VMware Upgrade on Dell PowerEdge R730

[jasmink]

Hi folks,

I have Dell PowerEdge R730 running VMware ESXi 6.0 that is being managed by vSphere client. Unfortunately, I don't have vCenter. My goal is to upgrade VMware 6.0 to 6.5 or 6.7 (preferred). I already verified, server and license support both versions. I do have a few doubts: 

Can I easily upgrade from 6.0 to 6.7, or I need to do an incremental upgrade from 6.0 to 6.5, and then to 6.7?

In case the upgrade fails, would I be able to do rollback and boot from 6.0?

I plan to update iDRAC, RAID, and BIOS firmware on Dell PowerEdge R730. Do I need to do it before VMware upgrade?

Where should I download 6.5 or 6.7 images, is it from the VMware website or I should go with a customized image for PowerEdge R730? I ask because I saw on the Dell site, these are ISO file for different VMware images, 6.7, 6.7 U1, 6.7 U2 and 6.7 U3.

What would be the upgrade procedure, is it standard - shutting down VMs, hosts, booting from the USB, choosing Upgrade and following the steps?

Many thanks.

Best
Yaz

[nachogonzalez]

Hey, hope you are doing fine:

Can I easily upgrade from 6.0 to 6.7, or I need to do an incremental upgrade from 6.0 to 6.5, and then to 6.7?

You can check that on VMware Product Interoperability Matrices

In case the upgrade fails, would I be able to do rollback and boot from 6.0?

If you are upgrading ESXi unfortunately you can't rollback, you will need to reinstall the ESXi host.
Please play special attention to your host's drivers for vSphere 6.7

I plan to update iDRAC, RAID, and BIOS firmware on Dell PowerEdge R730. Do I need to do it before VMware upgrade?

Yes

Where should I download 6.5 or 6.7 images, is it from the VMware website or I should go with a customized image for PowerEdge R730? I ask because I saw on the Dell site, these are ISO file for different VMware images, 6.7, 6.7 U1, 6.7 U2 and 6.7 U3.

Yes, you can download it from here:
Dell EMC Customized Image of VMware ESXi Availability and Download Instructions | Dell Argentina

What would be the upgrade procedure, is it standard - shutting down VMs, hosts, booting from the USB, choosing Upgrade and following the steps?

Yes, that would be it.
Please pay attention at the datastore selection step so you don't accidentally delete your VMs.

Hope that works.
Let me know

[jasmink]

Hi nachogonzalez,

Thank you for the feedback.

According to the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices, it is possible to upgrade from 6.0 to 6.7 U3. Please correct me if I am wrong.

"Please play special attention to your host's drivers for vSphere 6.7"

Are the drivers already included in the customized image for Dell PowerEdge? If not, I guess I should download them from Dell and install them after the upgrade. Is that correct?

How long does it take to finish the upgrade?

Thanks.

Yaz

[a_p_]

The steps I usually take for this is:

1. migrate VMs to other hosts if possible, and/or ensure that there's a current backup available in case something goes wrong
2. shut down the host
3. update the host's LCC (LifeCycle Controller) first, then update BIOS and firmware for other hardware components
4. upgrade ESXi

André

[a_p_]

How long does it take to finish the upgrade?

Upgrading ESXi itself is a matter of minutes only. The firmware upgrades, and the reboots will take more time, depending of what needs to be upgraded.

However, if everything is in place, the complete upgrade shouldn't take more than 1 hour.

André

[jasmink]

Hi André,

Unfortunately, I don't have a second host right now. The only option I can do is to export or backup VMs and import them later in case of failure. I hope that will work.

Best

Yaz

[a_p_]

Well, any backup is better than none. 😉

André

[jasmink]

Your responses are very helpful, André. Thank you.

[IRIX201110141]

jasmink​

as an additional note:

You can pre-stage the Dell FW updates within the iDRAC Enterprise by choosing the "apply on next reboot" option.  So within iDRAC you can fetch the FW packages directly from ftp.dell.com or uploading them manually.

Based on many years of experience you should take a look to the HCL for your NIC and HBA. More important when you have a fancy 10/25/40Gb NIC.  The iDRAC have an FW Roleback option if the ESX driver doesnt like the FW.

Well... you told us that you have only one host which means no vCenter/VUM can be used.  So fetch the latest Custom ISO named "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update03-15160138.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A04.iso" from https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER06285354M/1/VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0.update03-15160138.x86_64-DellEM...

You have to select "upgrade" within the installer and pick the existing ESXi installation.

If you have to boot through virtual CD/iDRAC you should upgrade iDRAC FW first (no Host reboot needed) before doing the pre-staging of the rest of the FW. Otherwise the iDRAC resets during its own FW Upgrade and this breaks virtual CD of course.

Regards,
Joerg

[a_p_]

Just a quick note regarding the latest available v6.7 U3 images.

The Dell support web site - as of today - also offers the "...-DellEMC_Customized-A05" image. Kind of hard to detect, because the images are not in timely order.

The VMware web site already offers the "...-DellEMC_Customized-A06" image.

André

PS: Just noticed that the "A05" offer on the Dell web site only provides the release notes.