Upgrade methods | Upgrade from ESX/ESXi 4.x to ESXi 5.x |
vSphere Update Manager | Yes |
Interactive upgrade from CD, DVD, or USB drive | Yes |
Scripted upgrade | Yes |
vSphere Auto Deploy | No |
esxcli | No |
In most cases, you can migrate an ESX 4.x or upgrade an ESXi 4.x host directly to ESXi 5.0.
Scenario for Upgrade or Migration to ESXi 5.0 | Support |
ESX/ESXi 3.x hosts | Not supported for direct upgrade. You must upgrade version 3.x ESX and ESXi hosts to ESX or ESXi version 4.x before you can upgrade them to ESXi 5.0. See the vSphere 4.x upgrade documentation. Alternatively, you might find it simpler and more cost effective to do a fresh installation of ESXi 5.0. |
ESX 4.x host that was upgraded from ESX 3.x with a partition layout incompatible with ESXi 5.0 | Not supported. The VMFS partition cannot be preserved. Upgrading or migration is possible only if there is at most one VMFS partition on the disk that is being upgraded and the VMFS partition must start after sector 1843200. Perform a fresh installation. To keep virtual machines, migrate them to a different system. |
ESX/ESXi 4.x host, migration or upgrade with vSphere Update Manager | Supported. For more information, see Using vSphere Update Manager to Upgrade or Migrate Hosts in the vSphere Upgrade Guide and Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager. |
ESX/ESXi 4.x host, interactive migration or upgrade | Supported. The installer wizard offers the choice to upgrade or perform a fresh installation. If you upgrade, ESX partitions and configuration files are converted to be compatible with ESXi. |
ESX/ESXi 4.x host, scripted upgrade | Supported. For more information, see Installing, Upgrading, or Migrating Hosts Using a Script in the vSphere Upgrade Guide. In the upgrade script, specify the particular disk to upgrade on the system. If the system cannot be upgraded correctly because the partition table is incompatible, the installer displays a warning and does not proceed. In this case, perform a fresh installation. Upgrading or migration is possible only if there is at most one VMFS partition on the disk that is being upgraded and the VMFS partition must start after sector 1843200. |
4.x ESX host on a SAN or SSD | Partially supported. You can upgrade the host as you would a normal ESX 4.x host, but no provisions will be made to optimize the partitions on the disk. To optimize the partition scheme on the host, perform a fresh installation. |
4.x ESX host, missing Service Console .vmdk file, interactive migration from CD or DVD, scripted migration, or migration with vSphere Update Manager | Not supported. The most likely reasons for a missing Service Console are that the Service Console is corrupted or that the VMFS volume is not available, which can occur if the VMFS was installed on a SAN and the LUN is not accessible. In this case, on the disk selection screen of the installer wizard, if you select a disk that has an existing ESX 4.x installation, the wizard prompts you to perform a clean installation. |
ESX/ESXi 4.x host, asynchronously released driver or other third-party customizations, interactive migration from CD or DVD, scripted migration, or migration with vSphere Update Manager | Supported with ESXi Image Builder CLI. If a host contains customizations, such as third-party VIBs or drivers, upgrading with the standard VMware installer ISO results in the loss of those customizations, and possibly an unstable system. Use ESXi Image Builder CLI to create a customized ESXi installer ISO file that includes the VIBs or drivers. See the information builder information in thevSphere Installation and Setupdocumentation. |