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MrSpock77
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Best way to upgrade ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.1

Hi,

I have two hosts, one with ESXi 3.5 (free) and another with ESXi 4.1 (free), both with local storage. I am bit concerned about trying to upgrade the 3.5 host, as I don't want to get problems due to upgrade failures. Instead I would like to move the VMs from the 3.5 host to the 4.1 host. If everything works I can make a clean install of 4.1 on the old host and then move the VMs back. I don't risk losing anything.

Maybe I will buy a vSphere Essentials license, but I am not sure if that will help me in the process of moving VMs as the 3.5 host will be unlicensed until the migration is complete. Am I right? Is vSphere Essentials enough for doing cold migrations by the way?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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WaffleSniffer
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Hi

One method you could try would be to:

Shutdown the VMs on the 3.5 host

Using the datastore browser (or preferably Veeam FastSCP) copy the VM folders from the 3.5 host to the 4.1 one

Register the VMs on the 4.1 host and power them on to make sure they transferred ok before you wipe the 5.5 host

Rebuild your 3.5 host with 4.1 and once done simply reverse the process to move the VMs back

This saves any expense and should work just fine. 😃

Hope this helps

Adam

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DSTAVERT
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The Essentials license will not change anything as far as migration is concerned. You can simply copy the contents of the datastores on one host to the other and add the guests to the new host inventory.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
WaffleSniffer
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Hi

One method you could try would be to:

Shutdown the VMs on the 3.5 host

Using the datastore browser (or preferably Veeam FastSCP) copy the VM folders from the 3.5 host to the 4.1 one

Register the VMs on the 4.1 host and power them on to make sure they transferred ok before you wipe the 5.5 host

Rebuild your 3.5 host with 4.1 and once done simply reverse the process to move the VMs back

This saves any expense and should work just fine. 😃

Hope this helps

Adam

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golddiggie
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The method mentioned by WaffleSniffer is probably one of the better options you're going to have at this point. IF you had shared storage for the VM's to reside upon, instead of using local storage on the hosts, this would be far easier.

Instead of spending money, right now, on getting one of the VMware bundles/packages, see what you can get for funds to get a decent SAN... I would work with a VAR to get the SAN and ESX 4.1 licensing (including vCenter Server for the hosts)... I would also go with at least the Essentials Plus kit so that you get things like vMotion right off the bat (you'll want that)...

If you can wait a little while, it seems like in the second half of many quarters, VMware has promotions to drive up sales. Check with your VAR to see when the last promotion started (during the quarter) and have them notify you when the next one starts up... You could save a decent amount that way, or get something more for the same amount of money... It's at least worth looking into... Although you might not gain anything for just two hosts (assuming dual sockets per host, so four socket licenses)... The Foundation packages are typically for three hosts (six sockets)...

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MrSpock77
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Thanks for your replies. Copying the folders looks like a feasible option. I thought the host upgrade process did some upgrades on the VMs too, but if I understand you all correct that's not the case?

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WaffleSniffer
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Hi

Glad it helped 😃

The upgrade process of the host does not modify the VMs in itself, but once you have both hosts upgraded to 4.1 you can change the VM version of the VMs from 4 to 7. Version 4 is only required to maintain compatibility with 3.x hosts.

Regards

Adam

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