Migrating VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 HA Cluster to vSphere 4 – Stage 1: vCenter Upgrade

11. November 2009
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I'm currently in the process of migrating a 2-host High Availability cluster of ESX 3.5u4 servers to vSphere 4. This is going to come in 3 distinct stages: Stage 1 is to upgrade VirtualCenter Server 2.5 to vCenter 4, which I am going to cover today. Stage 2 is to upgrade each host, and will be covered as I do it. Stage 3 is the upgrade of the Virtual Machines to the latest VMware Tools and then the new VM hardware.

So to start, I'll outline the process:

  • Download the vSphere vCenter 4 installer from VMware (~1.8GB).
  • Download your updated licensing for vSphere.
  • Back up your VirtualCenter server.
  • Run the installation.
    I'm not going to run through the download of the installer or licensing, if you're not sure how to do that, probably best not to do the rest.

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