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Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0 best practices (2003866)

Purpose

This article provides information about upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0.
 
Note: This article assumes that you have read the vSphere Upgrade Guide. This guide contains definitive information. If there is a discrepancy between the guide and this article, assume that the guide is correct.

Resolution

vCenter Server should be the first product upgraded in your vSphere environment, followed by Update Manager (if applicable), then your ESXi hosts.

Minimum hardware requirements

The vCenter Server 5.0 system can be a physical machine or virtual machine. Additionally, it comes pre-packaged as the vCenter Server Linux Appliance. For more information, see the ESXi and vCenter Server Installation Guide and vSphere Compatibility Matrix.
 
This table outlines the minimum hardware requirements:
 
Hardware
Requirement
Processor
Intel or AMD x86 processor with two or more logical cores, each with a speed of at least 2GHz. The Intel Itanium (IA64) processor is not supported. Processor requirements might be higher if the database runs on the same machine.
Memory
4GB RAM. RAM requirements may be higher if your database runs on the same machine. VMware VirtualCenter Management WebServices requires 512Mb to 4.4GB of additional memory.  The maximum Webservices JVM memory can be specified during the installation depending on the inventory size.
Disk storage
4GB. Disk requirements may be higher if the vCenter Server database runs on the same machine. In vCenter Server 5.0, the default size for vCenter Server logs is 450MB, which is larger than in vCenter Server 4.x. Make sure the disk space allotted to the log folder is sufficient for this increase.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express disk requirements
Up to 2GB free disk space to decompress the installation archive. Approximately 1.5GB of these files are deleted after the installation is complete.
Networking
1Gbit connection recommended.
 

Operating system requirements

vCenter Server 5.0 requires a 64-bit operating system and cannot be installed on a 32-bit operating system. When performing an install you must ensure that your operating system is 64-bit capable. For more information on what operating systems are supported, see the Operating System Compatibility for vSphere Client, vCenter Server, and VMware vCenter Update Manager in the vSphere Compatibility Matrixes.
 
Pre-upgrade software requirements
 
vCenter Server requires Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 Framework. If it is not installed on your system, the vCenter Server installer installs it for you.

Note: The Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 installation might require Internet connectivity to download and update files during the installation procedure.

If you plan to use the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database that is bundled with vCenter Server 5.0, Microsoft Windows Installer version 4.5 (MSI 4.5) is required to be installed on your system. You can download MSI 4.5 from the Microsoft Web site. You can also install MSI 4.5 directly from the vCenter Server 5.0 CD/DVD-ROM.

Ensuring that your database is ready to be installed/upgraded

Make sure your database requirements and patch levels are compliant. For more information, see vSphere Compatibility Matrixes and vCenter Server Database Patch and Configuration Requirements for the most up to date list of database versions supported with vCenter Server. 
 
In addition if you are performing an upgrade, configuration and pre-requirements may have already have been done with a previous installation of vCenter Server. Contact your DBA if you are unsure if these procedures have been completed, or need to be done. 
 
To upgrade an existing database, you need to provide a 64-bit system DSN that points to the vCenter Server database. You also need to ensure that you have created a full backup of your database before proceeding.
 
Notes:
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express is intended for use with small deployments of up to 5 hosts or 50 virtual machines.
  • IBM DB2 database is only supported for vCenter Server. There is no support for Update Manager or any plug-in that requires a database.

If your database is located on the same machine on which vCenter Server will be installed, and you have recently changed the name of this machine to comply with the name-length requirement, make sure the vCenter Server DSN is configured to communicate with the new name of the machine.

Changing the vCenter Server computer name impacts database communication if the database server is on the same computer with vCenter Server. If you changed the machine name, you can verify that communication remains intact. The name change has no effect on communication with remote databases. You can skip this procedure if your database is remote.

Note: The name-length limitation applies to the vCenter Server system. The data source name (DSN) and remote database systems can have names with more than 15 characters.

Check with your database administrator or the database vendor to make sure all components of the database are working after you rename the server.

When configuring vCenter Server to communicate with a database, make sure that:
  • The database server is running
  • The vCenter Server computer name is updated in the domain name service (DNS). To test the connection, ping the computer name. For example, if the computer name is host-1.company.com, run this command in a Windows command prompt:

    ping host-1.company.com

    If you can ping the computer name, the name is updated in DNS.

Bundled Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Database Package

The bundled Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database package is installed and configured when you select the bundled database during vCenter Server installation or upgrade.
 
To install the bundled Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database, Microsoft Windows Installer version 4.5 (MSI 4.5) is required on your system. You can download MSI 4.5 from the Microsoft Web site. You can also install MSI 4.5 directly from the vCenter Server autorun.exe installer.
 
Pre-upgrade considerations and recommendations
 
Before upgrading, consider these points:
  • Before upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0, VMware View Manager must be upgraded to version 5.0. For more information, see VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.
  • Windows XP is no longer supported as an operating system to host vCenter Server.
  • vCenter Server 5.0 cannot manage ESX 2.x or ESX 3.0.x hosts.
  • Ensure that your vCenter Server 5.0 is capable of running on a 64-bit operating system.
  • Ensure that you have made a backup of your database.
  • After an upgrade has been performed, there is no roll-back feature.
  • You can migrate from vCenter Server 2.5 Update 6 – vCenter Server 4.x with the Data Migration Tool.

Additional Information

For more information on the new features in vCenter Server 5.0 see What's New in vCenter Server 5.0 Technical Whitepaper.
 
For related information, see:

Tags

upgrade-vcenter

See Also

Update History

11/10/2011 - Linked technical whitepaper.

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