Upgrade Suggestion.......

[AlanTang]

Hello:

My environment has some ESX 2.5, 3.0 & 3.5. We didn't use the Virtual Center. So that we didn't use the VMotion...etc. May I have suggestion on the migration suggestion on how, best & safe method to migrate to VS4 environment?

Thanks a lot!

[Gerrit_Lehr]

Well, if you have the ressources to free one server to run ESX 4.0 I'd do so, setup vSphere on this machine and then migrate existing VMs of the older server using vmware converter. You could then add the newly available server to the vSphere cluster. But thats just plain theory. You need to see if the server are supported to run ESX 4.0 and might need a shared storage in order to build clusters etc.

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[depping]

Are you using shared storage or not?

Duncan

VMware Communities User Moderator | VCP | VCDX

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[AndreTheGiant]

VMFS version will be compatible (probably the same of ESX 3.5).

VS4 will also be able to run old VM (in ESX 3.x format).

So you have only to plan the downtime for reinstall (or upgrade) the ESX part.

Andre

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[AlanTang]

Sorry for missing the importance parts. I am using SAN and the Old SAN also need to migrate to the New SAN. I can buy another 2 Physical Servers to perform Swapping. All the Physical Hardware (including the old ESX Server) are certified VS4 HW.

Does the Storage VMotion can help to migrate the ESX 2.5 VM host to VS4? Base on the lilmited down time & technical staff. I need to use the best, quick and min. risk to perform such migration.

Some of the ESX 2.5 VM have storage was about 200G. All the VM are using the vmdk file. No RAW Mapping.

Does any hints?

[weinstein5]

However the stickler in the dtails of the original poster is ESX 2.5 - VMFS 2 will need to be upgraded which means ESX 2.5 will have to be upgraded to 3.x first - I think the best bet is bring the ESX 2.5 hosts to 3.5 first which also upgrade your VMFS datastores to 3.x and then you can follow the other's advice and stand up a ESX 4 box and move the VMs over -

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[AndreTheGiant]

I am using SAN and the Old SAN also need to migrate to the New SAN.

Some SAN have special function to do LUN copy at storage level, maybe also yours.

Old VMFS2 must be converted to VMFS3 (refer to ESX2 -> ESX3 procedure).

Andre

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[AlanTang]

If doing the VMFS2 upgrade to VMFS3, it will take long down time for in-place upgrade the ESX & it was very riskly. I need to thinking of the possible and quick fallback.

Sorry for many limitation! I would like to do it in the very safe and quick method.

[AlanTang]

May I know how to move from old ESX2.5 to VS4? is through the vCenter Server? It may be the safe method but it can't fallback easily and need a long dwon time when the VM virtual disk have large data! (e.g. 2 x 150G HD)

[AndreTheGiant]

If doing the VMFS2 upgrade to VMFS3, it will take long down time for in-place upgrade the ESX & it was very riskly. I need to thinking of the possible and quick fallback.

In this case use a ESX3 (cause I'm not sure that ESX4 will be able to read VMFS2) that can see both old SAN and new SAN.

Then for each VM (on ESX 2.x) do a cold migrate (to do it without VC just use cp in the service console).

Andre

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[AlanTang]

You means using the UNIX command to copy the vmdk file(s) onto the VS4 VMFS locatcation? If it is possible after cp to the new VS4 file and can mount this vmdk file on VM. That will be a safty method. Then I need to think does I can increase the network bandwidth for RCP.

If VS4 support to mount the ESX 2.5 VMFS, that will be very good as I can perform the LUN duplication.

[weinstein5]

Here is a link to VMware's upgrade document - http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_upgrade_guide.pdf. But the easier path since you have the ability to stand up two new ESX hosts is t use VMware converter which should allow you to move the older VMs to vSphere -

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[AndreTheGiant]

You means using the UNIX command to copy the vmdk file(s) onto the VS4 VMFS locatcation?

Yes, you have both datastore mounted on the same host this could be simple. If you have to do via LAN this could be slower (remember that COS has a few of the physical resources).

If VS4 support to mount the ESX 2.5 VMFS, that will be very good as I can perform the LUN duplication.

For this point I'm not sure. At least your can use a temporally ESX 3.5 host.

Andre

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[AlanTang]

Thanks for all share the point. I will group together each useful point and create a summary. After that I will respond every useful suggestion and feedback the point.:)

Let's share the view together!

[admin]

If you do plan to use VMware Converter to convert any VM to vSphere 4.O. Please make sure to strip all the data off of it and simply convert the OS. It will save you valuable conversion time and present you with a stable converted VM. FYI, here's the URL to vSphere upgrade flash demos:

VMware-GSS,

VMware Communities User Moderator