Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 – Method & Best Practices

Microsoft Gold Partners | VMware Enterprise Partners | Dell Premier Partners Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 – Method & Best Practices Presenter: Jeffrey S Weiss, MCSE, MCT, VCP 3/4/5, CVE 3/4/5 jweiss@aescorporation.net

Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 – Method & Best Practices Learn IT! Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations Topic 2: Upgrade Steps Topic 3: Upgrade Tips Know IT! Questions & Answers

Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 Topic 1 Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vSphere 5 Upgrade Considerations • Make sure you have your vSphere 5 licenses available before beginning the upgrade process • Check vSphere 5.0 Release Notes for list of Legacy Features no longer supported • Check VMware Interoperability Matrix to verify plug-ins, etc. are supportedhttp://vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php • Consider a vCenter 5.0 Evaluation Edition • Consider upgrading firmware of all components in Hosts to guarantee support for new features • Upgrade Firmware in SANs to take advantage of new T10 Standards and upgraded vStorage API features of vSphere 5.0 • Download new Manufacturer Multipathing Plug-ins (MMPs) Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vSphere 5 Upgrade Considerations • Consider a clean install of ESXi 5, might be easier than performing an ESX 4.x or ESXi 4.x upgrade • Plan ahead, confirm backup solution works with vSphere 5 • If upgrading vSphere components that are part of a VMware View environment, see Upgrading vSphere Components Separately in a VMware View Environment http://pubs.vmware.com/view-50/topic/com.vmware.view.upgrade.doc/GUID-EFA29568-65A0-43D9-84A9-3CF933323F8A.html • Disable VMware vCenter Heartbeat, if being used, to prevent a failover • Disable Microsoft Cluster Services (MSCS), if being used to protect vCenter Server, to prevent a failover Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

ESXi 5 Hardware Requirements New in 5.0 • CPU • Min: 64 bit Intel or AMD x86 and two cores minimum • Max: 160 Logical cores in 5 and 4.1 U1 • Hardware Virtualization must be enabled to support 64-bit VMs • Memory • Min: 2 GB RAM (8 GB recommended), Max: 2 TB RAM • Networking • 1 or more Gigabit or 10 GigE Ethernet adapters • Bootable Disk Storage • Local: • SCSI & SAS • SATA through supported controllers • SSD • USB/SD • Remote: • Storage Area Networks: Fibre Channel or iSCSI LUNs(requires iSCSI HBA) New in 5.0 NOTE: 5.2 GB of space required on Boot location to provide 4 GB SCRATCH partition NOTE: USB & SD card installations do not support SCRATCH see “Set the Scratch Partition from the vSphere Client” in the vSphere Installation and Setup Guide http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r5/vsp_5_config_max.pdf Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vCenter Server 5 Requirements New in 5.0 • Hardware Requirements • CPU – Dual 64-bit 2.0GHZ or higher Intel or AMD x86 CPUs • Memory – 4GB RAM, more recommended (Additional 1 GB to 12 GB needed by JVM heap settings for VirtualCenter Management Webservices, Inventory Service, Profile-Driven Storage if installed) • Disk Storage – 4GB free space , 5GB-10GB recommended • Networking – Gigabit Ethernet recommended • Supported as a VM – Allows the use of VMware High Availability technologies for Fault Tolerance • Operating System Requirements • Windows 2003 64-bit Server SP2 (or R2 SP2) • Windows 2008 64-bit (or R2 SP2) • Supports up to 1000 hosts & 10,000 Powered-On VMs per vCenter (8 CPUs/16 GB RAM/10 GB HD), 500 hosts per datacenter, 512 Powered on VMs per host New in 4.1 New in 4.1 http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2003790 Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vCenter Server Database Requirements • Databases supported • Oracle 10g R2 and 11G R2 & R1 • Standard and Enterprise, 64 bit 10g Enterprise Edition • Microsoft • SQL 2008 Standard and Enterprise (32 or 64-bit) • SQL 2005 SP1 or higher Standard and Enterprise (32 or 64 bit) • SQL 2008 R2 Express (10 Gig) max is the default for VC 5.0 and higher • Supports 5 hosts and 50 VMs • Must have Microsoft Installer 4.5 • IBM DB2 9 • DB2 Express C, Express Edition 9, Workgroup Server Edition 9 & Enterprise Server Edition 9 • Scripts are available to add tables manually • vCenter Server 5 uses the “SQL Native Client” driver (must be 64-bit ODBC connector for vCenter 5 and 64-bit ODBC for Update Manager 5) http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010023 Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) Specifications New in 5.0 • vHardware Used by Appliance • 2 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, LSI Logic Parallel, VMXNET 3, 22 GB and 60 GB VMDKs • Can be installed on an ESX/ESXi 4.x or ESXi 5 host • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 x with VMware Tools installed • Includes embedded DB2 database for eval or environments up to 5 ESXi hosts or 50 virtual machines (like Windows vCenter Server + MSSQL Express) • Only supports Oracle external database for large environments • Includes Active Directory (AD) and Network Information Services (NIS) authentication. • vSphere Web Client support, VIC supported • Includes a pre-configured Auto Deploy server • vCSA can act as a syslog server for ESXi system logs & as a network collector for ESXi kernel core dumps • Can use NFS mounts to store vCenter Server Virtual Appliance core and log files • DOES NOT SUPPORT: • Upgrading from previous installs of vCenter Server • Linked Mode • Microsoft SQL server external database • IBM DB2 external database • IPV6 • VMware VSA • SSO (needs Windows) Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vSphere 5 Client Hardware Requirements • CPU – 1 minimum 32-bit or 64-bit, 1 GHz or higher • Memory – 1 GB • Networking - 1 Gigabit Ethernet adapters • Bootable Disk Storage – 1.5 GB free disk • Components required: • Microsoft .NET 2.0 SP2 • Microsoft .NET 3.0 SP2 • Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 • Microsoft Visual J# (Remove any previous versions first) Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

