esxi 6.7 update 3 to 7.0 failed

[scherian2]

Hi there community,

I had to update 2 dell servers R640 and an R730xd from esxi 6.7 to 7.0

I have vsphere essentials only and was using vcsa to do the upgrade

i upgraded vcsa from 6.7 to 7.0 successfully and then was successful in upgrading one Dell host the R640 from 6.7 to 7.0 using the vcsa life cycle manager, created a baseline and attached a 7.0 ISO Dell customized image.

However when attempting to do the same method upgrade to the R730xd.. it failed, hung and would not boot up any more to the old 6.7 version.. So i had to do a clean install of the Esxi 7.0on the R730xd.. 

What would you recommend is the best way to do a restore of my VMs to the ESXI 7.0?

i have a backup config of the esxi 6.7  - will i be able to simply restore that config to the newly created 7.0 esxi and then register my VMs? (i'm assuming all my VMs are still intact)

7.0.3, 20328353

[scherian2]

did a clean install of 7.0 on the failed server.

reconfigured, , mgmt interfaces, networking virtual switches/port groups

all the VMs were orphaned.

I removed them from inventory and searched for the vmx files in the datastores.. and registered them!

powered on .. i'm now up at 7.0..

won't use Life Cycle control manager within VCSA again.. i will opt for the ISO method/idrac etc.. to update my esxis

[wkellogg]

If I understand you correctly I would not use an imagine from an R640 to try to install on another model. Use the fresh Dell image on each model. If you wanted to create an imagine from one R640 to do other R640's that makes sense, but not another model. You'll want the install to select the correct drivers, which should all be on the original Dell ISO.

I upgraded a cluster of 6 R640's w/the Dell ISO and had 1 problem. Used the CLI install for that 1, as it wouldn't pass remediation pre-check. All the others worked fine. I have 2 more clusters to go and this was a learning experience w/VCSA.

Now I want to create an image from one of the upgraded R640's to use moving forward. The convert to image keeps telling me it's an R840 and of course fails h/w compatibility? On to bigger and more important things.

[maksym007]

highly possible that there are some VIBs that prevent the normal upgrades.