Problems in Upgrade from ESX 4.00 To ESX 5.5 U2 on HP DL380 G6 .

[Emankhly]

hello ,

     I have a problem in this upgrade process .

My Environment is :

Hardware      HP DL380  G6, RAM 72 GB , 2 CPU Intel 5540 2.53 GH 8 Core  .

I Have 2 servers with  vmware ESXi 4.00 208167 and one with 171294 . ( Essential Plus License 6 processor )  stand alone without vCenter .

each server has a local datastore   Type : VMF3 with 6 virtual machine .

wen upgrading to ESXi 5.5  i powered off all the virtual machine and restart the host to boot from image but failed I tried alot of versions like :

1- VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.5.0.update02-2068190.x86_64 Essential  PLUS .

2- VMware-ESXi-5.5.0-Update2-2068190-HP-5.76.36-Sep2014_2  ( HP customized ) .

I also tried to upgrade to ESXi 5.1 U1 Essential Plus and HP customized .

VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.1.0-799733.x86_64_2

but have the following error

Another problem I have in the other site for us

I  can't migrate A virtual Machine from one host to another although all the other vm in this host migrated successfully .

this vm can't be migrated and can't take backup for it by veeam . the error i face is

" Error caused by file vm name/vm name : vmdk "

and other time it gave me " the operation cancelled by the user "

Kindly i want your assist in these issues .

[admin]

There could be multiple reasons:

Check this KB:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004107

[vNEX]

Hi,

regarding failed upgrade follow this KB article:

VMware KB: Upgrading VMware ESXi 4.x to ESXi 5.x on a local disk fails with error: Invalid argument ...

...next if your ESXi 4.0 was previously installed using HP image always use HP customized image for upgrades...

Was your ESXi previously upgraded from ESXi3.x release?

The VM you cant migrate does have any active snapshots?

Also verify dest.dat. VMFS block size...see KB below:

VMware KB: Cloning or migrating virtual machine files fail with the error: Error caused by file

if that is not your issue investigate for file locks:

VMware KB: Investigating virtual machine file locks on ESXi/ESX

[Emankhly]

hello all

thanks vNEX for your information , but i don't know if the old engineers installed ver 4.0 or it was upgrade from 3.5 .

the block size is 1 MB .

the VMs don't have any active snapshots

the host contain only one datastore and the dvd .

I have some questions :

Can i migrate vms from ESXi4.0 to ESXi 5.5 through vcenter 5.5 directly without upgrading the ESXi 4.0 host ?

Do i have to to remove the dvd before upgrading .

thanks jassi007 for your articel but i revised it carefully before the upgrade but it didn't help .

regarding to the 2nd problem the block size in the two hosts are the same 1MB and the type of the data store format VMFS3 .

if there is any other information that can help

[vNEX]

if your hosts are licensed for vMotion and meet the requirements for vMotion ... you can vMotion between 4.0 and 5.5 hosts.

Which DVD you mean if you are upgrading using .iso via i.e. ILO interface remove any media from the host physical drive...

In addition from vCenter server installation media Run the vCenter Host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker  and scan your 4.0 host for any discrepancies.

Missing your answer to VMware KB: Upgrading VMware ESXi 4.x to ESXi 5.x on a local disk fails with error: Invalid argument ...

Thanks

[Emankhly]

the license is Essential Plus so vmotion is enabled but Can I  migrate vm running in Esx4  directly to ESX 5.5 withen the vcenter 5.5  ?

I mean A Host DVD Device . it doesn't have a dvd but should I disconnect the  device before upgrade

Regarding the second problem and your KB .

after checking the article

i checked the block size in the two hosts are the same 1MB and the type of the data store format VMFS3 .

if there is any other information that can help 

[vNEX]

Yes you can migrate VM between 4.x and 5.5 hosts.

Regarding KB article you have to check if on partition #2 exist VMFS datastore see the cause details below:

Cause

This issue occurs if the ESXi 4.x or ESXi 5.0 or ESXi 5.1 host contains a VMFS on partition #2. Such a host typically contains a scratch partition on partition #2, with the VMFS partition on partition #3.

When you run the fdisk -l command, a host with an issue reports a partition layout similar to:

Disk /dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60c: 72.0 GB, 72000000512 bytes

64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 68664 cylinders Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

                                      Device Boot         Start       End    Blocks   Id System

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp1             5       900    917504    5  Extended

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp2           901     68664  69390336   fb  VMFS

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp4   *         1         4      4080    4  FAT16 <32M

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp5             5       254    255984    6  FAT16

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp6           255       504    255984    6  FAT16

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp7           505       614    112624   fc  VMKcore

/dev/disks/naa.600508e0000000003b4c480287e5f60cp8           615       900    292848    6  FAT16

[Emankhly]

Dear VNX

I went to site to try again .

I didn't found any other partition any other datastore , removed the DVD physically .

try with the CD booting ( external DVD ) no benefit .

I installed vcenter 5.5 in virtual machine in my lab , join the esxi4 the vcenter , trying to upgrade using vmware update manager begin and continues till 25% and failed by looking to the console of the physical machine found that

it stopped due to the same error .

and didn't rollback to the version 4 and i lost my work .

i tried to repair the system and successfully back without the VMs . i added them to the inventory as they are there in the datastore .

opened case with vmware and they told me the following :

There is an issue migrating the VMFS3 to VMFS5 while the upgrade, please follow this action plan :

-Create the 5.5 Cluster

-Connect the ESX 4 hosts to this cluster

-Migrate all VMs to the 5.5 Hosts

-Disconnect these 4.0 hosts from the cluster

-Fresh install the 4.0 hosts with the 5.5 version.

this made me upset . because this is not i expected from vmware  and I can make that from beginning .

I still want to discuss this issue to get professional solution