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/> ~
