Upgrade ESXi 4 with HP Management Agents and Customizations

[wouterd]

Hello,

I have ESXi 3.5u4 installed with HP Management Agents on serveral servers but I want to upgrade these servers to ESXi 4 (also with HP Management Agents).

The clean install is available at http://www.hp.com/go/esxidownload but I can not find the VMware ESXi 4.0 upgrade ZIP with the HP Management Agents. If I upgrade the ESXi 3.5u4 (with HP agents) by using the VMware ESXi 4.0 upgrade ZIP found on the VMware website (Version 4.0.0 | 171294 - 06/22/09) I lose the HP Agents (and have no Smart Array monitoring).

Clean install in this case is no option because I don't have the space and time to dump 400GB per location (20 locations) to another server.

Any Ideas?

Best regards,

Wouter

[SteveA1]

Wouter

I have the same question, have you got an answer since you post.

TIA

Steve

[DSTAVERT]

You can use the vSphere Host upgrade utility (Part of the vSphere 4 Client install) to upgrade to ESXi 4. You can then apply the HP offline bundle with the rcli vihostupdate update utility. You will need to install the RCLI tools or add the VMA appliance to get the vihostupdate or vihostupdate.pl tool. Those are links from the ESXi host web access page.

HP offline bundle download

[SteveA1]

Much Appreciated, I have downloaded the "offline bundle" and run the Host upgrade utility up to ther point where it asks for the zip file. Looking good.

Opinion please: Environment is single host, internal use only, my machine used for internal business operations....Can I stagger the upgrade over a few days - is this advisable?

The way I understand it ESXi 4 will be up and running after the upgrade ( and subsequent vmtools and virtual machine upgrade). The offline bundle role is to allow ESXi to know about the hardware status ( fans and temps etc ). Is the "offline bundle" essiential to the operation of ESXi 4 on HP? Can I get the server back up and run for a day or two without the offline bundle? Basically can I stagger the upgrade over a few days - is this advisable?

regards

[DSTAVERT]

I don't believe you can apply the offline bundle with the Host Update utility. I am pretty sure you need to use the command line tools. The directions are with the offline bundle. Get the VMA appliance or RCLI. The links are on your ESXi host web access page.

You can wait for as long as you need to apply the HP bundle. Any update can be delayed. Always check to see what an update is for. Decide if it affects you and what it solves. If it isn't critical and you don't see any issues, wait.

[SteveA1]

Thanks once again

I've used the RCLI once to backup the host config. I'll install the vMA are have a look at that.

You definetly can't apply the offliine bundle with the Host Update utility.

>Any update can be delayed

I'm only updating to esx4 for improved support of Windows7 guests.

Regards

[DSTAVERT]

There are posts elswhere in the forums about HP agents. It does not work from the GUI.