Thursday, October 18, 2012

Upgrade vSphere 4.1 to 5.1 – VMware Tools and VM Hardware

In the previous vSphere 4.1 to 5.1 upgrade entry, I have used Update Manager to upgrade my ESXi 4.1 host to ESXi 5.1.  In this entry, I am going to use Update Manage to upgrade the VMware Tools and VM Hardware of my virtual machines.  Do note that upgrading VMware Tools and VM Hardware requires downtime of the virtual machine.

Before the upgrade, the VMware Tools version of my virtual machine is 8.3.17 and the VM Hardware version is 7.

VM Tools version 8

10_VM Hardware Version 7

To use Update Manager to upgrade the VMware Tools and VM Hardware, switch to VMs and Templates view and click on the Update Manager tab.

01_VM and Templates View

Click on the Attach link to attach the VMware Tools Upgrade to Match Host and VM Hardware Upgrade to Match Host baselines.

02_Attach Baseline

Now the baselines have been attached, I can scan for non-compliance and click on the Remediate button to fix it.

03_Remediate

On the Remediation Selection screen, select the VMware Tools Upgrade to Match Host baseline and select the virtual machines to apply the baseline.

04_Remediate Selection VMware Tools

I have the option to schedule the remediation for virtual machine in different status.

05_VM Tools Remediate Schedule

I was given an option to create a snapshot before the upgrade so that I can rollback if it does not work.

06_VM Tools Remediate Rollback Options

Click on the Finish button to start the upgrade.

07_VM Tools Remediate Ready

The virtual machine’s VMware Tools will be upgraded and the virtual machine rebooted.  After the upgrade the VMware Tools will be on version 9.

09_VM Tools Version 9

After upgrading the VMware Tools, we can upgrade the VM Hardware.  Select the VM Hardware Upgrade to Match Host baseline and select the virtual machines to apply the baseline.

11_VM Hardware Remediation Selection

Same as the VMware Tools upgrade, scheduling the upgrade is possible.

12_VM Hardware Remediate Schedule

Creating a snapshot again is a rollback option.

13_VM Hardware Remediate Rollback options

Click Finish to start the remediation.

14_VM Hardware Remediate Ready

The virtual machine will be rebooted and the VM Hardware will be upgraded.  After the upgrade, the VM Hardware version will be vmx-09.

15_VM Hardware Version 9

Doing a scan will show that the virtual machine with the upgraded VMware Tools and VM Hardware is now in compliant.

16_VM Compatible

We will look at upgrading VMFS3 datastore to VMFS5 in the next upgrade entry.

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