vSphere 4.x, so that's fine. With vCenter as a virtual machine you can benefit by creating a snapshot prior to upgrading it, so that you can revert to the snapshot in case something doesn't work as expected. The steps you mentioned for the updates are also in the correct order.

André

[bitwiseguy69]

André,

Hey, thanks for the fast response and the information!  I'm not real familiar with this though, if I update Vcenter server will this take all of the hosts/datacenters/vm's offline or can I do this during normal business hours and not affect that?  Also, does the update for Vcenter server usually update the vsphere client or is that a separate update?

Thanks again!

[IamTHEvilONE]

Since this was an inherited environment, make sure to check and see if there are additional VMware and 3rd Party applications integrating with vCenter.  Once you have done this, just make sure that they are supported with interfacing with vCenter 5.5u2b.

This isn't as critical on a minor revision, but is a good practice to have before doing a major version (like vCenter 5.1 to 5.5) to ensure all applications will work.

[bitwiseguy69]

Also, one other thing I forgot to ask is we have a new blade server that I want to set up as an additional host, should I update this to ESXi version 5.5 and add it to the cluster, or upgrade the existing infrastructure and add that in or does it really matter?

Thanks again!

[a_p_]

This is less a question of the ESXi version, but more a hardware question. You will need to check the CPU compatibility with the other hosts in the cluster prior to adding the host to a cluster, and you should also make sure that the hosts are similarly configured (i.e. similar amount of RAM etc.).

André

[bitwiseguy69]

So is it ok to do the vCenter server upgrade in the middle of the day, will this affect the hosts and vm's?

Thanks!

Tom

[a_p_]

Updating vCenter Server should not have any impact on the VMs.

André

[bitwiseguy69]

Andre,

Thanks again for the info...so updating the vmware server to 5.5 u2b won't have any effect on the hosts either?  Does that also update the vSphere Client?

Thanks again!

Tom

[a_p_]

No, after updateing the vCenter Server you also have to update the vSphere Client (or use the Web Client). As mentioned before, updating vCenter Server should not cause issues with the VMs or the hosts.

André