vSphere 6.0 U2 Update with FC SAN

[ChrisHage]

Hello,

starting in january i set up a new environment with 5 Hosts in a cluster and FC SAN connected.

At the moment this is running 6.0 U1 and i want to update to U2 with update manager.

In KB 2109712 i found following note: "If a Fiber Channel SAN is connected to the host, detach the fiber connections before continuing with the upgrade or migration..."

First i want to update one of the five hosts to check if everything is fine.

Do i really need to disconnect FC connections for an update from U1 to U2 ?

[rcporto]

This is not a requirement, but a recommendation, and here are some explanations to why do this:

For many of us who worked with classic ESX back in the day, can recall one of the scariest thing during an install/re-install or upgrade of an ESX host that had SAN attached storage, was the potential risk of accidentally installing ESX onto one of the LUNs that housed our Virtual Machines. As a precaution, most vSphere administrators would ask their Storage administrators to either disable/unplug the ports on the switch or temporarily mask away the LUNs at the array during an install or upgrade.

Source: Disable LUN During ESXi Installation | virtuallyGhetto

[vHaridas · Accepted solution]

If a SAN is connected to the host, detach the fiber before continuing with the upgrade or migration. Do not disable HBA cards in the BIOS.

I see this in ESXi 5.5 and 6.x ESXi Upgrade best practices documents and KBs however that is really not needed.

I have upgraded many Host from 5.x to 6.x  and installed 6 patches with FC SAN storage connected and without any issues.

as always You have to Put Host in Maintenance mode to install updates and that also disconnect all IOs with san storage.

SAN disconnect is only recommended when you are using scripted or manual installation or boot from SAN, to make sure accidentally any other Prod LUN don't get selected during installation.

as long as you are using update manager for upgrade, you are good.

[ChrisHage]

Thanks for the answers.