vSphere 5 Web Client Hardware Requirements New in 5.0 • CPU – 2.00 GHz or higher with 4 Cores • Memory – Min: 2 GB – • 1 GB for Java Heap • 1 GB for resident code, stack for Java threads, Java process segments • Networking - 1 Gigabit Ethernet adapters • Bootable Disk Storage – 1.5 GB free disk • Components required: • Microsoft .NET 2.0 SP2 • Microsoft .NET 3.0 SP2 • Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 • Microsoft Visual J# (Remove any previous versions first) • Supported Browsers (require Flash Player 10.1.0 or higher): • MS IE 7 or 8 • Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Topic 1: Pre-Upgrade Recommendations

Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 Topic 2 Upgrade Steps

Upgrade Methodology • Minor version Upgrades (ie., 4.1 to 4.1 Update 1) are handled as Patches in UM, not Upgrades • 3 Steps to every upgrade • Upgrade vCenter to 5.0 • Upgrade Update Manager to 5.0 • Upgrade Distributed Switch(es) • Upgrade ESX/ESXi Hosts – Three methods: • Boot to the ESXi 5.0 media and upgrade ESX or ESXi • Install ESXi on new hardware • VMware vCenter Update Manager (remove Guided Consolidation and vSphere Converter) • NOTE: There is no CLI method to upgrade to ESXi 5.0 • Upgrade Virtual Machines • Upgrade VMware Tools • Upgrade Hardware (major releases only) New in 5.0 http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-update-manager-50-install-administration-guide.pdf Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Upgrade VirtualCenter/vCenter to a 5.0 • Backup existing vCenter database • Upgrade Database Server, if necessary • If Migrating to a new 64-bit Machine • On the source machine, copy the entire \SSL certificate folder from: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter • Paste it on the destination machineto (NOTE: Create the \SSL folder if it does not exist): • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x64: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMWare\VMware VirtualCenter • Microsoft MicrosoftWindows 2008 Server x64: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMWare\VMware VirtualCenter http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Upgrade VirtualCenter/vCenter to a new version (Cont’d) • Upgrade vCenter Server • In-place upgrade – 10 minute downtime, no reboot required, insert DVD media or ISO • Migration upgrade – Install VC 5 on a extra machine before taking down one with earlier VC version • Upgrade vCenter Server Database • Required for 2.5 or 4.x to 5.0 upgrade • Database Migration Tool available for those with SQL Express moving to new 64-bit platform for vCenter 5.0 • Database upgrade wizard launches the appropriate scripts for a database upgrade, and progress, status, and any error messages encountered CAUTION: You cannot use the updated database schema with previous versions of VirtualCenter. You cannot roll back the schema update. You must create a back up of your database before you upgrade your database and before you begin the upgrade to vCenter Server • Update Manager is upgraded separately after vCenter Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Upgrade vCenter 4.1 to 5.0 • Does not require a reboot (UM upgrade does) Windows Installer 4.5 MUST be installed manually first, if not on Windows Server Select vCenter Server to begin Upgrade Select Update Manager A reboot is Required after Upgrade or Install Select Web Client (Server) Required for License Reporting Optional Support Tools Installs:----------------------------------------- ESXi Dump Collector Syslog Collector Auto Deploy vSphere Authentication Proxy 56 http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

