Upgrade ESXi 5.0 Essential to 5.5U2 Essential Plus from local disk to a new Hitachi SAN

[vickyshiv123]

Hi Guys,

We are in the process of upgrading the ESXi from 5.0 Essential to 5.5 u2 Eseential Plus

Currently the ESXi 5.0 OS resides in the local disk (VMFS datastore) , this hosts contains 5 VMs(VMDK files) on the same local disk itself (VMFS datastore ) and this will be upgraded to ESXi 5.5 on a new SAN Storage (Hitachi SAN), VMs will also be moved to a new SAN Storage.

Moreover, new VMFS datastore will be configured once the LUN(OS LUN-ESXi/DATA LUN-VMs) has been presented to the ESXi host by the Hitachi SAN

After the VMFS datastore has been configured, we will migrate all VMs to the newly configured VMFS Datastore and then proceed with the upgrade using the VMware Update Manager

During the upgrade process, it will show the two VMFS storage partitions 1. one the existing & 2. other will be newly configured one

Obviously we will select option1 the newly configured VMFS storage partitions and I believe that this would be like a fresh installation since there is no ESXi OS on the new datastore or will it prompt any options like

1.Upgrade ESXi, preserve VMFS datastore

2.Install ESXi, preserve VMFS datastore

3.Install ESXi, overwrite VMFS datastore

Suppose if in case we select the option 1 ,will there be any loss of the host configuration details and VM files

Please advise on how to proceed further

Much appreciate your help

Thanks in Advance

Vignesh

[rock0n]

1.) First of all i'd suggest to update vCenter to the 5.5 release and then the VUM.

2.) Install the new WebClient (Server)

3.) Afterwards migrate the VMs to the newly external SAN created with VMFS5

4.) Update ESX1/ ESX2

5.) Update VMware Tools and the the virtual HW of the VMs

6.) Use the Webclient to see the beauty of the enhanced vmotion function ( hot move storage as well ) offered in the WebClient. Even with Essentials Plus 🙂

RM

[vickyshiv123]

Hi RM,

Thanks for your detailed procedure

Very much appreciate your help

Best Regards,

Vignesh

[vickyshiv123]

Hi RM,

Just want to clarify something.

We have already upgraded the vCenter server to 5.5 U3 and in the process of the upgrading the ESXi host 5.0 to 5.5U3

Furthermore, the vCenter server VM needs to moved from local datastore to SAN.

During the upgrade from ESXi host 5.0 Essential to 5.5 U3 Essential Plus, we will power off the vCenter server VM(resides on the local datastore)

After the vCenter server powered on as you said is it possible to hot move this VM from local datastore to a new datastore (SAN) from vSphere Web client 5.5  with the  Essential Plus license

Please confirm the above.

Very much appreciate your help

Thanks&Regards,

Vignesh