Upgrade vs Reinstall

[R2B]

We have two ESX 3.5 hosts at a division that I would like to get to vSphere. vCenter is already upgraded. It seems to me it might be easier to just vmotion the guest machines from one host, install vsphere on that host from scratch, vmotion back to in and then reinstall the other host?

Is there a problem with that plan? Or would you upgrade the existing 3.5 install to 4.0 instead.

Any help and advise would be greatle appreciated.

[Troy_Clavell]

I think your plan is solid. I prefer to always perform a reinstall over and upgrade, especially for major releases such as vSphere4. To me it seems the cleaner approach.

[AndreTheGiant]

You can use VMotion between ESX 3.5 and 4.0... so it's up to you choose if you want to upgrade or reinstall the hosts.

IMHO I prefer a reinstallation.

Andre

[vmroyale]

Hello.

I just did a vSphere upgrade exactly like you are suggesting. It worked great. I agree with Troy and Andre also about the clean install.

Good Luck!

[rsingler]

An upgrade from 3.5 to 4 is essentially a fresh install anyway, VMware is just automating it for you.

[R2B]

Part of the problem is I've never done an upgrade. I guess it's time to do one. Anyone have a quick link to the procedure?

Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate it.

[AndreTheGiant]

You can use: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40/vsp_40_upgrade_guide.pdf

But a clean installation could be better

Andre