How to: Upgrade to vSphere 5
Virtual Machine upgrade
Step 5: The final step in the upgrade process is the upgrade of all virtual machines in the environment.
Start the virtual machine upgrade by first upgrading VMware Tools, followed by the upgrade of the Virtual Hardware to version 8. Virtual Machines need to be powered off in order to be upgraded, so you should plan appropriate outage windows for this step. You can perform an orchestrated upgrade of Virtual Machines with vSphere Update Manager, which allows you to upgrade VMware Tools and virtual hardware at the same time.
Note: vSphere 5.0 fully supports running virtual machines with VMware Tools version 4.x as well as Virtual Hardware versions 4 and 7, so you comfortably run existing virtual machines until a suitable outage window is available.
The complete upgrade process is now complete. When you go through all these pages and setting it may look like a lengthy process but it’s actually not. The complete upgrade took me no more than one hour!
Now you can enjoy all new vSphere 5 features VMware has given us/you. Enjoy!
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Page 1 – vCenter server upgrade
Page 2 – vSphere client upgrade
Page 3 – Web Client server installation
Page 4 – ESXi host upgrade
Page 5 – Virtual Machine upgrade
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Hi,
I have VC on 2005 express edition. Can I do an upgrade to the VC from 4.1 to 5.0 ??
the upgrade pdf doc suggests that 2005 express edition is not supported.
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/332193?tstart=0
can you please advise. thanks
You can do an upgrade but not an inplace one because SQL 2005 Express is not supported. You will have migrate the database to a supported version first.
how to upgrade vcenter 4.0 to vcenter 5.0 …please let me know same is feasible.
If possible kindlt share the me the Link for the same.
You can do an upgrade from vCenter 2.6 Update 6 by using the data migration tool to upgrade to vCenter Server 5.0 on a different machine.
An in place upgrade is only possible if vCenter is installed on a 64-bit system. If it is installed on a 32-bit system, upgrade by using the data migration tool to upgrade to vCenter Server 5.0 on a different machine.
So, VMware supports in-place upgrades on 64-bit systems from vCenter Server 4.x to vCenter Server 5.0. You can upgrade VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 or later and vCenter Server 4.0.x to vCenter Server 5.0 by installing vCenter Server 5.0 on a new machine and migrating the existing database.
Do check the supported operating systems and databases for vCenter 5 before upgrading.
http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-upgrade-guide.pdf
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2003866
If I upgrade my 4.1 VCenter server (64 bit server) to 5.0 will it still manage the 4.1 hosts that I have until I get them upgraded?
yes VC 5 can manage 4.1 hosts. You can move the vm’s off a host then take the host under maintanance mode > then remove from cluster > do a FRESH install of ESXi 5 > then add it back to the cluster. Mind you, if you have vDS then before removing it from the cluster, ensure you have removed the host from the vDS. Once the host is upgraded to 5, you will have to reconfigure the vDS.
Heres some more information that might be helpfull,Upgrade vSphere 4 Environment to vSphere 5http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000543.htmPetePeteNetLive
oops broken link sorry http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000543.htm
32 GB Memory limitation, would it be a commercial catch on VSphere 5
The above comment related to ESXi VSphere 5
vSphere 5 is ONLY available in ESXi version.
Can vSphere Update Manager be used to upgrade the hosts after upgrading Vcenter 4.1 to 5.0 and upgrading the vSphere Update Manager?
Yes, you can. I actually documented this process with the release of vSphere 4.1. The version has changed but the process will be much the same. Check out: http://www.vmguru.nl/wordpress/2010/07/how-to-upgrade-to-vsphere-4-1/