Upgrading VMWare ESXi 4.0.0 to VMware vSphere Hypervisor

[usevm]

Hello

Is it possible to upgrade VMWare ESXi 4.0.0 398348 to the new VMware vSphere Hypervisor, the free edition?

How would I go about upgrading it without losing the VMs that are currently in the datastore?

[DSTAVERT]

You can use the Host Update Utility that was an install option with the vSphere Client. You can try reinstalling the client if you did not install the utility. You can also use the vCLI tools to upgrade. http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/server/vsphere/automationtools?view=overview  http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_upgrade_guide.pdf

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

VMware ESXi and the Hypervisor share the exact same binaries. It's only the license key which locks or unlocks the different features. So switching between different editions is basically just replacing the license key.

Since the binaries are the same for all editions, the update procedure to e.g. version 4.1 is the same too. Just follow DSTAVERTS's link to the upgrade guide (search for vihostupdate).

André

PS: You may also want to take a look at http://blog.peacon.co.uk/wiki/Upgrading_ESXi_4_to_4.1 which provides the update steps

[AndreTheGiant]

See also:

http://damiankarlson.com/2011/02/17/upgrade-vmware-esxi-4-1-free-to-u1/

Andre