Reading Time: 2 minutes Finally there are several other aspects to consider: backup software, storage plugins, vSphere client, … Backup The backup software must be compatible with vSphere 5.1, so check it before the upgrade procedure. Actually most of the backup software vendors have version for vSphere 5.1, but note that old backup software may be not compatible.
Reading Time: 2 minutes After that the vCenter and the ESXi part are upgrade, you can work on the VM part. The VM upgrade is the easy part, but it require VM downtime, so must be planned well. There are two different upgrade for the VM part: VMware Tools (highly recommended) Virtual Hardware (optional)
Reading Time: 2 minutes After the vCenter Server (described in the previous post) and the VUM part (this could a simple upgrade, by keeping the existing DB, or a re-install), you can go through the ESXi part. A re-install from scratch could be simple, but you may loose some information (unless you use Host Profiles). For more information see upgrading to ESXi 5 vs doing a Fresh Install. Note that if you need 3rd part drivers, you may have to build your how ISO version (see: how to add ESXi custom drivers to the installation ISO).
Reading Time: 4 minutes The installation or the upgrade procedure of vCenter Server components are quite similar. Starting from version 5.1 there are more components, so you can use the Simple Mode install or upgrade SSO, Inventory and vCenter services in different (but sequential) steps. I’ve used the Simple Mode for new installation and for upgrade from 5.0 without problems. But some people have report issues in some cases, so probably separated steps could be a better choice for an upgrade.
Reading Time: 3 minutes The upgrade path to vSphere 5.1 is quite similar to the upgrade path to vSphere 5.0 and is well described in the specific guide (vSphere Upgrade Guide). In some cases an in-place upgrade can be applied with the advantage to require less time and to keep all (or most) of the settings and configurations. For example, a vCenter Server 4.1 can be directly updated to the 5.1 version (the requirements of the two versions are quite the same) or an old ESXi can be updated to ESXi 5. But in most cases, also when the […]
Reading Time: < 1 minute Veeam has recently announced a new product cloud oriented: Veeam Backup & Replication Cloud Edition. It includes several features, like: Supports 15 cloud vendors, including Amazon and Azure No cloud API’s to learn No re-design of local backup processes Encryption on the fly or at rest (configurable encryption up to AES 256-bit) Control bandwidth in real time and schedule limits to ensure bandwidth during working hours
Reading Time: 3 minutes For the new SRM 5.1 a new EqualLogic SRA is required (version 2.2) and it’s available both on EqualLogic site (in the support section) and VMware site (in the SRM download page). The upgrade procedure is simple and it’s described in the previous post. You have simple to run the installation. But there is now a new interesting option on how storage replication (note that are used asynchronous replication) are handled:
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