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khaliqamar
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

upgrade 4.1 - 5.5

current environment.

vcenter 4.1, ESXi 4.1, VMFS 3. SQL database

Upgrade plan.

- create a new separate vcenter from virtual appliance of 5.5.

-create all the folders in order to enable permissions in vcenter 5.5.

-add esxi 4.1 host to vcenter 5.5 online with running VMs on it. Is it possible?

-once hosts are attached with the new ESXi upgrade VMFS from 3 to 5.

-upgrade virtual hardware on VMs.

-upgrade esxi to 5.5 one by one.

Do you think is it workable.

5 Replies
sakthivelramali
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi..please find the stepsVMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5 best practices

Thanks Sakthivel R
jagdish_rana
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi There,

We had recently upgraded the esx 4.1 to 5.1. It's worked without any downtime.

Once new vcenter in working stage then put an esxi host in maintenance mode and inplace upgrade. Once all esxi host upgraded one by one then update the VMtools and hardware version.

Finally create  new datastore and svmotion of VM's.

I hope it will works.

Thanks

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ShirinKumar
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Prior to upgrade please follow the below standard Practice,

It is very important to understand the Hardware and software requirement before going further with the system or software upgrade. This post will helps you to understand the Hardware and software pre-requisites for vSphere 5.5. In this post i have covered , All the requirements including Hardware requirement, Database interoperability matrixes and how to verify the Hardware compatibility guide to understand that your existing server hardware to capable to run vSphere 5.5.

Below table contains the Minimum hardware requirements for Simple Install or Upgrade options.Simple Install option allows you to Install or Upgrade vCenter Server  including other components like vCenter Single Sign-on, vSphere Web Client and Inventory Service on a Single host machine

Minimum Hardware Requirement for Simple Install

Processor

Intel or AMD processor with two or more
logical cores each with a speed of 2 GHZ

Memory

12 GB

Disk Storage

40- 60 GB of free disk space

Network Speed

1 GBPS

Below table contains the Minimum hardware requirements for  various vSphere  components when using Custom Install or Upgrade options. Custom Install Option can be used to Upgrade vCenter and other components separately to customize the location and configuration of each components.

Minimum Required
  of vSphere Component

Processor

Memory

Disk Storage

Network
  Speed

vCenter Single Sign-on

Intel or AMD processor with two or more logical cores each with a speed of 2 GHZ

3 GB

2 GB

1 GBps

vCenter Inventory Service

Intel or AMD processor with two or more logical cores each with a speed of 2 GHZ

3 GB

Small inventor:
low activity rate: 5GB
high activity rate: 15GB
Large inventory:
low activity rate: 15GB
high activity rate: 40-60GB

1 GBps

vSphere Web Client

  1. 2.00 GHz processor with 4 cores

At least 2GB

2 GB

1 GBps

vCenter Server upto 50 Hosts and
   50 Powered-on VM’s

2 Cores CPU (64-Bit CPU)
2.0GHz or faster Intel 64 or AMD 64 processor.

4 GB

5 GB

1 GBps

vCenter Server upto 300 Hosts and
   3000 Powered-on VM’s

4 Cores CPU (64-Bit CPU)
2.0GHz or faster Intel 64 or AMD 64 processor.

8 GB

10 GB

1 GBps

vCenter Server upto 1000 Hosts and
   10,000 Powered-on VM’s

8 Cores CPU (64-Bit CPU)
2.0GHz or faster Intel 64 or AMD 64 processor.

16 GB

10 GB

1 GBps

Verify the Database Requirement for the vCenter Database

You can verify whether your existing vCenter database is compatible with vSphere 5.5 or not using the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

  1. 1.Select the Radio button “Solution/Database Interoperability”
  2. Under Select a VMware Product, Select VMware vCenter Server and Select the Version from the drop-down.
  3. If your Selected Database version is marked with Green tick Mark, Then your database version will be supported for vCenter 5.5 installation or Upgrade.

3. Select the Database version of your existing vCenter server and click on Add Verifying the Upgrade path for your vCenter Upgrade

1.Select the Radio button “Solution Upgrade Path”

  1. Select VMware vCenter Server from the Select a product drop-down
  2. You can verify that your existing vCenter version is supported to upgrade to vCenter 5.5 or not. and If you Hover over the Green tick mark. You will get a note about the upgrade methods.

1. Select a Product version, Partner Name and System Type as per your choice

  1. You can even select the  vSphere Features which you like to verify whether it is supported in that hardware or not. Optionally you can even select the additional criteria like Sockets, Memory etc
  2. Click on Update and View Results
  3. You will get the results with partner name  and Server Model which suits your above search along with the  release of vSphere which is supported on that hardware.

You can verify your Hardware Model is supported to install or upgrade to ESXi version 5.5 using VMware Compatibility Guide  1. Select a Product version, Partner Name and System Type as per your choice

2. You can even select the  vSphere Features which you like to verify whether it is supported in that hardware or not. Optionally you can even select the additional criteria like Sockets, Memory etc

Thanks

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khaliqamar
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

hi jagdish_rana,

Thank you to confirm it works Smiley Happy

so at the point you attach the host with the running VMs on it to the new vcenter shows any problem?

afterwords just de-attach the grayed-out  esxi from 4 will be enough.

even virtual hardware version 4 is compatible with both esxi5 and vcenter 5.5 so i think there will be no problem to keep it running couple of weeks.

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jagdish_rana
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

Are you using DVS or standard V switch?  Inplace upgrade will keep the existing setting intact.

Hardware version 4 is supported till esxi6.0. No issue with VM.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200724...

Thanks

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