Before you start: Rule #1 – make sure you have a vCenter and VMware Update Manager database backup before start Rule #2 – make sure you have a backup of vCenter server itself, if it’s VM make a clone just before you start upgrade. Rule #3 – read docs from below links: See great article from Michael Webster site about upgrade considerations  Read vSphere 5.1 vCenter server best practice upgrade guide HCL- make sure your hardware and...

You must install vCenter Single Sign On before upgrading Inventory Service Step #2- Installing vCenter inventory services. Mount ISO with VMware vSphere 5.1 installation repositories and on welcome screen click on VMware vCenter inventory services. NOTE: you must run installation process as an administrator – right click Run as administrator CHoose instalaltion language and Accept license agreement Confirm you want to update...

In 9 out of 10  my vSphere 4 or vSphere 5  implementations vCenter server is installed on virtual machine. I’m not going here to write How-To for vCenter server installation but how to configure vCenter server virtual machine, vSphere cluster to make sure that doors (vCenter server) to your kingdom  are available and in case of problems you can easily find it and start it or recover it. There are some general rules which you should...

Few days ago IBM release new redbook for storage N series and VMware vSphere 4.1. IBM redbooks series is a very good, advanced technical documentation with examples and step by step instruction for IT engineers. Who has N series or planning implementation should read that book. Some of the topis included in : Planning for VMware ESXi Server installation on N series Installing and configuring the Virtual Storage Console Using FlexClone with...

Few days ago, after restart one of my ESX servers I wasn’t able connect it back to vCenter server. Connection process bar hangs on 80% and after few minutes error message says: Reconnect host Cannot install the vCenter agent service. Agent not running   I checked if vpxa demon was running – service vmware-vpxa status – service was dead, I wasn’t able to start it – service vmware-vpxa start . Messages log...