ESX/ESXi Migration to new hardware 3.x to any version • Install ESX/ESXi on New Servers • Join new ESX/ESXi hosts to existing vCenter Server • Patch New Hosts using Update Manager • Create VM Networks, VMkernel Ports, and Service Console Ports to match existing hosts • Add existing SANs and NFS mounts to New Hosts • Configure and enable vMotion, DRS, HA on new hosts • vMotion VMs from old hosts to new hosts • Cold Migrate any VMs that don’t support vMotion • Perform SvMotion to new storage (if needed) • Decommission old hosts Old Servers SAN New Servers Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Upgrade Distributed Switch to 5.0 • Select the vSphere Distributed Switch in the inventory pane • On the Summary tab, next to Version, select Upgrade • Select the vSphere Distributed Switch version to upgrade to • Click Next(Wizard shows hosts associated with vDS & compatibility to new version. All hosts must be compatible to proceed) • Click Next • Verify that the upgrade information listed is correct and click Finish Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

ESXi 4.x/5.0 Migration to new hardware - Enterprise Plus • Install first ESXi 4.x/5.0 on a New Server • Configure first host as you would a 3.x host (perhaps use distributed switches) • Create a Standard Host Profile • Install ESXi on each additional 4.x/5.0 host. • Join the New Host to vCenter • Patch New Host using Update Manager • Apply the Standard Host Profile • vMotion VMs from old hosts to new hosts • Cold Migrate any VMs that don’t support vMotion • Perform SvMotion to new storage (if needed) • Decommission old servers Old Servers SAN New Servers Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

vSphere 5 ESXi Image Builder CLI New in 5.0 • PowerCLI cmdlets to provide customized ESXi installation media (ISO or ZIP) • Manages software depot, ESXi image profiles and software packages (VIBs) • Key component of vSphere 5 Auto Deploy • Requirements: • Microsoft .NET 2.0 • Microsoft PowerShell 2.0 • vSphere PowerCLI 5 • Verify Image Builder Snap-in in PowerCLI Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

ESX/ESXi Upgrade using Update Manager • Upload the ESXi 5.0 Image file which creates a new Upgrade Baseline • Attach Baseline and Remediate as usual • Can be used to upgrade 3.x -> 4.x, 4.0 -> 4.1, 4.x -> 5 • ESX/ESXi 3.5 cannot be directly upgraded to 5.0 • Upload the ESXi 5.0 Image file which creates a new Upgrade Baseline • Attach Baseline and Remediate as usual • Can be used to upgrade 3.x -> 4.x, 4.0 -> 4.1, 4.x -> 5 • ESX/ESXi 3.5 cannot be directly upgraded to 5.0 Attach Baseline and Remediate to Upgrade Import ESXi Image ISO 22 Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

vSphere 5 Auto Deploy for ESXi PXE Boot New in 5.0 • Automated booting of ESXi 5 hosts using PXE, Host Profiles, ESXi Image Profiles, Answer files and Rules • Allows management of many ESXi deployments • State information not stored on host, but through Auto Deploy server via image profile and host profile • Requirements: • vCenter Server 5 (included in VC Appliance, add on for vCenter Server, on install DVD) • Host Profiles & Answer files (1 per host max) • PXE Boot Infrastructure • DHCP & TFTP servers enable Network Boot • Image Builder ESXi Image Profiles • Public depots contain VMware and VMware Partner image profiles and VIBs • Private depots contain internally created custom image profiles http://download3.vmware.com/media/flv/vSphereAutoDeploy.html Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

