Upgrade from ESX 3.5 to 4 with VCB upgrade

[ATRB]

I'm planing an upgrade from our ESX 3.5 / VC 2.5 / VCB 1.5 environment to vSphere 4 and VCB 1.5.x

As I've started the planing VCB 1.5 update 1 was the actual release supporting vSphere and ESX 3.5.

The Plan was to install vCenter 4, connect all ESX 3.5 hosts to the new vCenter 4 Server and upgrade VCB from 1.5 to 1.5 update 1 in the same time to have a running backup during upgrade. Afterwards the upgrade to ESX 4 host by host was planed.

now i noticed that VCB 1.5 update 2 is available. And this release do not support ESX 3.5 connected to a vCenter 4 Server as documented in http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_compatibility_matrix.pdf

First of all i cant understand why a newer release supports less the the update before.

And what is unclear for me now - what is the best upgrade path when we cant upgade all ESX hosts within a time frame where we could live without VCB and we have to support ESX 3.5 on vCenter 4.

Should i go with VCB 1.5 update 1 or would update 2 support the ESX 3.5 / vSphere combination soon?

mike

[vmroyale]

Hello.

I would personally upgrade your VCB to 1.5 U1 and then do the vCenter upgrade. I have done this, and had no issues with ESX 3.5 hosts and vCenter 4. If and when you get your ESX hosts upgraded to 4, then you can re-evaluate the U2 upgrade for VCB.

VCB is on it's way out, so this likely explains the backwards compatibility issue with the 3.5 hosts.

Good Luck!