ESX to ESXi 5

[Satishhalemani]

Hi,

We have about 100 hosts(ESX 3.5/4.0/4.1 mixed) and we are going to rebuild them with ESXi 5.0..wipe out the existing OS and install ESXI 5.0(VUM not used). I know it is a pain to record the existing VSwitch and other information and configure the new ESXi 5 with those settings(leaving apart Service console).

Would like to know if there is any way or a script to capture this info and then populate this onto the new hosts? I have tried out on net but its all bits n pieces of info which of not much help.

Thanks in advance

Regards,

Satish

[Kandha_Kamatchi]

Hi Sathish,

Check this out. http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-upgrade...

Regards

KK

[UmeshAhuja]

Hi,

Kindly refer to th below link for upgrading to ESXi 5.0

http://www.howtoforge.com/upgrade-migrate-vmware-esx-esxi-4-to-esxi-5.0

[iw123]

Are you licensed for host profiles ?

[Satishhalemani]

I think my question was misunderstood...We are going for complete wipe out of the existing ESX config...I will give an overview of what we are trying to do,

1. Install VCenter 5(new VM...with new DB)

2. Configure and add the cluster(same as existing VC4.1) to the new VC

3. Take out one ESX host at a time from the cluster(after disabling HA, Vmotion VMs, put into maintenance mode & disconnect FC cable)

4. Install ESXi 5.0 on that host(overwrite everything...thats the requirement from our client)

5. Install HBA driver if not installed

6. Configure the VSwitch info manually(from the settings recorded manually earlier..prior to step 3) along with other settings

7. Reconnect the FC and ensure that shared datastores are visible

8. Put the ESXi 5 host back into the cluster.

9. Vmotion the VMs back to it.

10. Repeat steps 3 to 9 for other ESX hosts until they are all upgraded to ESXi 5

Now if you see that we are manually capturing the VSwitch info(VLAN, NICs configured, IP details etc) prior to upgrade and manually updating them after ESXi 5 in installed.

I need to know if there is anyway we can capture these setting info using some command or script..no manual pls.

We are not implementing host profiles or distributed vswitches as it would disturb the existing cluster hosts. Pls correct in case i'm wrong...