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SteveAntle
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Upgrade Managed Hosts - ESXi 4.0 U2 to ESXi 4.1 U1

I have two ESXi 4.0 U2 hosts managed by vCenter Server 4.0. I would like to upgrade these hosts to ESXi 4.1 U1. After I upgrade vCenter Server to version 4.1, should I upgrade the hosts to ESXi 4.1 U1 or do a fresh install of ESXi 4.1 U1 on each host? If I do a fresh install, will the host's configuration remain intact? I know I can back up the host configuration using vicfg-cfgbackup.pl but restoring the configuration across ESXi versions is not supported, so is a fresh install (vs. an upgrade) even an option?

Thanks,

Steve

Thanks, Steve
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idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

the instructions are in the release note, anyway you could do a backup and still do a in place upgrade. for more information please look at : http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_upgrade_guide.pdf

nkrishnan
Expert
Expert

If you have vCenter server with Update manager, it is very simple to do upgrade, following below steps

1) Download ESXi4.x to ESx4.1U1 upgrade zip bundle

2) go to Update manger admin view -> host upgrade tab. Upload the Zip bundle

3) Create a Host Upgrade base and attach to host and do remediate it.

4) Make sure that you have configured your scratch partition point to VMFS (option is available at Advance configuration under configuration tab of vSphere client

Otherwise use vihostupdate available in vCLI

1) Download ESXi4.x to ESx4.1U1 upgrade zip bundle

2) Trigger #vihostupdate –server <servername> -I –b <bundle name>

Provide username and password.

Thanks

Nithin

--Nithin
bulletprooffool
Champion
Champion

Upgrading without VUM (in case you do not have VUM)

http://www.get-virtual.info/2011/03/24/436/

When you run the upgrade, the previous version of firmware is stored.

you can backup the firmware using PowerCli if you like

Get-VMHostFirmware -VMHost $host -BackupConfiguration -DestinationPath C:\Downloads

and restore it like so:

Set-VMHostFirmware -VMHost Host -Restore -SourcePath c:\bundleToRestore.tgz -HostUser User -HostPassword Pass

and you can revert to the previous Firmware by pressing Shift-R at boot.

Good luck
One day I will virtualise myself . . .
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