Upgrade Vsphere 3.5 to Vsphere 5.1

[TechExpert]

Hi all

we have 5 Vsphere 3.5 Esx servers with a vcenter server in shared storage  ( HP EVA storage ) . we  are plaining to upgrade this in Vsphere 5.1 in EMC VNX  ( Block Level ) shared storage.

• can we first upgrade V sphere 3.5 and thern migrate to Vsphere 5.1
• or first we connect new storage with old storage switch and then migrate & the old  VMs to new storage

or if somebody has any other method then pls let me know . Thanks in advance..

[scott28tt]

Moderator note: Moved from the VCP forum area to the vSphere Upgrade & Install forum area.

[peetz]

I recommend using these steps:

1. Upgrade vSphere first

Please note: you can not upgrade directly from 3.5 to 5.1. You need to update to ESX 4.1 first (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022140) and then to ESXi 5.1 (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2032757)

2. Connect the new storage box. Create new datastores and format them as VMFS5.

3. Use Storage VMotion to migrate xour VMs from the old storage box (VMFS3 datastores) to the new VMFS5 datastores.

- Andreas

[sidbryd]

My experience with doing these sorts of upgrades are that the hardware that supports ESX 3.5 tends not to still be on the HCL for vSphere 5.1 with a few exceptions, it is very important that you confirm that the server hardware is on the HCL first.

To go to 5.1 you will have to perform two upgrades as outlined (vCenter 5.1 does not support ESX 3.5 hosts either).

Regards

Andrew Brydon

[AndreTheGiant]

As written, HCL is different and maybe your systems are not certified for vSphere 5.1.

In this case consider to build a new infrastructure and migrate the VM.