VMware ESXi Hosts

The ESXi 5.0 Installer will detect a current installation of ESX or ESXi, and try to complete an upgrade. If it cannot perform an inplace upgrade it will advise during the installation, and provide you with a warning before over-writing and completing.

@cheto06: Do you have an intricate/complicated host configuration? If not, I concur with @hanccocka's 2nd post there and recommend just doing a fresh install of ESXi. That way there is no legacy data/files left over...it's clean. An install, as I'm sure you're aware, only takes about 7-8mins. If you have a standard type host configuration (vswitch, NTP, DNS, etc.), that's only another 10mins maybe. So, just disconnect your storage, assuming it's a SAN, or even if it's local, just as a precaution to protect your data (VMs), then after your install/config, just connect it back up and you're good to go. Also, make sure you've verified your host model is on VMware's HCL for compatibility with v.5. http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=server

Regards,
~coolsport00

Forgot to mention about your host configuration....just document your host configs before doing your fresh install so you have a reference of everything, which should make the reconfiguration on the new host go fairly quick.

~coolsport00

So if I choose to go this route, what would happen if I have vms on local storage as well. I have both SAN and Local Storage. Kind of new to this stuff...

When completing the Upgrade, it will preserve, any existing VMFS datastores.

Well, pretty much nothing. In actuality, you could even keep your storage connected. But, it's just safer to disconnect in case you overlook the step during the install that asks if you wanna keep your existing VMFS partition. So, that pretty much answers your question. During the install process, when you get to the partition part of the install, the installer will detect your current VMFS volume (datastores) and ask if you want to keep them or overwrite (again, that's IF you choose to keep them connected). You would obviously wanna select to KEEP them. But again, I just recommend disconnecting the storage just as a precaution. When finished with the install, just connect the storage back up (if you did indeed disconnect it), rescan your HBAs, and the VMFS should be detected automatically...you won't have to re-add the storage or anything.

Please make sure you have a BACKUP of your VMs before you complete and change to any production servers!

Despite what any Expert advises.

and as Consultants our motto is "A Backup is NOT a Backup unless held in 3 places"!