Upgraded to 4.1 with vihostupdate.pl

[ikt]

Hi,

I just upgraded a ESXi host from 4.0 to 4.1 using the tutorial at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PudPMGJmmdg&feature=channel  As it was an ESXi I understood that the preupgrade bundle was not necessary.  I updated using this file: upgrade-from-ESXi4.0-to-4.1.0-0.0.260247-release.zip

The update went exactly as in the tutorial, stating success at the end and that the host needed to be rebooted.  I rebooted it from the VSphere Client which was open during the update.

However, when the host ( a Dell PowerEdge 2950 ) restarted it tried to boot off the network and stated that 'No operating system is currently installed on this computer'.

Obviously something went wrong.  What do I do now?  Could it be a corrupt bootloader?  Thanks a LOT if someone can provide some help in my siituation..

regards Tor

[MauroBonder]

check sequence of boot. try force boot to disk0.

[ikt]

I checked the boot order and it was the same as in the previous version. It jumps off the hdd option and tries network boot as the next option.

Can I inspect the harddrive for a bootloader ?  Does vmware has as bootable cd or something to find out more about the disk?

Tor

[kermic]

Did you have any local datastores with VMs on local HDDs?

If not, then the quickest way would be to reinstall the host using ESXi 4.1 boot CD and then restore configuration (networking, datastore connections, add VMs to inventory, attach to vCenter etc) manually.

If there are VMFS datastores with virtual machines on server's local HDDs, leave the reinstall as last resort. It should (SHOULD! not guaranteed!) preserve VMFS partitions if it finds some. Anyway if you will go that far, make sure you tried everything and that you have a decent backup of your locally stored VMs.

Hope this helps and good luck!

WBR

Imants

[ikt]

> Did you have any local datastores with VMs on local HDDs?

No, all are located on iSCSI SANs.

If I just reinstall, do I need to set up all networking, storage and other host config, or can that be copied from a similar host?  If yes, the other host(s) are running 4.0, would that be a problem?

How do I 'find' the VMs on the SAN when I have installed ESXi 4.1.  I haven't done this before, so I'm nor sure of how to proceed.

So there is no way of booting the host from a cd and browse the hdd with some tools to try to recreate the broken bootloader..?

Anyone having a clue on why this went wrong..?

regards  Tor

[MauroBonder]

Boot from SAN. vSphere 4.1 enables ESXi boot from SAN (BFN). iSCSI, FCoE, and Fibre Channel boot are supported. Refer to the Hardware Compatibility Guide for the latest list of NICs and Converged Adapters that are supported with iSCSI boot. See the iSCSI SAN Configuration Guide and the Fibre Channel SAN Configuration Guide.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_41_new_feat.html

[DSTAVERT]

Unless you created individual LUNs for each ESXi host you should be able to browse the datastore using the Datastore Browser to view all your VMs. If you did create individual LUNs I would attach the LUN for the broken host to a good host or multiple hosts. Start any critical VMs on one of your other hosts by browsing to the VM folder and right click on the VMX file and add to inventory. Reinstall ESXi and recreate your network, etc. on the bad host. Re attach the LUN.

[kermic]

If you have an active VMware Support and Subscription you could try opening a support ticket.

AFAIK ESXi holds a backup image of previous installation, only I'm not aware of how to get to it in your case.

If you go the reinstall way (and if you are completely sure that no VMs are on local HDDs), the scenario migh look like:

1) reinstall the host using boot cd

2) remove the previous instance from vCenter inventory

3) set root passwd, IP config and DNS name of new host

4) join the host to vCenter

5) recreate networking by taking any of existing / survived hosts as example (assuming all hosts have consistent network configuration)

6) if you use hardware iSCSI HBA, host should find datastores automatically

6.1) if you use software iSCSI initiator, you need to configure vmk port on correct vswitch with correct pnic, enable SW iSCSI initiator

6.1.1) if no datastores are found after rescan, most probably you need to change hosts SW iSCSI iqn to the same as in ACL of your storage device

7) if you had a HA / DRS cluster and VMs are still in inventory, you will need to migrate them manually or let DRS do the job

😎 if you did not have a cluster and VMs are no longer in inventory, once datastore found, right click on it - browse datastore - take a look in each VMs folder - right click on VMs .vmx file and choose "add to inventory"

9) vhen VMs power on, questions might come up about "whatta happen to me!? copied or moved?". You need to choose "I moved the VM"

That's basically it.

Somebody correct me please if I missed something.

WBR

Imants

[ikt]

OK, I will try to do all this.  However I just need to know about potential version problems. 

My VCenter Server is still 4.0 and so were all the VMs (due to the 4.0 hosts).

I have already installed one host to 4.1 from scratch, and it seems that I need to do the same with the second one 🙂

Does a 4.1 VCenter Server and VSphere Client handle 4.0 VMs without problems ?

Any other version conflicts I should watch out for..?

Thanks again for comments, I'm getting a better overview now ,-)

regards Tor

[DSTAVERT]

A 4.0 vCenter can not manage 4.1 hosts. You need to upgrade the vCenter instance first. It must run on a 64bit OS as well.

[kermic]

You need to upgrade vCenter to 4.1 BEFORE UPGRADING HOSTS!

vCenter 4.0 will not support adding ESX(i) 4.1

This is what you should have read yesterday: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_upgrade_guide.pdf

vSphere Client will offer you an upgrade the first time you connect to 4.1 (ESXi or vCenter)

VMs created on 4.0 should be running fine on 4.1, vmware tools upgrade is very recommended.

WBR

Imants

[ikt]

I know, I just needed to know if there was a problem for a 4.1 VCenter to handle my 4.0 created and managed VMs.

The VCenter Server runs under Win 2008 x64

Tor

[DSTAVERT]

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022140 Upgrade 4.0 to 4.1

[DSTAVERT]

you can manage 3.5, 4.0 and 4.1 hosts from a vCener 4.1

[nkrishnan]

Do  you have embedded or Installer version on ESXi , do you have any other  instants of ESXi on the host. If it is Embedded use the recovery CD that  is provided by Vendor (HP,Dell etc) to reinstall it on Embedded system,

also after the successful upgrade, how did you rebooted your system

Nithin

[ikt]

I rebooted the system with the v 4.0 vsphere client because this app was still open, maybe that was the problem.  I thought that it only sent a reboot flag to the host...

Anyhow, I reinstalled v 4.1 from scratch at the host and re-entered all the networking and storage stuff.  Now it works ok!  Thanks to all fopr the comments and help!

regards Tor