Re-Installing ESX to ESXi without losing VMFS

[Pac1]

I currently have an HP DL380 that has 2 x 72GB H/D mirrored (With a small VMFS volume) and 5 146GB running as a Raid 6 (With another larger VMFS volume).  It is currently running ESX 4.0 on the mirror and I'm looking to upgrade this to ESXi 4.1 without losing the VMFS volume off the Raid 6 volume. I don't care about the small VMFS on the mirror.

My question is if I install 4.1 will it just delete the VMFS on the mirror or will it delete the VMFS on the mirror and the Raid?

Thanks in advance.

[idle-jam]

one way is just pop the CD into and select the smaller LUN to install ESXi. another way is to install ESXi on USB and boot from there .. http://www.jonathanmedd.net/2011/01/install-esxi-4-1-from-a-usb-stick.html

[gdavid]

My situation is a little different, as the machine was built with 8 disks in a RAID5.

I also wanted to do the same thing with reinstalling. I have a server in the DMZ with not alot of connectivity options. I was reallly hoping that I could connect a USB disk. format with vmfs, move the VMs. Then do my format and move everything back.

I don't believe that vSphere has the drivers to attach the USB disk, but I may try it (you never know)

Anyone have any experience with this? or another idea how to accomplish this?

[idle-jam]

USB drive is not detected natively. you could move the VM using vmware converter (as vmware workstation format) or FastSCP to move the VMs out into a temp storage over network.

[DSTAVERT]

I use this in my lab quite regularly. I have ESXi installed to a USB stick. I have ESX installed to local HD along with a local VMFS datastore. If I boot from the USB stick ESXi detects the VMFS datastore and I can browse the datastore and add the VMs that were set up in ESX. I can run the VMs with ESXi running from the USB stick. If I shut down the ESXi host and remove the USB stick I can then restart and start ESX running on the local HD. Easy to switch back and forth.