You just updated vCenter and VUM to the latest vSphere 5, now you get to take a break and have a drink, right?
Nope! You get to now upgrade your hosts to the latest version. Fortunately this is a super easy process.
Let’s get started. Connect your vSphere Client to your newly upgrade vCenter server. From there open Update Manager(It’s on the Home page)
Navigate over to the ESXi Images Tab…
Select Import ESXi Image..
Choose the esxi iso file you downloaded from vmware.com/downloads
After a Next I got a certificate issue. I normally just ignore these, but I know you can resolve them altogether. I don’t happen to have a link for resolving it on hand, but I will try to find one…Or send me one and I will add it…
Next it is time to use that baseline on a host….
Select a host you want to update and Select the tab Update Manager…
Select Attach… and choose the baseline you just named. Attach it, and click Scan in the top right corner…
At this point I like to vmotion all my virtual machines off of this host… to another…
Select Remediate in the lower right hand corner
The next screens should be pretty self-explanatory, and I normally just go with the defaults anyways except in two places…
I personally don’t have third party software on my hosts…but if you think you do or you might, you need to get that resolved before you go through with this. If necessary third-party software is removed from you host, it could seriously impact your host’s ability to operate. Consult the vendor of the software.
For cluster Remediation, I choose a bit differently than the defaults so I wanted to screenshot this one as well. It mainly depends on your environment and what you feel comfortable with though.
Once you start the remediation process it can take a while, upwards of an hour for it to complete the upgrade and for the host to come back online.
A good rule of thumb here is if you think it is taking too long…wait a while longer. It always takes longer than I expect it to
Congratulations you just updated one of your hosts to ESXi 5. Go get some cake!
Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions…
2 Comments
133144 · October 1, 2012 at 3:19 pm
should some restart the machine after that ?
C-Rad · October 1, 2012 at 3:26 pm
In the process of upgrading it the host will be unavailable for a while. However once the host comes back up, no, it should not need to be rebooted. This process of upgrading will take care of all the reboots and whatnot for you. Once it is back up, you should be good to go.
Thanks for the comment!