Upgrading from vSphere 4.x to 5.5

[avaman]

Hi,

     Currently we are running vSphere 4.x VMware clusters with vCenter 4.x as well.

Our Environment is Windows Server 2003 R2 Domain Infrastructure. What would be the step to properly upgrade our VMware infrastructure to vSphere 5.5 or perhaps vSphere 6.0.

Thanks

[zalak_dharia]

hi ,

Please install Vcenter 5.5 first on a standalone server add 2 host the one(VSphere 4) you have windows 2003 and a new host which has VSphere 5.5 installed

Add both host to cluster and then you can start a Vmotion for the same.

[npadmani]

KB - 2053130

VMware KB: Methods of upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5

KB - 2052329

VMware KB: Installing or upgrading to ESXi 5.5 best practices

[AramAvetisyan]

Hello,

This is what I would do.

For vCenter:

You will have to build a new vCenter Server on new/supported Windows machine.

Another option is to use latest vCenter appliance.

For ESXi hosts:

Create Cluster with similar config like on your old vCenter.

Force disconnect you ESXi host from your old vCenter and connect them to new vCenter. (I guess this is not supported by VMware, so do it at your own risk)

Enter each ESXi host to maintenance mode, and perform full re-install and reconfiguration.

For Storage:

Ideally:  svMotion all VMS and reformat datastore as VMFS5

Worst case: perform live upgrade of VMFS3 to VMFS5

[avaman]

For vCenter

     1- will the current release of vCenter works on Windows Servers 2003 R2 or do I have to run it on Windows Server 2012 R2?

     2- If have to run on Windows Server 2012 for the latest release of vCenter, do I have to upgrade my 2003 Server R2 Domain Controller to Server 2012 R2?

Thanks

[VRBitman]

Hello avaman,

1 - no, it will not work on 2K3 R2. This KB shows a complete compatibility matrix.

2 - no.

[vmrulz]

Time to stick a fork in vcenter on Windows just like VMware is doing. We've been on 5.5 using the appliance for well over a year. Upgrades are way easier and one less SQL server to manage.

As was suggested by others, build up your 5.5 env on new hardware. Provision storage to new and old or build up a "conduit" ESXi box that touches old and new storage which I had to do for some of our older arrays.

I wouldn't put v6 in production until post 6months or more release.