vSphere 5 Auto Deploy process New in 5.0 • Power on host starts PXE boot • DHCP provides IP and instructions to contact TFTP • Host downloads gPXE files from TFTP server • gPXE makes HTTP request of Auto Deploy server • Auto Deploy queries Rule Engine about host & streams components specified in image profile, host profile & vCenter Server location • Host boots using the ESXi image profile (host profile applied if provided) • Host assigned to vCenter registered by Auto Deploy & placed in proper container (cluster/folder) • Host specific info in Host Profile queried for or applied from answer file Video: http://download3.vmware.com/media/flv/vSphereAutoDeploy.html Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

vSphere 5 Auto Deploy Architecture New in 5.0 HTTP fetch of ESXi image, VIBs & Host Profile PXE Boot IP request File request IP & go to TFTP gPXE File Boot request to HTTP Auto Deploy Server Boot request returned from Auto Deploy Server TFTP Server DHCP Server ESXi Image profiles Host profiles & answer files Auto Deploy Server (Web Server HTTP) Public Depot Rules Engine ESXi Host VIBs & ESXi Image Profiles Auto Deploy PowerCLI Image Builder PowerCLI http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-auto-deploy-guide.pdf Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Upgrade the Virtual Machines • VMware Tools updates are generally release with every new version of ESX/ESXi (3.5 U3  3.5 U4, 3.5  4) • Requires a reboot • Upgrade VMware Tools before updating hardware • Otherwise network settings will be lost • Version 8 of Virtual Machine Hardware is available in vSphere 5.0 • VMs upgraded to version 8 hardware can no longer run on ESX/ESXi 3.x or ESX/ESXi 4.x • Requires a reboot – can be done during the same reboot after installing VMware tools • Version 7 or 8 required for vmxnet 3 NICs, Hot add/config of hardware, Hot Plug Memory and CPU, and other new features • May need to Re-Activate Windows! • Can only be reversed via a snapshot, restore from backup or VMware Converter http://www.techhead.co.uk/vmware-esx-how-to-downgrade-a-vms-vm-versionhw-level-from-7-4-0-to-4-3-x Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Use the vSphere Client to Upgrade the VMware Tools • Must upgrade VMware tools in all VMs • Add column to display VMware Tools Status • Change filter rules to include VMware Tools Status • Filter to show only VMs with tools “Out of date” • Select one or more VMs to Install/Upgrade VMware Tools Type “Out of Date” here to filter list 3 Click Down Arrow and pick fields to filter on 4 2 Right-Click Column headers and pick columns to show 1 Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Use vSphere Client to Upgrade Virtual Machine Hardware • Right-Click on the VM and Choose Upgrade Virtual Hardware Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Use Update Manager to Upgrade Virtual Machines • Default baselines already exist to upgrade VMware Tools and upgrade Virtual Machine Hardware • Can create a single baseline to upgrade both or remediate both baselines at the same time • Attach and Schedule Remediation like any other baseline Topic 2: Upgrade Steps

Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 Topic 3 Upgrade Tips

Recommendations, Issues and Troubleshooting • Do Not install IIS on vCenter Server running Windows, both use Port 80 • Verify that DNS supports the FQDN of the vCenter Server for both forward and reverse lookups • Update Manager requires a 64-bit Windows platform • Migrating from ESX 4.x to ESXi 5.0 requires 50MB of free space on your VMFS datastore • If a SAN is connected to the host, detach the fibre before continuing with the upgrade or migration. Do not disable HBA cards in the BIOS • Once you have upgraded or migrated your host to ESXi 5.0, you cannot roll back to your version 4.x ESX or ESXi software • After upgrading, your ESXi 5.0 software returns to evaluation mode until you reapply your license Topic 3: Upgrade Tips

