What about moving the guests off the hosts, rebooting it from the U5 CD and running the update from there? Possibly more work, but a valid scenario, right?
On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Martin Blackstone <[email protected]>wrote: > I still prefer to put it into maintenance mode manually. > But yes, you should use Update Manager to fly this. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Damien Solodow [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 7:04 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: VMware upgrade question > > I don't know of any ESX lists like this one unfortunately. > > You are on the right track for the upgrade process, but it may be even > simpler then you are thinking. > > First, upgrade vCenter like you're thinking. It's perfectly ok to have a > newer vCenter managing older ESX hosts. I would suggest making a backup > of the vcenter database first just in case. > > After vcenter is upgraded, you can use VMware Update Manager to apply > Update 5 to the hosts. When you tell VUM to apply the upgrade, it will > automatically put the host in maintenance mode (which because it's a DRS > cluster will migrate off the guests). It will then apply the upgrade and > reboot the host. Once it comes back up and re-establishes communication > with vCenter it will be taken out of maintenance mode. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Michael Leone [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:59 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: OT: VMware upgrade question > > Sorry for the OT. Actually, I have 2 questions: > > 1. Anyone know of a good VMware mailing list, like this one? I dislike > web forums, and realize that VMware is a bit OT for this list. > 2. I need to upgrade my ESX 3.5 Update 4 cluster to 3.5 update 5 (so I > can use Win2008 R2 as a VM, which is supported in Update 5), and > wondered if I had the upgrade procedure correct. Maybe someone could > comment? > > My config: > vCenter 2.5 Update 4, on Win2003 Standard. A 10 node ESX 3.5 Update 4 > cluster, with HA and DRS, with all datastores on FC SAN (so no local > storage on the ESX hosts). About 60 or so VMs. > > I've gone through the Upgrade Guide, and most of it seems to deal with > updating from a much earlier version of ESX. Even the "Minor Upgrade" > section seems a lot more complicated than my situation calls for. For > example, I have no need for upgrading my datastores from VMFS v2 to > v3, since my original installation was VMFS v3. So all my VMs and > templates were created with v3.5 Update 4 already, and shouldn't need > to be upgraded further. > > If I'm understanding correctly, I need to: > > 1. Upgrade vCenter. I download vCenter 2.5 Update 5, and just run it. > I let it update my database version, if it wants to. (MS SQL Server > 2005 SP3 is installed on the vCenter server). > > Reboot? I assume it's OK to be running a slightly later version of > vCenter than what the ESX servers are running? > > 2. Set the ESX host into maintenance mode, so all VMs migrate off. > > I see something about "Relocate VM files". Do I do this, rather than > migrate the VMs off that host? It doesn't seem so, since I have no > local storage on my ESX hosts, only datastores from my SAN. > > 3. Copy the Update 5 ZIP file to the ESX host (SFTP over SSH, in my > case, I believe). Unzip. > 4. Execute "esxupdate update". > 5. Reboot when prompted. > 6. Take host out of maintenance mode, so VMs migrate back. > > Repeat steps 2 through 6, for each of the other 9 ESX hosts. > > Upgrade the VM Tools in each VM. This can be more problematic, since > this requires a reboot, which requires scheduled downtime.The actual > process is easy, but it's more time consuming. > > What am I missing, in this plan? > > I have some further questions, specifically about backup. I backup > each VM separately (i.e., I install my Networker client, and backup > each VM as if it was a physical Windows host). I am unclear as to how > I back up the actual ESX host configuration. I'd really like to do > that, before attempting the version upgrade. If someone could provide > some guides for that, I would be eternally grateful. > > Thanks, and sorry for the OT. > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
