Updating VMware Vcenter server 5.1 U1 to 5.5 U3a steps and caveats ?

[AlbertWT]

People,

I'm currently running Windows VMware VCenter Server 5.1U1 as VM, the SQL Server 2008 Std SP2 is also in this VmM as well so it is all in one.

Is there any caveats or special steps that I need to know before performing inline upgrade the VMware Vcenter server 5.1 U1 to 5.5 U3a ?

[SavkoorSuhas]

Make sure that the hardware and software requirements for 5.5 are met.

VMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5 best practices

Then, before performing any upgrade you can probably take a snapshot of this vm and then proceed with the upgrade.

Its also best if you could back up the vCenter data base before upgrading.

Apart from this it should be a pretty straight forward upgrade as the above kb covers all the pre requisites to be met before upgrading..

Suhas

[JinuV]

Before Upgrade to vcenter 5.5

1.Take a snapshot  of  vcenter using snap manager by right click on the VM

2.Take the SQL database backup[Using SQL Management Studio]

3.Take the Vcenter the Config backup

It is also important to backup the vCenter Server SSL certificates before your upgrade. Below is the location of the SSL certificates on the vCenter server.

Windows 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL

Windows 2008: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\SSL

4.Mount the iso file in vcenter VM

5.Do an in-place upgrade.

[AlbertWT]

SavkoorSuhas‌ and JinuV‌ the VMware VCenter server and the SQL Server is in the same VM, so can I clone it before doing the VCenter inline upgrade instead of VM snapshot ?

[SavkoorSuhas]

You can clone it, but again the clone needs to have a different IP (different vCenter IP) and storage space. Which can be quite tricky.

Easy go! Snapshot of the machine and upgrade.

Suhas