Knowledge

• Plan a VMware vSphere upgrade
  • Backup/Restore ESX/ESXi host configuration
    Back Up ESX Procedure
    • 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.
    • Back up any custom scripts.
    • Back up your .vmx files.
    • Back up local images, such as templates, exported virtual machines, and .iso files.
  • Back Up ESXi procedure
    • Install the vSphere CLI.
    • In the vSphere CLI, run the vicfg-cfgbackup command with the -s flag to save the host configuration to a specified backup filename.
      
      Example:
      

      vicfg-cfgbackup --server <ESXi-host-ip> --portnumber <port_number> --protocol 
         <protocol_type> --username username --password <password> -s <backup-filename>

  • Understand Virtual Machine backup options
    You can find more info here.
    There are several options to back-up your virtual machines. While migrating the underlying ESX hyper-visor backing up you VMs is essential. If for any reason your ESX hosts dies, cannot access the VM’s any more of cannot use them any more you need a valid roll-back scenario. Having a decent backup is an essential step here. Some back-up options are:
  • • Use VCB to back-up your VMs in combination with you back-up tools for
      • File level backup
      • Image level backups
    • Use back-up agents in you Virtual Machines
    • Shutdown the VM and copy the files
  • Determine if existing hardware meets upgrade requirements
    Verify hardware against the VMware Hardware Compatibility Guide
    Before upgrading ESX it is essential to validate you hardware against the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). This ensures the correct function of the ESX OS on the hardware and ensures VMware support. You can find the HCL here: http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.
  • Understand VMware ESX/ESXi upgrade scenarios
    More info here.
    There are several way’s to upgrade you existing ESX infrastructure the vSphere / ESX 4. Besides wiping the system and starting over again with a fresh installation (what I think is not meant here) VMware provides several in place upgrade options. These options depend on the current version of ESX / vCenter you are running. When you upgrade from ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 to ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0, you can use either the vSphere Host Update Utility or vCenter Update Manager.
    • Host Update Utility
      This utility is intended for small deployments with fewer than 10 ESX/ESXi hosts and without vCenter Server or vCenter Update Manager. The utility includes a wizard that guides you through upgrades. While an upgrade is in progress, the utility provides visual status.
    • Update Manager
      With Update Manager 4.0 you can perform orchestrated upgrades of hosts and virtual machines. Orchestrated upgrades allow you to upgrade all hosts in the inventory using host upgrade baselines. Orchestrated upgrades can be used to upgrade the virtual machine hardware and VMware Tools of virtual machines in the inventory at once, using baseline groups containing the VM hardware and / or VMware tools that match.
      
      Direct, in-place upgrade from ESX 2.5.5 to ESX 4.0 is not supported, even if you upgrade to ESX 3.x as an intermediary step. The default ESX 2.5.5 installation creates a /boot partition that is too small to enable upgrades to ESX 4.0. As an exception, if you have a non-default ESX 2.5.5 installation on which at least 100MB of space is available on the /boot partition, you can upgrade ESX 2.5.5 to ESX 3.x and then to ESX 4.0. The upgrade of ESX 2.5.5 to ESX 3.x requires the use of one of the following methods:
      
    • Graphical upgrade from CD
      
    • Text-mode upgrade from CD
      
    • Tarball upgrade using the service console
      
    • Scripted upgrade from CD or PXE server using esxupdate
      
    • Scripted upgrade from CD or PXE server using kickstart commands
• Perform upgrade to ESX 4.0
  • Upgrade VMware ESX/ESXi
    Described at the previous bullet, use the tools provided to upgrade ESX, perform a fresh install, user the CD or a scripted install from a PXE server.
  • Upgrade virtual machine hardware
    After you have upgraded the ESX server you VM’s are (probably) not automatically updates. You can update the VM’s by hand (right click the VM and select Upgrade Hardware) of use the update manager to automate this process. Remember that before upgrading the virtual hardware you MUST UPGRADE VMWARE TOOLS FIRST. The new VMware tools version holds new drivers for the upgraded hardware that are essential. I you fail to upgrade the VMware Tools you might loose network connectivity. Upgrading hardware requires the VM to be down / reboot.
  • Upgrade VMware Tools
    Upgrading VMware Tools can be done by hand (use the VI-Client of from within the VM using the existing VMware tools) or automated using the Update Manager. Updating the VMware tools requires a restart of the server. This restart can be combined with the reboot / shutdown needed for the hardware update, however you cannot validate if the VMware tools install was successful before upgrading the Virtual Hardware.
• Verify success of upgrade
  Follow best practices when you install updates on hosts.
  To ensure that each update is successful, use the following strategy:
  • After each update, test the system to ensure that the update was completed successfully.
  • If the installation was unsuccessful, revert to the last good known image. See“RollBackanESXiUpdate, Patch, or Upgrade,” on page 83 and “Uninstall a Bundle from a Host,” on page 106.
• Understand upgrade roll back options
  When an upgrade fails there are roughly two way to go back to the previous situation:
  • Rollback the upgrade using the provided tools (rollback-to-esx3 command of shift-r during boot for ESXi). Read the upgrade guide for detailed instructions.
    
    Remember that if you already upgraded your VMs this upgrade is not automatically rolled back, you need a pre-upgrade snapshot. All changes to the VM are also not rolled back.
    
    
  • Perform a fresh install of the ESX operating system and restore a backup you created before. You can restore this backup using this procedure for ESX (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx3_backup_wp.pdf) and the procedure described in the upgrade guide for ESXi (vSphere CLI: vicfg-cfgbackup)

Tools

• vSphere Host Update Utility
• vCenter Update Manager
• esxupdate