Upgrading from ESX3.5 to vSphere 5.0

[anthonypoh]

Hi all,

I've got an upgrade project on to upgrade my old ESX 3.5 hosts and VirtualCenter 2.5 to the latest and greatest vSphere 5.0 and vCenter Server 5.0.

Having read through the upgrade doc and because of how small the environment is, I have decided to build a new vCenter Server from scratch rather than go through the upgrade process (mainly due to wanting to put vCenter on a VM, upgrade the OS to 64bit, seperate out the VCDB onto an external SQL server, etc).

I'm hoping to do an orderly migration where I vMotion VMs off an old host, upgrade it to vSphere 5 and then vMotion the VMs back on to it.

My question is pretty simple (I hope):

Can I add vSphere 5.0 ESXi hosts and ESX 3.5 hosts into the same HA Cluster (assuming they are configured similarly with regards to vSwitch and vMotion) after I've added all the hosts into vCenter 5?

This is so that I can vMotion VMs from the old ESX 3.5 hosts onto the new vSphere 5.0 hosts after a host upgrade.

The VMs are all live and I can't afford to have downtime.......

Thanks for your time....

- Anthony

[chriswahl]

I'd recommend using the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes:

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide/sim/interop_matrix.php

[anthonypoh]

I don't think that will tell me whether I can add different ESX hosts into the same cluster and vMotion between them.

[Troy_Clavell]

you will most likely have to enable EVC.  You will probably run into vMotion Compatibility issues.  Plus, you'll need to be at U5 in order to manage the VI3 Hosts using vCenter5

[psreekanth75 · Accepted solution]

Hi Anthony,

- There is no direct upgrade from ESX/i 3.5 to 5.0

- Refer following link which has HA check list and about ESX 35x patch requirement inorder to add to 5.0 HA cluster

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/index.jsp?topic=/com.vmware.vsphere.avail.doc_50/GUID-BA85FEC4-A37...

- if you upgrade from VC25Ux ,make sure that Host Certificates Enabled, other wise HA configuration fails, above link has this info also

- Yes, VMotion works between ESX35x and ESX 5.0 hosts if network,CPU compatability are as per requirements.

Regards

Sreekanth

[anthonypoh]

Thanks Sreekanth... useful link.

I think our plan of action is to just scrap VC2.5 and start afresh with VC5.0.

We have a new server which will be installed with vSphere 5.0, VC5.0 will then be installed on a new VM on this new ESXi hosts. Then we'll add in the old VI3.5 hosts into VC5.0, create a new HA cluster with both VI3.5 and vSphere 5.0 hosts and hope they vMotion between the hosts.

Regards,

- A