3.0.2u1 to 3.5 - Questions

[tow-eric]

I remember seeing on the forum a while back when 3.5 came out and it looked like there were quite a few issues with people updating to 3.5. I haven't been on for awhile and I have just noticed that there is a new build of 3.5. I did some looking on the forums but din't find any real discussions about this, but has the update from 3.0.2 update 1 to 3.5 gotten better? Have alot of people gone ahead and upgrade or do alot of people still have there old ESX versions?

We are doing some work to our environment in the next couple weeks which would be a perfect time to upgrade but like the old saying goes "if it aint broke...." Just wondering what peoples thoughts are?

Thanks.

[opbz]

It appears to be more stable but it still is somewhat buggy.

You will get loads of peple who have it running now with no problems at the same time there are all sorts of isues with it for which vmware is still to release patches.

Main issues I seen so far are:

1: installation media for some reason burnig the isos at high spead makes then dodgy...

2: installation issues problems with certain servers needing bios updates (dell Pe2900)

3: irq comflicts between nic, hbas and raid controllers

4: issues with iscsi

5: issues with HBAs ie rescanning issues.

All are pretty serious if you are unlucky enogh to have them... but again you might be lucky. All are being worke on either by Vmware or other vendors...so fixes are forthcoming..

[petedr]

I definitely think ESX 3.0.2 update 1 is pretty stable and I only have 3.5 in lab environments. But if you need some of the new 3.5 features then go for that upgrade

One thing to make sure if you do the 3.5 upgrade is to make sure you have the download date 2/20/08, that supposedly has fixed some of the upgrade issues.

Below is the note on that :

<span class="rd">Note: Before upgrading

to ESX Server 3.5 from ESX Server 3.0.1 or 3.0.2, please ensure the ESX Server

3.5 bits (ISO or upgrade zip file) to which you are upgrading has a release date

of 2/20/2008 instead of 12/10/2007. Click on the “Download Now” button above if

you have not already downloaded an ISO or upgrade zip file with build date

2/16/2008. (Upgrades to ESX Server 3.5 with release date 12/10/2007 from ESX

Server 3.0.1 or 3.0.2 may require manual RPM installation after upgrade, as

earlier described in [KB

1003801|http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003801].)

[depping]

And if you've set any options on your modules like the queuedepth on your HBA card for instance these settings are probably lost. So check these at the end of the upgrade.

Duncan

My virtualisation blog: