vCenter Upgrade from 4.1 to 5.5

[pawanmusale]

Hi,

I am relatively new to virtualization and hence seeking basic help. We have a vSphere 4.1 system installed at customer site. All hosts are on ESXi 4.1 and vCenter 4.1  is on one of the VMs on one of the hosts. We will be adding five new hosts with ESXi 5.5. Since vCenter 4.1 does not support ESXi 5.5, we will be upgrading vCenter to 5.5. I have following questions:

1. Since existing vCenter 4.1 is on host with ESXi 4.1, will there be any problem in upgrading vCenter to 5.5?

2. Will the upgraded vCenter 5.5 support ESXi 4.1 hosts?

3. Is there any documented procedure for step-by-step upgrade of vCenter Server?

4. Any other recommendation?

Thank you

Regards,

coepengineer

[npadmani · Accepted solution]

Please refer: http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-552-upgrad...

Page 71 onwards you get documented steps to go about upgrading vCenter version 5.0 or earlier.

also look into following guide for your reference, someone has managed to create a document with step by step instructions about what you are planning to do. Just make sure that you try to map your scenario with the documented one and see if it helps.

http://www.lesysadmin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/HOWTO-Upgrade-vCenter-Server-from-4.1-to-5.5.pd...‌

1. Since existing vCenter 4.1 is on host with ESXi 4.1, will there be any problem in upgrading vCenter to 5.5?

Double check hardware requirements and software component compatibilities, if your environment is having enough hardware resources to support vCenter 5.5 and if you make your OS, DB etc compatible with vCenter 5.5 as part of your step by step activity, upgrade shouldn't be facing any issues.

2. Will the upgraded vCenter 5.5 support ESXi 4.1 hosts?

Shouldn't be big hassle managing older version hosts with new version of vCenter server. are you also planning to upgrade those hosts to version 5.5?

[BrianNorth8]

It is not mentioned but vcenter 6 does not support connections to ESXi hosts prior to 5.0.  Before you consider going all the way to vcenter 6 make sure all hosts are upgraded first.

[pawanmusale]

Thanks for the valuable information.

We also have vDR for existing 4.1 hosts. Now our new system will have few hosts on 4.1 and few on 5.5. How will this impact existing vDR? Will vDR continue to take backups of nodes after we upgrade vCenter server to 5.5. Any recommended documents for additional information.

Regards,
Pawan

[pawanmusale]

Thanks for the insight. Our plan for now is to add new 5.5 hosts and upgrade existing 4.1s to 5.5 in future.

[pawanmusale]

Any comments?

[BrianNorth8]

The upgrade documentation is here:  vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center

vCenter 5.5 supports the 4.1 hosts, but vCenter 6.0 does not so you should be good with your plan.

Just follow the steps 1 by 1 and go slow, take snapshots of your vCenter before upgrading and at various steps in the process.  Just don't forget to clean up once everything is completed.

[pawanmusale]

Thanks. I also have a question about vDR:

We also have vDR for existing 4.1 hosts. Now our new system will have few hosts on 4.1 and few on 5.5. How will this impact existing vDR? Will vDR continue to take backups of nodes after we upgrade vCenter server to 5.5. Any recommended documents for additional information?

[BrianNorth8]

I have never used vdr, sorry.