Single Blog

ESX Upgrade Process:

  • Back Up ESX Host Configuration
  • Post upgrades Considerations for Hosts:
  • Clean up ESX Boot loader Menu after Upgrade:
  • Restore ESX Host Configuration
  • Upgrading Virtual Machines:
  • Downtime for Upgrading Virtual Machines
  • Perform an Interactive Upgrade of VMware Tools on a Microsoft Windows Guest

Back Up ESX Host Configuration:-

Before we upgrade an ESX host, back up the local VMFS file system. This ensures that you will not lose data during the upgrade.

Procedure:

1. Back up the files in the /etc/passwd, /etc/groups, /etc/shadow, and /etc/gshadow directories. The /etc/shadow and /etc/gshadow files might not be present on all installations.

2. Back up any custom scripts.

3. Back up your .vmx files.

4. Back up local images, such as templates, exported virtual machines, and .ISO files.

Post upgrades Considerations for Hosts:

A host upgrade is not entirely complete until after you have ensured that the host management, configuration, and licensing is in place.

After upgrade an ESX/ESXi host, consider the following:

View the upgrade logs.

For ESXi, you can use the vSphere Client to export the log files.

For a successful ESX upgrade, we will find upgrade log files at these locations on the host:

  • /esx3-installation/esx4-upgrade/
  • /var/log/vmware/

For an unsuccessful ESX upgrade, we will find upgrade log files at these locations on the host:

  • /esx4-upgrade/
  • /var/log/vmware/

Clean Up the ESX Boot loader Menu After Upgrade:

After determine that the ESX 4.0 upgrade is stable, we can remove the ESX 3.x boot option from the ESX 4.0 boot loader menu to disable the ability to roll back to ESX 3.x.

After upgrade a host from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0, the ESX boot loader boots into ESX 4.0 by default, but retains the option to boot into ESX 3.x. The ESX 3.x boot option is useful if the ESX 4.0 upgrade does not work as expected in your environment. However, after you confirm that the upgrade is stable, you might want to disable the ability to roll back to ESX 3.x.

This procedure is applicable only if we left the default rollback option enabled when we performed the upgrade. If we deselected the rollback option, this procedure is not applicable. Only a system administrator can perform this optional procedure.

Prerequisites

Before executing this script, make sure that we have copied all required data from the legacy ESX mount points under /esx3-installation.

P
rocedure

1 In the ESX 4.0 service console, run the cleanup-esx3 command with the optional -f (force) flag.

If we omit -f flag, the software prompts us to confirm to disable the ability to roll back to the ESX 3.x.

2 (Optional) Reboot the host.

While the server is powering on, observe that the boot loader menu does not include an option for ESX 3.x.

The host looks the same as a clean installation of ESX 4.0. The cleanup-esx3 script removes the following files and references from the ESX 4.0 host:

  1. ESX 3.x references in the /etc/fstab directory
  2. ESX 3.x boot files in the /boot directory
  3. The rollback-to-esx3 script in the /usr/sbin/ directory

Restore the ESX Host Configuration:

If we backed up our ESX service console and VMFS files, we can restore our original ESX host configuration.

Procedure

1 Reinstall the original version of ESX on the host. See the Installation Guide.

2 Restore the backed-up service console and local VMFS files.

See http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/610

Upgrading Virtual Machines:

The first step in upgrading virtual machines is to upgrade VMware Tools. If the virtual machines do not have VMware Tools installed, you can use the VMware Tools upgrade procedure to install VMware Tools. After you install or upgrade VMware Tools, upgrade the virtual machine hardware.

VMware offers the following tools for upgrading virtual machines:

vSphere Client Requires you to perform the virtual machine upgrade one step at a time.

Downtime for Upgrading Virtual Machines:

When we upgrade virtual machines, the required downtime varies depending on the guest operating system.

The following procedures are involved in upgrading virtual machines:

  • Upgrade VMware Tools
  • Upgrade virtual hardware

During VMware Tools upgrade, the virtual machine remains powered on for Microsoft Windows Operating systems, you must reboot the guest operating system at the end of the VMware Tools upgrade.

For Linux, Netware, and Solaris guest operating systems, no reboot is required at the end of the VMware Tools upgrade.

When we upgrade VMware Tools, expect downtime as follows:

  • No downtime is required for vCenter Server.
  • No downtime is required for ESX/ESXi hosts.
  • You must reboot the virtual machine at the end of the upgrade procedure, or later, to make the upgrade.

Upgrade Effectiveness:-

On Windows guest operating systems, you must reboot the virtual machine a total of three times when

you upgrade VMware Tools and the virtual hardware:

  1. Power on the virtual machine.
  2. Upgrade VMware Tools.
  3. Reboot the virtual machine at the end of the VMware Tools upgrade.
  4. Power off the virtual machine.
  5. Upgrade the virtual Hardware.
  6. Power on the virtual machine.
  7. The Windows operating system detects new devices and prompts you to reboot the virtual machine.
  8. Reboot the virtual machine to make the devices work properly.
  9. During the virtual hardware upgrade, the virtual machine must be shut down for all guest operating systems.

Perform an Interactive Upgrade of VMware Tools on a Microsoft Windows Guest:-

Upgrade VMware Tools to the latest version to enhance the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating system and improve virtual machine management.

Prerequisites

  • Back up your virtual machines to prevent data loss. See Basic System Administration.
  • A supported guest operating system must be installed on the virtual machine.
  • You must have an ESX/ESXi license or be using evaluation mode to power on the virtual machine.

Procedur
e:-

1) From the vSphere Client, right-click the virtual machine, select Power, and select Power On.

2) Select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab.

The VMware Tools label indicates whether VMware Tools is installed and current, installed and not

Current, or not installed.

3) Click the Console tab to make sure that the guest operating system starts successfully and log in if

necessary.

4) Right-click the virtual machine, select Guest, and select Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.

5) Select Interactive Tools Upgrade and click OK.

The upgrade process starts by mounting the VMware Tools bundle on the guest operating system.

6) If the Microsoft Windows New Hardware wizard appears in the virtual machine console, complete the

wizard and accept the defaults.

  • Upgrading virtual hardware and installing or upgrading VMware Tools includes enhancements to the virtual network adapter. A Microsoft Windows guest operating system might interpret these changes as indicating a different network adapter in the virtual machine and start the New Hardware wizard accordingly.

7) In the virtual machine console, do one of the following:

  • If autorun is enabled, click OK to confirm that you want to install VMware Tools and start the InstallShield wizard.
  • If autorun is not enabled, manually start the VMware Tools installer, by clicking Start > Run and entering D:setup.exe, where D: is your first virtual CD-ROM drive.

8) Follow the onscreen instructions.

9) Reboot to make the changes take effect.

The VMware Tools label on the Summary tab changes to OK.

What to do next

(Recommended) Upgrade the virtual machine hardware to version 7.

Comments (0)

Post a Comment