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Bunty11
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Hot Shot

vmware upgrade esxi 4.1 to 5.1

Hi,

Can some one please give me some plan for upgrading my esxi from 4.1 to 5.1 ??

What i need to consider. What steps should i follow. ?

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vmroyale
Immortal
Immortal

Note: Discussion successfully moved from vSphere 5.1 to vSphere Upgrade & Install

Check out the following resources:

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-upgrade...

VMware KB: Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1 best practices

VMware KB: Installing or upgrading to ESXi 5.1 best practices

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
Gortee
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Evening,

The links above are great.  A few things to consider are the following:

1. New Hardware version

2. New VMFS version (in place upgrade of current datastores are not the same)  If you have the storage bring new storage in make it a datastore with 5.1 then migrate to it

3. New VMware tools

4. If you are using VDS then new version of the switch

5. You may want to look into Storage Clusters and Storage DRS. 

A logical Plan if you had storage to add might look like this:

1. Maint mode a host

2. Fresh load ESXi 5.1

3. Use host profile (if enterprise plus) to make new 5.1 as equal as possible

4. Manually check new node for all networking etc..

5. Take out of Maint mode

6. Rise and repeat on all nodes

7. Add new storage version 5.1 and make it a storage cluster with Storage DRS enabled

8. Storage VMotion vm's to new storage cluster

9. Upgrade any VDS's required

10. When possible take outages on vm's to upgrade the hardware version and vmware tools

Please let me know if this does not answer your question.

Thanks

Joseph Griffiths http://blog.jgriffiths.org @Gortees VCDX-DCV #143
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Bunty11
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@vmroyale : Thanks for sharing the links. I was looking for some real life problems some one might have faced during the upgrade process and i need to consider them before upgrading.

I was also looking for some one to help me with SSO concept.

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nkrishnan
Expert
Expert

Hi Bunt,

to upgrade the datacenter from 4.1 to 5.1, you have to install SSO first and then web client, It can be on a same machine or different machine. these products can even install with vCenter server (Depends on your VM resource configuration)

Once the installation of SSO and web client completes, then you can continue upgrade vCenter inventory service (this service installed along with vCenter 4.1).

The follow regular steps  upgrade vCenter server -> vSphere Client -> Update manager -> finally ESXi

SSO loop back address will be asked during the webclient, vCenter inventory service and vCenter server installation/upgrade time.

Decide what kind of installation you need to follow for SSO, is it simple standalone install (basic mode), High availability (You can get SSO HA but need to configure with load balancer) and Multi site deployment (Use full multi site datacenter environment and gives provision to link vCenter server).

Once the SSO installed, add your Active directory /ldap detailed in to SSO identify source and give permission to access vCenter server.

--Nithin
Bunty11
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Hot Shot

What kind of load balance software can we use. ?? For SSO with HA mode...

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nkrishnan
Expert
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you can use Apache load balancer , please refer http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2034157&sl... 0 30705823

KBID: 2034157

--Nithin
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prakash9339
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

There are two methods you can choose which one you preferred. 

you can updat eby update magange or direct host installation

ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

Upgrading to VMware ESXi 5

1. Open vCenter, select Home – Solutions and Applications – Update Manager in your address bar. Select ESXi Images Tab.


01 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

2. Click Import ESXi Image on the top left corner. Click browse and point to the VMware ESXi 5 Hypervisor ISO file. Click Next.


02 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

3. Select Install this certificate… and click ignore.


03 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

4. This screen displays some information about the ESXi 5 image. Click Next.


04 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

5. Select Create a baseline using the ESXi image. Type a name for the baseline, such as ESXi 5 Upgrade and a description if you like. Click Finish.


05 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

6. You can now see listed the Imported ESXi 5 Image.


06 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

7. Click on Compliance View at the top right hand side. Select the ESXi 4 host that you wish to upgrade and then click Attach at the top right hand corner. Select the Upgrade Baseline (ESXi 5 Upgrade) that you created in the earlier step. Click Attach.


07 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

8. Click on Scan at the top right hand side. Select Upgrades and then click Scan.


08 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

9. The upgrade may be marked as incompatible but you can still proceed. If the upgrade is marked as incompatible you will be able to click on Upgrade Details.


09 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

10. Some software modules will be removed. Check to see that these are not needed as they will be removed once the host is upgraded to ESXi 5. Click Close.


10 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

11. Click on Remediate. Make sure your Upgrade Basline is selected. Click Next.


11 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

12. Select I accept the terms and license agreement. Click Next.


12 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

13. Select Remove installed third-party software that is incompatible… Click Next.


13 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

14. Give the task a name and description and select when you would like to remediate the selected hosts. Click Next.


14 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

15. Select your power state and retry options. Click Next.


15 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

16. Select your Cluster Remediation Options here. Click Next.


16 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

17. Check the summary and if you are happy with all the settings click Finish.


17 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

18. As you can see my VMware ESXi 4.1 host has finished upgrading to ESXi 5. Press enter to reboot.


18 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

19. Once the ESXi 5 host reboots and reconnects to vCenter, the attached baseline is now compliant and is shown with a green tick. Clicking on the host will display the ESXi installed version at the top of the screen. VMware ESXi 5.0.0, 469512.


19 vcenter 5 esxi5 upgrade ESXi 4 Upgrade to ESXi 5 Using Update Manager

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