Upgrade from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.5 VMFS3

[Tom_Evans]

Hi All,

I am looking at upgrading an environment from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.5.

I am going to create a new 5.5 vCenter server and connect the 4.1 hosts so that i can vMotion and not have any downtime. I will then complete a fresh install of ESXi 5.5 1 host at a time.

My question is if VMFS3 is supported with ESXi 5.5? When i configure the host to connect to the SAN the volumes are currently VMFS3? I don't want them to be formatted automatically resulting in downtime?

Thanks

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

Yes, vSphere 5 fully supports both VMFS3 as well as VMFS5. Unless you select to overwrite one of the VMFS3 volumes with the OS/Hypervisor installation you're fine.

André

[bayupw]

Hi

It is documented in below link that "vSphere 5.0 supports both VMFS versions 3 and 5".

VMware® vSphere® VMFS-5 Upgrade Considerations - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMFS-5_Up...

Related KB: VMware KB: Frequently Asked Questions on VMware vSphere 5.x for VMFS-5

[Tom_Evans]

Great. Thanks for your help!