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Moving a ESXi 3.5 VM to a ESXi 4 host server

Hi all,

I have an ESX 3i 3.5 VMware server and a ESX 4i VMware server, what do i need to get a Win2K3 VM on the 3.5 host converted or migrated over to the 4i host? both are using local DAS storage. Is this a difficult procedure? Any gotchas to watch for?

thanks,

za_mkh

The easiest way is to use FastSCP (www.veeam.com) to move data from one standalone host to another.
The other way is to use vConverter (www.vmware.com) to 'clone' your VM to the new host. Personally, I think this could be a good thing, since you can reconfigure the VM, disk storage, etc, etc

Schnizzle

ASKER

Thanks for the info. As far as upgrading a VMware ESXi 3.5 server to ESXi 4.0, is it better to get all the VM's off the host and then do a fresh 4.0 install or is it easier to upgrade? If i upgrade, what's involved in doing so?

thanks,

za_mkh

Of course it is easier to upgrade so you dont have to do a lot of work. You can download the zip file for esxi from vmware website and then use the vsphere host update utility to upgrade. The update utility can be installed when you install the v sphere client.

za_mkh

Oh. Do make a backup of your vms just in case. :)

Schnizzle

ASKER

Ok, so are you suggesting that I can do an in-place upgrade, leaving the VM's on the machine and doing the upgrade? And yes, be sure i have a backup of the VM's first.

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za_mkh

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Schnizzle

ASKER

Okay, i'll give it a whirl & keep my fingers crossed! thanks.