This will be the process of upgrading our hosts to the new VMware vSphere environment 5, we will be able to migrate ESX hosts 3.5, ESX 4.0 and ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.0 and upgrade from ESXi 3.5, ESXi 4.0 and ESXi 4.1 to ESXi 5 automatically, ordered and managed; distributing the ESXi base image 5 on any of them keeping their settings. To do this, we will have to rely on VMware Update Manager, This document shows the steps we will need to update our hosts to the latest version.

Desde vSphere Client y con la vista de ‘Update Manager’ en el ‘Home’, Let's go to the tab “ESXi Images”, First we click on “Import ESXi Image…” to upload to the repository the file that will update the ESX hosts(i) to ESXi 5, which will be nothing more than the CD/DVD with the image of the ESXi hypervisor 5.

So first we will download the file with the ESXi image from the VMware website 5 What we are interested in applying to our hosts (podría ser una imagen personalizada…), we uploaded it from “Browse...” & “Next”,

…Ignoramos la advertencia del certificado del vCenter…

And we wait a few minutes while the ESXi5 image is uploaded,

“Next” confirming that the image we are going to upload corresponds to the one we want to apply,

We mark the check “Create a baseline using the ESXi image” to save us the work of having to create a host upgrade baseline later, We provide you with a name and a description & “Finish”,

Cambiamos de vista desde el cliente de vSphere a la de ‘Hosts and Clusters’, seleccionamos un host (or the cluster, Datacenter, folder containing the host(s) we want to upgrade) y en la pestaña ‘Update Manager’ le asignaremos la baseline que se acaba de autogenerar con “Attach…”. This host will also not be able to run virtual machines on it since it must be in maintenance mode before we apply the upgrade.

Seleccionamos en ‘Upgrade Baselines’ la baseline generada anteriormente & “Attach”,

Now on the same host/cluster/datacenter/folder to which we have associated the baseline, We will look for whether or not to apply such an upgrade with a scan “Scan for Updates…”,

Select “Upgrades” & “OK”,

Ciertos hosts nos podrán dar errores de incompatibilidad con algunos módulos (de fabricantes de terceros), al upgradear deberemos ser conscientes que éstos se eliminarán y puede que afecten al servicio del host.

Ahora ya podremos aplicar el upgrade a ESXi 5 on a host (or the cluster, Datacenter, folder containing the host(s) we want to upgrade), Right Button > “Remediate…”,

Select “Upgrade Baselines”, then the newly created baseline and confirm the host(s) that will migrate is correct, as well as his name, Source version and target version (VMware ESXi 5.0.0).

We accept the license agreement “I accept the terms and license agreement” & “Next”,

It tells us that we will not be able to roll back our hosts, so it will always be advisable to make a Backup your configuration Before proceeding,

We give the task a name and we will schedule its execution for when we are interested, in this case we will do it immediately, “Next”,

As we indicated above, The hosts to be upgraded will need to be in maintenance mode, si no lo están configuraremos las opciones para que la parada de servicio sea mínma,

We must take into account that the host we are going to update cannot belong to an active HA cluster, DPM or FT, so we must either remove it from said cluster or mark here the options to disable it, we can even indicate how many hosts can be updated simultaneously. “Next”,

And that's it, We check that everything is correct & “Finish” para acabar el asistente que irá actualizando nuestros hosts a ESXi 5 in an orderly and fully automated way, una vez tengamos todos nuestros hosts a dicha versión actualizaremos las VMware Tools de las máquinas virtuales, then your virtual hardware to the version 8, upgradearemos los datastores a VMFS5… y ya podremos disfrutar de las nuevas funcionalidades de vSphere 5!