ESX 4.1 and 4.1U1 - do i need to upgrade?

[RUVBarryReilly]

I noticed recently theres a ESX 4.1 Update 1 on the list of downloadable products.

And after going to the main download page and reading the details for  the ISO and ZIP , it's vague as to whether or not it applies to 4.1 ESX hosts,

as there are only reference s to pre 4.0 and 4.0 to upgrade to 4.1 U1.

We currently dont have the update manager gui app installed from what i can tell and im wondering whats best practise for determining the need to patch.

something that can analyse the existing hosts to determine patches needed.

in the past my experiences are to simply update in offline mode using the iso on a dvd.

[idle-jam]

the release note would be most useful. http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_esxi41_u1_rel_notes.html

[firestartah]

I would upgrade your hosts as if you read the release noted like idle-jam linked to it shows the security patches and fixes that have been rolled up into update 1 which could save you some serious problems if you expereince them due to not upgrading. I've upgraded all of mine and there hasn't been any problems so the update is very stable.

[RUVBarryReilly]

What is best order:

Hosts,

VCS,

VUM,

Clients

did u use the esxhostupdate command or VUM?

do i need to schedule downltime or can i do this with the VMs online?

[firestartah]

well it does depend on what your are upgrading from as if it is from 4.0 then you have to follow vcentre,vum,hosts

I blogged about the steps i followed and the resources i used when i did the upgrades myself here:

http://thesaffageek.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/upgrading-from-esxvmware-update-manager-and-virtual-cen...

[RUVBarryReilly]

i current have 4.1.0 installed

[firestartah · Accepted solution]

then use VUM to upgrade the hosts, to upgrade your clients will need to be vmotioned off the esx host as the host has to be in maintenence mode to upgrade/install the patches. you can use hostupdate if you don't have VUM installed but i would recommend setting up VUM if you can as it really does make your life so much easier when having to upgrade your hosts,vmotools,hardware versions and install third party tools like powerpath

[bulletprooffool]

I have a walkthrough for upgrading without VUM if you need it:

http://www.get-virtual.info/2011/03/24/436/

You should start considering migration to ESXi though, as ESX will be end of life soon

good luck

[RUVBarryReilly]

lol April Fool fail....

ESXi is replacing ESX... yeah right...

[firestartah]

no he's right, it's sadly no april fools joke

vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture. For this reason, VMware recommends that deployments of vSphere 4.x utilize the ESXi hypervisor architecture.

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/esxi-and-esx/index.html