Upgrade from vSphere 5 to vSphere 5.1 – Part 3.1

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 software is supported and certified for vSphere 5.1

Step #3.1 – upgrading vCenter server to vSphere 5.1 – in place upgrade (upgrade on legacy OS)

• Mount ISO with installation repository and start installation wizard and click on VMware vCenter server

• Chose language version
• Click next on Warning screen with information about upgrade of earlier version of vCenter server

• Specify ODBC to vCenter DB
• Upgrade existing vCenter DB and tick box below to confirm that backup was taken

• Choose method on upgrade vCenter server agent on connected hosts to upgraded vCenter server

• Run vCenter server as a system account
• Specify vCenter server communication ports – if you change default settings make sure you wrote down ports number – you will save yourself a lot of work in the feature 🙂
• Choose JVM memory configuration
• Provide vCenter SSO administrator username and password

• Provide URL to vCenter inventory services

• Change installation folder if necessary and click Next
• Click install and wait for installation to complete.
• Connect suing vSphere client

Step #2- Installing vCenter inventory services.

Step#4 – Upgrading VMware vSphere Update Manager