How to: Upgrade to vSphere 4.1
vSphere client upgrade
The vSphere client upgrade is pretty straightforward but there is a small change. The vSphere client is no more part of the ESX and ESXi installation packages. At the end of the installation process administrators are redirected online to download the client.
So download the client separately or use the vCenter server installation media.
Next, the Update Manager upgrade.
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Page 1 – vCenter server upgrade
Page 2 – vSphere client upgrade
Page 3 – Update Manager upgrade
Page 4 – ESX host upgrade
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HI,
I have vcenter 4.0 update 1 with 3 hosts in cluster & HA installed on windows 2003 32bit server.
I have to upgrade to vcenter 4.1 and installed sql express edition
I have moved all vm's from one host to remaining other two.
I have installed ESXi 4.1 build 260247 on one host.
Then created a vm – windows 2008 R2 64bit – installed vcenter 4.1 & vpshere client build 258902.
I ran the agent pre-upgrade check on the existing vcenter.
Also ran backup.bat under datamigration on the existing vcenter.
I copied the vcenter 4.1 installation files and datamigration folder to new server.
I have different host name and different IP address for this new vcenter.
I can login to the vcenter on new host but obviously it is empty.
Now…I need some guidance here.
I do not know if I need to migrate the existing db to new server ??
if yes — how — what are the steps as I do not have SQL Server Management Studio on win 2003 vcenter server.
if no — do I just run the install.bat on the new vcenter server ????
I know I will have to update the configuration files manually as the host name and IP address are different.
which specific files are these ????
Can you please guide me.
Many thanks
Thanks for the info! very helpful
wy ist it necessary to install the pre-upgrade package via esxupdate before the upgrade with VUM?
In my opinion, migration or fresh install depends on the amount of configuration in vCenter. If you have a small scale install with a few hosts, a few resource pools, some HA and DRS config, and don't mind losing the performance history, do a fresh install. If performance history is critical and you have a large scale installation with many hosts and maybe additional tools like SRM, I would perform an upgrade.
Honestly? I have no idea.Maybe to fix a bug which prohibits the update with VUM but that's just speculation.
Nice work Erik and posted just one day after 4.1 is out.
Keep the good work.
@donkarnash I had the same problem as you by the sound of it. I wrote up a workaround here:
http://pcloadletter.co.uk/2010/07/26/upgrading-…
many thanks for this how to!
It works fine.
Hi
Looking at upgrading vCenter 4.0 update 1 to vCenter 4.1 and have a DSN question.
The 4.1 upgrade guide says it needs a 64bit DSN, whilst the previous versions used a 32bit DSN.
I created an additional 64bit DSN to point to the vCenter DB – the aiming being to get the installer to use this.
When I run the 4.1 installation it reports I have an earlier version of vCenter alredy installed and it will upgrade this version.In the database options window it detects the 32bit DSN – so I cannot specify the 64bit DSN I created earlier. The next window has the upgrade options for the database, however I'm reluctant to continue on as it's using the 32bit DSN.
Any advice?
@Home I forgot to update my DSN before the upgrade and updated my vSPhere setup without any problems. Afterwards I removed the 32 bit DSN and replaced it with a 64 bit DSN. No problem.
Cheers for the info.
I shall let the installer continue with the upgrade process, and then check the DSN details.
thanks for this how-to! works like a charm and my (first-time) upgrade much easier!
Hi All:
My Name is Raed, Honestly I just finish the course for VSPHERE 4.1 installation & Implementation , Currently i am running ESXI 3.5 on 3 hosts with No VCENTER , Update Manager … ETC, Actually i am not the person who did the installation for the current 3.5 but now i want to do the upgrade for the current to 4.1, bulding a VCenter and Start enjoy using 4.1 features.
any recommendations or guides according to what mentioned ?
Thank you very much …..
Regards
Just build a vCenter 4.1 with update manager, add the ESX3.5 host to the new vCenter server and upgrade according to the ‘how to’ above
Thanks Mate!
I have done this
Installed vcenter 2.5 on a host (2003 R2 32 bit, hostname vc and ipaddress 10.0.0.10). Installed SQL 2005 express 2005 Management studio and took bakup of
Then I linked it to esx1 and esx2 + san1, san2 etc. All went well
Then I upgraded it to vcenter 4.0. All went well, I did not need to remake my datacenter and link to esx1, esx2 etc.
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Then I took a backup using datamigration tool on vcenter 4.1 dvd.
Renamed the machined from vc to vcOLD and changed ip from 10.0.0.10 to 10.0.0.80
Installed Windows 2003 R2 64 bit, named it vc and ipaddress=10.0.0.10
Installed Vcenter 4.1. Then copied datamigration folder from vcOLD, ran install.bat to install update manager.
Now I cannot see the datacenter I created or the ESX hosts anywhere.
Am I doing anything wrong or some extra steps are needed. I also tried to install SQL 2005 express 2005 Management studio on 64 bit machine but
“Installation of this product failed because it is not supported on this operating system. For more information on supported configurations, see the product documentation.”
Finally tried to restore
VIM_UMDB.bak and VIM_VCDB.bak using sql express studio on vcOLD.
UMDB restore went OK but the VCDB backup said
The backup set holds a backup of a database other than the existing ‘VIM_VCDB’ database.
Anyway the Datacenter and esx hosts are still missing.
What is to be done?
When you don’t care about historic data, the fastest way to solve this is to create the datacenter add the esx hosts manualy. Because it’s only a small configuration (two hosts) this won’t be much work
I just took over our vm environment at our company. We have 4 ESX clusters plus 1 in DR. Three of the clusters are 4.0 and one is 3.5 including the one in DR. Now we want to upgrade our entire environment to 4.1 but I am encountering some issues. Hoping you can help me sort it out.
Our vcenter server is a 32bit machine and needs to be upgraded to 64bit. The catch is that our vcenter server is a virtual machine sitting on one of the 4.0 ESX hosts. What is your recommendation of how we should start with the upgrade process? And do you know if our license on the vcenter server is capable of migrating to a new vcenter server or do we need a temporary license from vmware?
Thanks
Steve
I would start with a new Center 4.1 server with Windows Server 2008 R2.
If you’re using a SQL Express database, you can use the data migration tool (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1021635) on the vCenter installation media to migrate the database to the new vCenter 4.1 server. When you’re using a full blown SQL server move the database to the new database server using this VMware KB article (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=7960893)
When the new vCenter 4.1 server is up and running, check the cluster and host configuration and ensure it is correct. If the cluster or host configuration is not correct, repair/correct it by adding the hosts to vCenter, setting up and configuring the cluster, etc.
When Update Manager is separated from vCenter, setup a new Update Manager instance or move the existing instance.
When you finished this you can follow the instructions above from page 4 forward.
Might be me but I can never find the update files, or pretty much anything i actually want, on the VMware website, it is a complete nightmare. I wish they would sort it out or better still allow downloads to teh update manager like they do with all the other patches. Some of us have better things to do with our time than hunt around nebulous websites for patches.
Awesome write up! Thanks for sharing.
– Matty