Advice: upgrading from 5.5U3; go direct to 6.5, or to 6.0 and then 6.5?

[MichaelLeone]

I have 2 sites running 5.5 u3 (one is production, the other is for Disaster Recovery). We use SRM, with array synchronization provided by EMC RecoverPoints.

I need to upgrade to the latest vSphere 6.5. I've come across some references that say the upgrade path should be 5.5 to 6.0 first, then upgrade to 6.5. Is this the recommended path? Or can I upgrade direct from 5.5 to 6.5? (vCenter first, of course, then each ESXi host in sequence). My vCenters run on Win2008 R2, and the SQL DB is on a separate host (SQL 2008 R2); this is the configuration at both sites, altho the production site is a physical vCenter host, and the DR site uses vCenter on a VM.

After I've upgraded to 6.5 at both sites, both vSphere and ESXi, then I plan to upgrade my SRM from 5.5.1. But that's a later post ...

[SridharG · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

For VC, you can directly upgrade from 55u3 to 65 latest.

If you are using SSO and VC on separate machines then you have to upgrade 55u3 setup to 55u3b or any latest version on 55u3b and then upgrade to 65 latest.

If you are using SSO and VC on the same machine then you can directly upgrade 55u3 to 65 latest.

-Sridhar

[vijayrana968]

SRM 5.1 is not supported directly with vSphere 6.5, so how to proceed with that !

[Ashutosht1]

Order of SRM upgrade will be: SRM 5.1->SRM 5.5.0 -> SRM 5.8.1-> SRM 6.0 ->SRM 6.1 -> SRM 6.5

Thanks,

Ashutosh

[MichaelLeone]

Great! Yes, my vCenter and SSO are on the same physical machine, so I should be able to just upgrade directly from 5.5U3b (I re-checked; I am running 5.5 Update 3248547, which is 5.5U3b) to 6.5.

We use the HP and Dell Customized versions (production is all HP servers; Disaster Recovery is all Dell). So for the ESXi upgrade, I'll just import the ISO from their customized versions, which include the drivers for their hardware.

Then I will start worrying about upgrading the SRM ...

Thanks!

[vijayrana968]

I am not using SRM but just curious about upgrade path along with SRM environment. Your answer is straight forward with SSO consideration but can we upgrade directly to 6.5 with SRM 5.1 ? Won't it break integration with SRM 5.1 ?

[MichaelLeone]

A very good question! In fact, I have a separate thread over in the SRM community, asking the same question. If I go from 5.5U3b to 6.5:

1. Can I even do that? Or will the 6.5 upgrade disable the SRM 5.5.1, as that version is incompatible with 6.5?

2. If not, do I need to do the vSphere 6.5 upgrade first. Then do the SRM 5.5.1->5.8->6.12->6.5? Do each incremental step?

[SridharG]

You can check the compatibility matrix before start upgrade:

VMware Product Interoperability Matrices

See the attachment for more details "SRM-VC-Interop-Matrix.jpg"

[MichaelLeone]

The matrix (which I have looked at) shows which versions work with which, but it's not clear as to upgrade order of SRM (does it need to be uninstalled before going from 5.5U3b to 6.5? What happens in the interim, until you are at the latest version? etc).

That's why I posted the 2nd question over in the SRM communities. A matrix is good, but hearing actual experience is better. 🙂

[SridharG]

As Ashutosh mentioned for SRM upgrade path is as below:

SRM 5.1->SRM 5.5.0 -> SRM 5.8.1-> SRM 6.0 ->SRM 6.1 -> SRM 6.5

As per above, first you should update to compatible VC and then upgrade SRM, again do the same till you reach vCenter 6.5.

Though vCenter supports upgrade directly from 55u3b to 65 but it is not possible to upgrade the SRM like vCenter.

I would request you to check the interop matrix and also check with vmware customer care before start your upgrades.

Note: SRM 5.1 is not supported with vCenter 5.5u3b as per the compatibility matrix, so may be your SRM version should be 5.8.1 or 5.5.1, check once.

-Sridhar

[MichaelLeone]

I have a ticket open with VMware Support to ask this question.

So your advice is to do the vCenter in incremental increments, matching to the SRM functionality, rather than upgrade vCenter to latest 6.5, and then incrementally increment SRM up to 6.5?

[SridharG]

Yes, as per the SRM matrix.

[vijayrana968]

I guess so, it should go in increment. Maybe gs_khalsa could answer this.