Upgrade 4.0 to 4.1

[Ace007]

Hello,

i want to upgrade my present ESX 4.0 version to 4.1, and i am nervous about it that i may not disturb the production environment. And i am confused to use Update Manager or Host Update utility to upgrade my ESX Host.

Possible help with some guidance will be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance.

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

Hello.

Have a start with the Upgrade Guide - it will answer all of your questions and is very thorough with the details/options of the upgrade process.

Good Luck!

[Ace007]

Thank You so much,

[bulletp31]

Personaly i would not upgrade. I would alsways do a fresh installation.

It is just a lot cleaner and historicly with VI3 upgraded systems always had problems, partition sizes changed as well as other items in the OS.

But if you do have to upgrade and not fresh install I would use the Host update utility. It is also important to remember that the vCenter must be upgraded first. The hosts should NEVER be a higher build then the vCenter.

[Ace007]

Thanks for your suggestion,

Could you please let me know what are the things that i have to take care, like what i have to backup from esx or vcenter server if i have to go for fresh install.

Any guide would be appreciable.

[Synced]

If you want to perform a fresh install, i would suggest you to perform an ESXi installation, because ESX 4.1 will be the last version of ESX.

But if you still want to stay on ESX, all you have to do is to backup your VMs. You will have to upgrade your vCenter too, because it has to be the same version as ESX to manage it.

There's no ignorance, there just only a lack of experience

[Ace007]

+"If you want to perform a fresh install, i would suggest you to perform

an ESXi installation, because ESX 4.1 will be the last version of ESX."+

Why is that ESX 4.1 will be the last verion of ESX, is VMware going to stop, or you mean, it is the only version available upto now.

[Synced]

VMware announced ESX 4.1 will be the last release for all ESX, they now will concentrate on ESXi only and stop ESX.

That's the reason why i suggest you, if you perform a fresh install, to install ESXi

There's no ignorance, there just only a lack of experience

[bulletp31]

You dont need to do a fresh vCenter install, this can be done as an implace upgrade. Only thing to note is that you will have to backup the SQL database first and also have your passwords with you for the datbase. If your using Express then dont enter a password when prompted.

Fresh install of ESXi. If you have your VMs on attached iSCSI or FC storage i would disconnect this before performing a fresh install, there is always the risk of the setup wiping all attached storage. The install is fairly simple and after you add it back to vCenter it is just a case of powering down, attaching storage, powering up and then adding the VMs to the inventory.