ESXi 5.5 U1 Upgrade Tip

Hello,

Just came across with the observation when any one is looking to upgrade an existing ESXi 5.5 to ESXi 5.5 U1 then make sure you pick the right ISO file.

Here is the screen shot of the download page

Now as you can see the 1st option is the Roll Up ISO file which you can’t use to do the upgrade.
Downside of using the same you may not see your HBA on the host which you were able to see while the server was running on ESXi 5.5 base image.

So the actual ISO you need to use is titled as “ESXi 5.5 Update 1 ISO image (Includes VMware Tools)” or you can use one of the vendor supplied image on the “Custom ISOs” Tab.

This list under Custom ISOs varies time to time so make sure you get the correct image of the vendor if having a hardware supplied by that vendor.

Hopefully this will help anyone to do the smooth upgrade without getting into any other Gotchas of upgrading the driver/firmware on the Hardware later after the upgrade.
At the same time if you are running Nexus 1000v then you may want to check the compatibility on Cisco’s web page

http://www.cisco.com/web/techdoc/n1kv/upgrade/utility/n1kvmatrix.html

Here are some KB articles of VMware which will help you deciding your upgrade plans so that you can do the upgrade properly by following the recommended sequence


http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2037630

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2059455

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2031331

Hope this helps when dealing with Nexus 1000v and other products upgrade.

@cormachogan has blogged about Software ISCSI issue here so please take a look at that as well.

Thanks for your time.

Please share and care!