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David_N1
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-15-2019 07:57 AM

VMWare Tools Upgrade Impact from 9.4.x and prior to 10.3.5 (Is the 10.1.0 tools still required as a prerequisite first?)

Hello,

We have a few Windows 2012/2012 R2 servers running (well) on ESXi 6.5 P03 (build 10884925) with rather old vmware tools version (9221) that we'd like to upgrade VMWare tools to 10.3.5 for multiple (obvious) reasons. (In all case consider that hw version is 9 or later)

In previous vmware tools release notes in the 10.1.x series, an "upgrade impact" statement was included which indicated a pre-requisite step prior to upgrading from 9.4.x (v9344) is to install 10.1.0 FIRST

i.e. From <https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/10.1/rn/vmware-tools-1010-release-notes.html>

"Upgrade Impact

The upgrade support implies that users need to follow a two-step upgrade process to upgrade VMware Tools prior to 9.4.x (v9344) to versions later than 10.1.0 on non-legacy guest operating systems.

  1. VMware Tools prior to 9.4.x must be first upgraded to VMware Tools version 10.1.0. As a second step, VMware Tools can be upgraded to a newer version later than 10.1.0.
  2. VMware Tools 9.4.x and newer can be directly upgraded to the latest available version of VMware Tools. "

Same notice exists in 10.1.5, 10.1.7, 10.1.10, 10.1.15 even, but the same upgrade notice is missing (or not mentioned) in the 10.2.x/10.3.x series documentation and release notes...

Q1: Can a Windows 2012/2012 R2 be upgraded from 9.4.x and prior versions directly to 10.3.5? (Consider that these VMs are patched monthly with latest MS patches and are current.)

Q2: If they need to be upgrade to 10.1.0 first, would it make sense to install the latest in that series and avoid all the bugs in 10.1.0?
i.e. 9.4.x->10.1.15 then reboot,    then 10.1.15->10.3.5 & reboot

Thanks,

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David_N1
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-15-2019 01:53 PM

VMware support replied to my question.

Yes, the 10.1.0 tools version IS needed (even though 10.2.x and 10.3.x release notes do not indicate it.)

- The path to upgrade is pre 9.4.x-> 10.1.0->10.3.5.

Alternately:
- From 9.0.5 upgrade to version between ( 9.4.x and 10.0.x). Once your VMware tools is on any version between 9.4.x and 10.0.x , you can upgrade to 10.3.5.

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