Upgrade esx 4.0 to esxi 5.1 in Cluster Environment.

[Sublimetech]

Dear Friends,

I am very new to vmware & I have to complete the project of vmware upgrade from esx 4.0.0 to esxi 5.1.

Here is the detail of infra.

1)Vmware cluster with three host inside it , my hardware is IBM Blade HS22.

2)I can free up one host by moving virtual machines to the other two host.

3)My storage is IBM san ds4700 with fibre and sata connections.

4)Vmware HA is enable & DRS in disabled in Cluster.

I Plan to upgrade one host first and then move the virtual machine to that host , after that I will free the another host and upgrade it.

Please advice the best migration plan for the cluster envirionment as I am working on the critical project wher downtime is very less.

Morover we dont have vmotion licencse with us.

Fell free to ask any info that is required.

Thanks In advance.

[spravtek]

First thing to do is to make sure all your hardware is supported under vSphere ESXi 5.1 by checking the hcl: http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl

I have doubts about the storage (ds4700), 5.1 isn't in the list of supported releases (only did a quick check)

Follow the guidelines in http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&e...

Doing one host at the time is definitely the way to go.

Upgrade your vCenter first, either with an upgrade or a new install if your hardware/software isn't supported, check the interopability guide to get the required info: http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php?

vCenter upgrade best practices: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=202119...

The new vCenter supports your esx4.0 servers also ... So you can still upgrade one at the time in the same cluster.

Edit: An upgrade of vCenter 4.0 wouldn't really be recommended, maybe it's possible (haven't tested this myself), but can give a lot of headache concerning the new features in vCenter 5.1 (eg: SSO).

Message was edited by: spravtek

[Sublimetech]

Dear Sir,

Your few lines give me a way to perform upgrade.And as you said ds4700 support is doubtful  .

Let me chek the the same with IBM.Then proceed.

Again thanks for help.

[spravtek]

You're welcome

If you acquire more help don't hesitate to ask!