esx 3.5 u4 to vSphere 4.0 u1 upgrade question

[jgmiterek]

running 6 host cluster with drs / vmotion enabled, upgrade plan is to upgrade first 3 hosts one day and remaining 3 host another day, the question is

- is it possible to have esx hosts with in same cluster at different esx versions?

- if it is possible, are vm's from 3.5x esx able to vmotion to new 4.0 esx hosts?

- if the above is possible, do i must upgrade vm hardware to v7 as well as vm tools or that can be done at later time ( outage is a huge problem and everythig requires to be done on different outage windows )

- is it a good practice to disable drs on the cluster and move vm's manually or let the upgrade handle this?

[joshp]

•is it possible to have esx hosts with in same cluster at different esx versions?

Yes.

•if it is possible, are vm's from 3.5x esx able to vmotion to new 4.0 esx hosts?

Yes

•if the above is possible, do i must upgrade vm hardware to v7 as well as vm tools or that can be done at later time ( outage is a huge problem and everythig requires to be done on different outage windows )

You do not need to upgrade your Virtual Machines to hardware version 7 for as long as you like.

•is it a good practice to disable drs on the cluster and move vm's manually or let the upgrade handle this?

When I perform the upgrade process I typically will disable DRS because it's easier for me to control the environment. For example, I like to confirm the upgraded ESX 4 host settings before any VMs are migrated to it (with DRS enabled its possible VMs will automatically migrate to the upgraded host when you are not ready).

The VMware Upgrade Guide contains everything you will need to know to perform the migration: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_upgrade_guide.pdf

VCP 3, 4

www.vstable.com

[AndreTheGiant]

Remember to upgrade vCenter and his plugin first.

is it possible to have esx hosts with in same cluster at different esx versions?

Yes

if it is possible, are vm's from 3.5x esx able to vmotion to new 4.0 esx hosts?

Yes, and can also to vmotion from 4.0 to 3.5.

if the above is possible, do i must upgrade vm hardware to v7 as well as vm tools or that can be done at later time ( outage is a huge problem and everythig requires to be done on different outage windows )

Do NOT upgrate to virtual hardware 7 (cause it works only on ESX 4.0).

But you can upgrade VMware Tools.

is it a good practice to disable drs on the cluster and move vm's manually or let the upgrade handle this?

You can leave DRS enable without problems.

Andre