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!

Quiz on vSphere

Hi Folks,

This post is just to have the input on the issue I was discussing with my colleague.

And it is just to know how the VMware Technologies can be used to suggest a solution to a particular issue.

To answer the question or provide the suggestions, leave the comment and after one week from today the "Winner" will be announced here on this post only.

So here you go........read the question carefully before you come up with answer as you can  use any supported method with different technologies of vSphere.


How can I present 16 vNICs inside a Virtual Machine on vSphere 5.1?



Your time starts now. :-)

Thanks and share!!

How to install Async drivers on ESX/ESXi?

Now there are multiple methods using which you can update the driver on ESX/ESXi servers.

One of my authored article 1032936 for ESX/ESXi 4.x which grabbed the space in Top 20 articles this month discussing various methods


e.g.
Using commands esxupdate and vihostupdate or during the installation of ESX/ESXi by specifying the driver source CD


Article for updating Async drivers on ESX/ESXi version 4.x

KB 1032936

Article for updating Async drivers on ESXi 5.x

KB 2005205


Julian Wood (@julian_wood) has put up a PowerCLI script to update the drivers here.

If you have used any other methods apart form what is listed, then DO provide the feedback so that the article will get updated.

Cheers.