Moving from ESX 3.0 to ESX 3.5 Howto Part I

After running on ESX 3.0.2 for about a year I decided it was time to move to ESX 3.5 patch 1 and Virtual Center 2.5. (VC 2.5 from now on)
The added capabilities of Storage VMotion and the Update Manager in VC 2.5 made the decision to move a no-brainer. In the past our current VC database went from a 2.x to a 2.5.x upgrade and from there to a 3.0.2 upgrade. In order to circumvent any database problems I wanted to install VC 2.5 to a new and clean database.
Because the VMWare documentation is quite lengthy, in this two(or three)-part article I outline the basic steps necessary to move 3.0.x ESX servers managed by VC 2.0.x to a ESX 3.5 with VC 2.5 environment.

So..the mission is clear:
Mission: move current ESX environment (ESX 3.0.2 + VC 2.02+VI Patch script) to the latest, greatest VMWare has to offer:
(ESX 3.5 + VC 2.5+Update Manager)

Preparation on the Virtual Center server:
Because VC 2.0.2 is installed on a physical machine on which we want to cleanly install VC 2.5 and have it point to a new database we need to do the following:
01) Login to VC and disable HA and DRS if these are active

02) Empty one ESX server by VMotioning all VM’s to another Host.

03) Document (screenshot) your VC configuration (alerts, roles etc)

04) After you have finished the documentation of VC, disconnect all hosts from the VC 2.0.x DB. (rightmouse-click on the host and select: Disconnect, it’s scary I know but you have to.)

05) Now if all is well, your current VC DB doesn’t hold any ESX hosts anymore. A perfect time to make a backup of the VC Server so you can rollback in case anything goes wrong. (choose your backup-creator-weapon of choice..I used Acronis home edition)

06) Have a cup of <enter addiction here> and wait for the backup to finish. 

Virtual Center de(-/+)installation
After creating the safety image of the Virtual Center server let’s continue:
07) Start by de-installing all of the following components:

The setup should leave your existing license file intact but make a backup just to be sure!
Since our VC Database runs on Oracle I also uninstalled the Oracle 9 client and deleted existing ODBC connections because the new database will be running on Oracle 10!

08) Check if IIS has been installed on the VC server and de-install it. VMWare installs its own version of Tomcat so let us keep out of its way!

09) I then had the DB guys create 2 DB‘s. 1 for VC and 1 for the Update manager. (yes it needs its own DB)

10) Install the Oracle client 10 (if you’re using Oracle of course!) and create the appropriate ODBC connections to the DB’s.

11) Let the installing begin:



As you can see the VC Installation claims ports 80 and 443

For the VC Server authorization we created a local Service Account user with admin privileges

Provide the information for the VC Update DB

Make sure to select a location that has enough space to hold the updates. It’s currently holding about 1.7GB in patches. (and VMWare is just warming up)
And there’s the finish…! That’s it for now, part II will have configuring VC, VUM, installing ESX 3.5 and some stuff you might encounter during installation..see you then!

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