HOW TO: Upgrade from VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 to VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5 for FREE
In my previous
Experts Exchange Articles, most have featured Basic and Intermediate VMware and Virtualisation Topics.
If you would like to read my Basic VMware articles, they are listed here for your convenience.
During this series of articles VMware released VMware vSphere 5.5 and VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5. These articles are also applicable to VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.x and 5.5. For consistency, I have used VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 through this series.
Part 1: HOW TO: Install and Configure VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1)
Part 2: HOW TO: Connect to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client
Part 3: HOW TO: Create an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image (*.iso), and MD5 checksum signature, for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1)
Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct.
Part 5: HOW TO: Enable SSH Remote Access on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1)
Part 6: HOW TO: Create your first Linux Virtual Machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server
Part 7: HOW TO: Create your first Windows Virtual Machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server
Part 8: HOW TO: Install VMware Tools for Windows on a VMware Windows virtual machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server
Part 9: HOW TO: Install VMware Tools for Linux on a VMware Linux virtual machine on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) Host Server
Part 10: HOW TO: Backup (Export) and Restore (Import) virtual machines to VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 for FREE
In this article we will show you
HOW TO: Upgrade from VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 to VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5 for FREE.
I feel this is a little more advanced, so I've not included it in the Basic VMware article series.
Please note before you make any changes to a Production VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 Host server, which is hosting virtual machines, it is important to ensure you have valid backups of your virtual machines.
See my Experts Exchange article here -
Part 10: HOW TO: Backup (Export) and Restore (Import) virtual machines to VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 for FREE if you want to use a quick and free method to backup important virtual machines.
On the 29 September 2013, VMware released VMware vSphere 5.5 and VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 5.5. If you would like to Upgrade your version of ESXi 5.1 to ESXi 5.5, this tutorial is for you.
There are several VMware methods that can be used to upgrade ESXi hosts:
vSphere Update Manager
Scripted upgrade
vSphere Auto Deploy
The above three methods require a licensed version of VMware vSphere.
esxcli (Command-line interface)
Upgrade using an ESXi installer ISO image on CD-ROM.
The above two methods can be used with the FREE version of VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi). You could download the ESXi 5.5 ISO image from VMware -
here, then write the ISO image to a CD-ROM, Boot the Server, follow the Installation, and Upgrade using an ESXi installer ISO image on CD-ROM. Personally I think this option is slow, and requires you have physical access to the server.
In this tutorial on HOW TO: Upgrade from VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 to VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5 for FREE, we are going to use the
esxcli (Command-line interface) method.
1. Connect to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) or vSphere vCenter Server using the vSphere Client
Please refer to my EE article on
HOW TO: Connect to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client
Click the Inventory icon.
Check in the Host Summary you are running ESXi 5.1.
Confirmation from the ESXi 5.1 Console Screen
2. Download ESXi 5.5 Offline Bundle Patch
Download the ESXi 5.5 Offline Bundle Patch from VMware -
here
The file is called VMware-ESXi-5.5.0-1331820-
depot.zip, check the
MD5SUM: bff0b5558ad226ad395f6a4dc2b28597
SHA1SUM: ed37fe8aa849188750ae684f6330487c94ab5c8e
signatures are correct, with the published figures above. See my Experts Exchange article Part 3: HOW TO: Create an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image (*.iso), and MD5 checksum signature, for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) how to check these checksum signatures are correct for your offline bundle upgrade.
3. Upload the offline patch bundle to an ESXi 5.1 datastore
Upload the offline patch bundle to an ESXi 5.1 datastore, we will be uploading the patch bundle to datastore1 on our ESXi 5.1 host server. If you require additional help, on how to upload this file to the ESXi datastore, please see my Experts Exchange article Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct.
4. Connect to the ESXi 5.1 host server via SSH
Connect to the ESXi 5.1 host server via SSH. If your ESXi 5.1 server is not enabled for SSH, please see my Experts Exchange article Part 5: HOW TO: Enable SSH Remote Access on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1).
Step 3, in this Experts Exchange article, details SSH access to an ESXi host server Part 4: HOW TO: Upload an ISO CD-ROM/DVD-ROM image to a VMware datastore for use with VMware vSphere Hypervisor 5.1 (ESXi 5.1) using the vSphere Client, and checking its MD5 checksum signature is correct..
At the console prompt, type vmware -l to confirm the ESXi version. VMware ESXi 5.1.0 GA or later should be returned, this will depend upon whether any patches have been applied.
5. Use esxcli at the command line to upgrade the server
at the console type
esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/VMware-ESX
i-5.5.0-1331820-depot.zip -p ESXi-5.5.0-1331820-standard
The above command does not produce any feedback, if entered correctly, after approximately 20 seconds, the upgrade is completed, we have found if using slow USB flash drives and SD cards, this can take considerably longer for the files to be written. You will be presented with the following screen.
If all is well you should see a update screen, as above, you may have to scroll the screen to see all the information. But check the update result, at the top, The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be reboot for the changes to be effective.
VIBs are driver packages. So you can see new VIB packages installed, VIBs removed, and no VIBs skipped. If you are using an OEM version of VMware ESXi 5.1, e.g. from HP, IBM or Dell, your output could be different.
type reboot to reboot the server.
6. Check the ESXi 5.1 Host server has been upgraded
Check in the following three places
Console Screen should report VMware ESXi 5.5.0 (VMKernel Release Build 1331820)
Connect via vSphere Client should report VMware ESXi 5.5.0, 1331820
Login to console or remotely via SSH, use vmware -l should report VMware ESXi 5.5.0 GA
Congratulations, you have successfully upgraded your host server from VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.1 to VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.5 for FREE
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Comments (11)
Commented:
Put this:
Open in new window
Before this:Open in new window
Also please mention that the host needs to be put in maintenance mode. Here's an additional non-Experts-Exchange article I used to fill in the blanks.
Commented:
Error: Missing required parameter -p|--profile
Usage: esxcli software profile update [cmd options]
Description:
update Updates the host with VIBs from an image profile in a depot. Installed VIBs may be upgraded (or downgraded if --allow-downgrades is
specified), but they will not be removed. Any VIBs in the image profile which are not related to any installed VIBs will be added to the host.
WARNING: If your installation requires a reboot, you need to disable HA first.
Cmd options:
--allow-downgrades If this option is specified, then the VIBs from the image profile which update, downgrade, or are new to the host will be installed. If the
option is not specified, then the VIBs which update or are new to the host will be installed.
-d|--depot=[ <str> ... ]
Specifies full remote URLs of the depot index.xml or server file path pointing to an offline bundle .zip file. (required)
--dry-run Performs a dry-run only. Report the VIB-level operations that would be performed, but do not change anything in the system.
-f|--force Bypasses checks for package dependencies, conflicts, obsolescence, and acceptance levels. Really not recommended unless you know what you are
doing. Use of this option will result in a warning being displayed in the vSphere Client.
--maintenance-mode Pretends that maintenance mode is in effect. Otherwise, installation will stop for live installs that require maintenance mode. This flag has
no effect for reboot required remediations.
--no-live-install Forces an install to /altbootbank even if the VIBs are eligible for live installation or removal. Will cause installation to be skipped on
PXE-booted hosts.
--no-sig-check Bypasses acceptance level verification, including signing. Use of this option poses a large security risk and will result in a SECURITY ALERT
warning being displayed in the vSphere Client.
-p|--profile=<str> Specifies the name of the image profile to update the host with. (required)
--proxy=<str> Specifies a proxy server to use for HTTP, FTP, and HTTPS connections. The format is proxy-url:port.
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Commented:Please post a question and myself or other experts will be glad to assist.
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