Recommendations, Issues and Troubleshooting (Cont’d) • Upgrading Hosts containing customizations, such as third-party VIBs or drivers, with the standard VMware installer ISO will result in the loss of those customizations • Use ESXi Image Builder CLI to create a customized ESXi installer ISO file that includes the VIBs or driver • Firewall Configuration Changes After Migration or Upgrade to ESXi 5.0 • Custom ports that were opened by using the ESX/ESXi 4.1 esxcfg-firewall command do not remain open after the upgrade to ESXi 5.0 • The ESXi firewall in ESXi 5.0 does not allow per-network filtering of vMotion traffic. Therefore, you must install rules on your external firewall to ensure that no incoming connections can be made to the vMotion socket. Topic 3: Upgrade Tips

Recommendations, Issues and Troubleshooting (Cont’d) • Resource Pool Settings Affected by the Upgrade from ESX 4.x to ESXi 5.0 • After the upgrade to ESXi 5.0, ESX 4.x resource pool settings might be insufficient to start all virtual machines in the pool • Upgrade to ESXi 5.0 affects the amount of memory available to the host system. In resource pools that are set to use nearly all of the resources available, some virtual machines might not have enough resources to start after the upgrade • A system alert will be issued, manually reconfigure the resource pools affected • SSH Configuration Affected by Upgrading or Migrating to ESXi 5.0 • SSH configuration is not migrated for ESX 4.x hosts or ESXi 4.0 hosts, only ESXi 4.1 hosts to ESXi 5.0 hosts • SSH access is disabled during the upgrade or migration process, re-enable through DCUI after upgrade Topic 3: Upgrade Tips

Recommendations, Issues and Troubleshooting (Cont’d) • Upgraded systems do not use GUID Partition Tables (GPT), but retain the older MSDOS-based partition label • For most ESXi 4.x hosts, the partition table is not rewritten in the upgrade to ESXi 5.0 • Partition table is rewritten for systems that have lopsided bootbanks • Lopsided boot banks can occur in systems that are upgraded from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 4.x, and then upgraded directly to ESXi 5.0 • For ESX hosts, the partitioning structure is changed to resemble that of an ESXi 4.x host. The VMFS3 partition is retained and a new MSDOS-based partition table overwrites the existing partition table • For ESX hosts, data stored in user created partitions inside the Service Console is not preserved in the migration to ESXi 5.0 • Upgraded hosts do not have a scratch partition. Instead, the scratch directory is created and accessed off of the VMFS volume • In upgraded hosts, the VMFS partition is not upgraded from VMFS3 to VMFS5. ESXi 5.0 is compatible with VMFS3 partitions • Upgrade the partition to VMFS5 after the host is upgraded to ESXi 5.0 • Upgraded hosts, which keep the older MSDOS-based partitioning, do not support installing ESXi on, a single physical disk or LUN, larger than 2TB, must do a fresh install instead Topic 3: Upgrade Tips

Links • Upgrade Center at VMware Communities http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/server/vsphere/upgradecenter • View 4.6 Upgrade to View 5 http://pubs.vmware.com/view-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/view-50-upgrades.pdf • Upgrade to vSphere 5.0 Checklist http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere-50-Upgrade-Checklists.pdf • vSphere 5.0 Upgrade Technical Guide http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere-50-Upgrade-Best-Practices-Technical-White-Paper.pdf • Moving the vCenter Server SQL database http://kb.vmware.com/kb/7960893 • Migrating to vCenter Server 5.0 using the Data Migration Tool http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2005328 • Storage Best Practices from different vendors on VMware vSphere http://www.ivobeerens.nl/2011/11/11/storage-best-practices-from-different-vendors-on-vmware-vsphere/ Topic 3: Upgrade Tips

Upcoming Classes at LANtech • vSphere 5 Ultimate Bootcamp • May 14th – May 18th • vSphere Advanced Administration and VCAP-DCA Prep Bootcamp • VMware View 5 with Thinapp Ultimate Bootcamp • VMware Advanced Security Bootcamp • Contact: John Hefton – John.Hefton@lantechtraining.com 3500 DePauw Blvd Pyramid 3, STE 3021 Indianapolis, IN 46269 (317) 872-8844 www.LANtechTraining.com

Questions and Answers • Thank you • Please ask any questions you may have…

Upgrading vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 – Method & Best Practices