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vsphere 4.1 to 5.1 Upgrade Some tippity top tips...
Reasons to Upgrade Goodbye vsphere 4.x No download 15th August 2013 - No General Support 21st April 2014 Bigger Virtual Machines Storage Enhancements Web client for administration Enhanced vmotion vsphere High Availability Improvements vsphere Replication vcenter Server Appliance (vcsa) No reboots after VMware Tools 5.1 installed Looks good on the CV :-)
VMware s Migration Path (4 easy phases)
Phase 1 Perform the upgrade of the VMware vcenter Server along with VMware Update Manager
Phase 2 Upgrade your hosts to vsphere 5.1
Phase 3 Complete the upgrade of your virtual machines by first upgrading VMware Tools, followed by the upgrade of the Virtual Hardware to version 9
Phase 4 The final step is to upgrade your datastores to VMFS version 5
The real upgrade process...
Pre-Upgrade Tasks Download and read 5.1 upgrade guide - 222 pages Check HCL compatibility - Not on HCL = Not Supported! Create PoC - test vcentre upgrade etc. - Test, Test, Test... Verify FQDN and reverse lookup DNS are correct and working Check that all vcentre plug-ins are either compatible or are not required. Ensure that all VMware license keys are obtained Ensure that all service account details are correct (vcenter, SQL etc) Sync clocks on all hypervisors with time source Sync all VM clocks with time source Do some housekeeping - The jobs you ve been putting off :-) Create Test Scripts - both Virtual Infrastructure and Apps
vcenter Install Types Simple Install High Availability/Multisite Install vcenter Server Appliance Install (OVF)
vcenter Upgrade (Simple Install) Backup vcenter Server, database and SSL certificates Run vcenter host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker, fix any anomalies and re-run until no issues are raised Install Single Sign On server as part of a simple install Upgrade Inventory Service (Keep existing database) Upgrade vcenter Server Upgrade vsphere Client software Install Web Client Check AD login status Upgrade Update Manager Apply SSL Certificates TEST!! :-)
vcenter Server Appliance (vcsa) 64-bit SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (vpostgres) 2 vcpu s and 8 GB RAM Pre-installed; vcenter Single Sign On (SSO) Inventory Service vsphere Web Client vsphere Auto Deploy Server Syslog Collector ESXi Dump Collector 1,000 hosts & 10,000 VM s supported with Oracle DB
Hypervisor Upgrade Options
Upgrade Hypervisors (Interactive) Migrate VM s off host Install/upgrade to ESXi 5.1 Apply license Test Test Nexus 1000v Check resource pool configurations Migrate VM s to host Repeat for each hypervisor (wash, rinse, repeat) Upgrade Distributed Switch through web client
Upgrade Datastores Ensure all hypervisors are upgraded to ESXi 5.1 first (Upgrade cannot occur if legacy ESXi hosts are connected. After upgrade legacy ESXi hosts will not be able to view datastore) Storage vmotion VM s from datastore Delete datastore Create new datastore on VMFS 5 with same name (1MB block/8k sub block is standard) Storage vmotion VM s back to datastore Check datastores are working correctly
Upgrade VM Hardware Backup and snapshot VM s to be upgraded Update VMware Tools first (last reboot...?) Upgrade VM Hardware via Update Manager, Script or Manually
Web Client Server Localisation https://<hostname:ip Address:9443/vsphere-client/?locale=en_gb
Breaking down the process Pre-Upgrade Tasks vcenter Upgrade Hypervisor Upgrade VMTools and Hardware Upgrade Datastore Upgrade Test
Tippety top tips... Involve Change Control Sync time! Upgrade all hosts first, then; upgrade datastores upgrade distributed switch Update VMware Tools and then hardware Snapshots are not backups But snapshots can save your bacon :-) Create test scripts before you start (both VM and App) Learn PowerShell and PowerCLi Do this out of hours and don t do too much in one go!
Graham.French@RedwoodSolutions.net 07767 79 71 77 www.redwoodsolutions.net @NakedCloudGuy