Vsphere 4.1 to 5.0 upgrade help

slinuxuzer

I am upgrading from 4.1 to 5.0, I have made a brand new 5.0 Vcenter with local full SQL, databases are ready to go, I don't really care about keeping performance data or anything in the old data base really, here is my plan, wanted to post here for a critque.

1. Disable HA/DRS
2. Remove hosts from 4.1 Vcenter
3. Import hosts in to 5.0, build cluster, enable HA.
4. Maintenance mode and reload one host at a time with ESXI 5.0.

I am wondering if there is anything wrong with this plan.

Essendon

I'd do the same mate. Here's a link to VMware communities > VMware Communities: Upgrading ESXi 4.1 to 5.x

slinuxuzer

Yea I am just wondering about managing 4.1 hosts with 5.0 and for a brief period having a 4.1 host with a 5.0 host in the same cluster, I am pretty sure this won't be a problem, but I've never done it before.

jmritenour

5.x can manage 4.x hosts with no problems. And they can co-exist in the same cluster, as long as the VMs are all at VM hardware level 7, and at a VMware tools level the 4.x hosts can manage. But this is intended to be a stopgap solution during the upgrade, and not something you'd want to do for an extended period.

slinuxuzer

jmritenour wrote: »

5.x can manage 4.x hosts with no problems. And they can co-exist in the same cluster, as long as the VMs are all at VM hardware level 7, and at a VMware tools level the 4.x hosts can manage. But this is intended to be a stopgap solution during the upgrade, and not something you'd want to do for an extended period.

Understood, this is pretty much what I thought, but couldn't find documentation that spelled this out exactly, I am doing an immediate re-install of 5.0 so this sounds like it will work perfectly, thanks for the responses.

SouthSeaPirate

slinuxuzer wrote: »

I am upgrading from 4.1 to 5.0, I have made a brand new 5.0 Vcenter with local full SQL, databases are ready to go, I don't really care about keeping performance data or anything in the old data base really, here is my plan, wanted to post here for a critque.

1. Disable HA/DRS
2. Remove hosts from 4.1 Vcenter
3. Import hosts in to 5.0, build cluster, enable HA.
4. Maintenance mode and reload one host at a time with ESXI 5.0.

I am wondering if there is anything wrong with this plan.

Pretty much what I did. Disabled HA and migrated all VM's off of one host. Converted host, and fired it back up. Migrated all VM's from the next host to be converted to the new one v5 host; repeated process until done. Heres our internal documentation (some will obviously be different for your environmet);

1. Connect to vCenter with vSphere client and create main folder, configure Data Center and Cluster appropriately.
2. Configure vCenter Server Settings
3. Upgrade ESXi hosts from version 4 to 5 1U.
   1. Migrate any VMs on the host in question to another available host
   2. Put the host in maintenance mode
   3. Mount the ISO with the HP iLO Integrated Remote Console, then reboot
   4. Preserve VMS datastore
4. Configure the new host with a name, IP address, DNS etc…
5. Remove it from the old vCenter server and add it to the new one with the upgraded license key.
6. Import the HP 3PAR VAAI Plug-in Software Package
7. Install HP 3PAR VAAI Plug-in Software Package
8. Scan/stage and remediate the host
9. Exit maintenance mode
10. Create all necessary networks\VLANs, vMotion, and NTP server
11. Repeat steps 3-10 for each host

dave330i

slinuxuzer wrote: »

I am upgrading from 4.1 to 5.0, I have made a brand new 5.0 Vcenter with local full SQL, databases are ready to go, I don't really care about keeping performance data or anything in the old data base really, here is my plan, wanted to post here for a critque.

1. Disable HA/DRS
2. Remove hosts from 4.1 Vcenter
3. Import hosts in to 5.0, build cluster, enable HA.
4. Maintenance mode and reload one host at a time with ESXI 5.0.

I am wondering if there is anything wrong with this plan.

That's what I did recently (4.0/4.1 to 5.1). Also done a clean reinstall as well. The big thing is to delete the datastores and recreate them as vmfs-5.

meadIT

Yep, if you just upgrade from vmfs3 to vmfs5, it keeps the original block size and can cause some Storage vMotion performance issues.

blargoe

I'm dong the same thing (except going from 4.1 to 5.1).