I wish I could like this more than once. Thanks for such a useful video. You saved me so much time. The only improvement I can think of is going over what to do if you would add what to do if you run into VIB errors.
@@sysadmintutorials my workflow going from 6.0 to 6.7 on 28 blades quickly evolved to installing the Cisco ISO using command line so I could see which VIB needed to be removed, if any. I then used the auto update process to install all of the patches. Overall the process took less than 8 hours and thanks to maintenance mode involved zero down time.
@@sysadmintutorials They were a mix of M3, M4, and M5 blades. I updated their firmware the night before the ESXi update. The environment I inherited was a bit out of date however I am quickly getting that fixed. My next big project is getting our NetApp environment updated. I didn't do a scientific test but it felt like the command line method was noticeably faster than the Update Manager method.
Just be sure to use the correct Cisco drivers for the version of firmware you are using on the blades. Have a look at the VMware Matrix for I/O devices. What NetApp storage do you have, and what versions are you going from and too ?
Hi Abood, you're welcome, glad you liked it. I'll be adding an upgrade video soon for upgrading to ESXi 7.0. If you're a subscriber you'll get notified when I upload new content :)
This works well except for my older Dell PowerEdge R620s running ESXi on mirrored 1GB SD cards. There is not enough room to copy 6.7 .iso to the upgrade target so it fails and I am left having to use a disc for the upgrade. The 6.5-6.7 upgrades on newer servers went very quickly.
Thanks for the video, it is very detailed one. Quick question, what about when you upgrade v6.5 with ext. PSCs to 6.7 ? We need to start with PSCs first right ?
Hi Gunay, you're welcome, glad you enjoyed it. Yes you will want to upgrade the PSC's first. However if you are running external PSC's I would be looking to combine them to internal as there are no more external psc's moving forward. Please also make sure you read the VMware upgrade guide to see if there is anything else you need to do according to your environment. This is just as a pre-caution since I only covered the upgrade for an internal PSC here.
Hi SysAdminTutorials, awesome video !!.. thank you.... can you do a upgrade from esxi 6.5 to ESXi 7.0U3c directly or do you have to go with some of the version in between ? cheers
Hi Brian, thank you. Yes upgrade vcenter first. Check the vmware compatibility site for compatibility between vcenter 6.7 and your 6.5 esxi hosts www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php
Thanks this was very helpful! Can I ask how you use VMRC to open a remote window into the ESXi host? I can do it for my VMs but unsure of how to for the hosts.
Hi Tom, thank you :) I can use VMRC because the ESXi host is a virtual machine. If it was a physical server I would have to use the out of band management such as iDRAC, iLO, or Cisco UCSM for example, depending on your vendor
Thanks for the video. How did you launch the console window to your ESXi host? I have logged into the host through the browser, but I see no option to launch a console window.
Hi Nate, the esxi hosts are nested. How do you have your esxi hosts setup, is it directly installed onto physical hardware or is it also nested for lab purposes ?
Hi Joe, What version of 6.5 are you upgrading from ? Looking at the upgrade matrix from VMware interopmatrix.vmware.com/#/Upgrade?productId=1 If you are running 6.5 before 6.5 U2 (Build: 8294253) you will run into an issue with an expired vib cert kb.vmware.com/s/article/76555
thanks for the video.. but I have one question. How did you remote into the console? I've google but didn't see a good tutorial on how to do it. thanks
Hey thanks for the video. I have a question I was hoping you could help me answer. We're currently using ESXi 6.5 and for a long time we've had both performance and quality issues when connecting to our VM's using VMware Horizon Client. Will upgrading ESXi from 6.5 -> 6.7 help improve performance or do you know know some tricks to what we can do about our current situation? :-)
Hi, are you familiar with the performance monitoring metrics within vcenter (with the levels bumped up to level 4) ? If not probably the easiest way to quickly diagnose what is going on would be to download a trial version of VeeamOne or install vRealize Operations in trial mode. Hook it into your system and you should be able to tell pretty quick what your issues are.
Is the esxcli software profile update also upgrading ethernet and let say storage controller ? Or its only raise the build and leave drivers untouched? What about vendor compatibility esxi versions ? I suppose for iso update i will use vendor esxi custom , but what about offline bundle ? I dont think server vendor provide this kind of custom bundle
Hi you are correct, you can upgrade with a vendor specific ISO image, this way you are sure that the correct drivers are installed. For the offline bundle, I would perform the upgrade and then download the correct drivers from the vendor for ESXi 6.7, put these in a new Upgrade Manager Extension Baseline. Attach it to the host, scan it and then if needed stage and remediate.
Hi Marcio, are you running nested ESXi, if so you can open the console using VMRC via the base vcenter ? If your ESXi is on a physical server you would use an out-of-band management port to connect to the console, such as ilo, drac, etc
I would like to do this with the Update Manager, unfortunately it is missing with my vCenter 6.7 Proton OS thing... Well, then continue as before with the good old DVD...
great tutorial but i have one question: if my VCenter is on ESXiA which one i upgraded first ESXiA or ESXiB? notice that i will shutdown all servers on ESXiA because there is no space to transfer them on ESXiB. Thanks
Hi there, so I gather you have ESXiA and ESXiB in a cluster with shared storage ? If so, you just need to make sure that the vcenter vm is not on the ESXi host you are upgrading. Put the ESXi host in maintenance mode first and evacuate all vm's.
I've got 1 host which, my vcenter server is running off this host, does that mean I am unable to use this method. I've just been using 2 usb drives to run esxi and every time a new update comes I do a full install on the spare usb and run off it until the next update lol. Unfortunately I can't afford real server equipment so just running this all off a built machine.
@@sysadmintutorials Thank you, also, I notice you released the upgrade of VCenter before this video, does that mean I need to upgrade VCenter first then do this? Thank you for your help.
@@sysadmintutorials So after much tinkering and workarounds I finally got to the remediate stage but unfortunately got an incompatible hardware error. Is there a work around for this or do I have to just run a clean install?
Hi TechMidas, do you have the full error message ? Also what CPU are you using ? The CPU might not be compatible with ESXi 6.7. It happened to me in my lab and I had to upgrade my CPU's
Hi Rhey, check on the VMware upgrade compatibility matrix. If it's supported there it shouldn't be a problem. If there are any caveats i.e. CLI upgrade not supported, it should be listed there
I have a question in regards to upgrading from 6.5 release version 10-15-2020 to the 6.7U3B ISO release date 5-12-2019. VMware has a lot of red flags when it comes to doing "back in time" updates but unfortunately trying to use the version 6.7 patch release 11/19/2020 doesn't work in the cli, I get DependencyErrors even when trying to use the esxcli software profile update -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ESXiXXX.zip -p . I get an Unknown flag error for the -p. Basically I don't want to brick my host by performing a back in time upgrade so i'm really worried about moving forward until there is a 2021 release with an ISO.
Hi Greg, firstly thanks for being a subscriber :) In regards to upgrading always check the VMware Compatibility Matrix, as they will post KB articles with what you need to look out for. Have a look at this table for ESXi 6.5 and the warnings issued. Looks like you may be hitting the expired certificate on VIB. www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php#upgrade&solution=1 you may have to go to esxi 6.7U1 or U2 first and then a second upgrade up to 6.7u3. But if in doubt always log a VMware support ticket.
@@sysadmintutorials Maintenance mode at 3:05. Here it mentioned that the host will go to maintenance mode once all the VMs have migrated of from esx1 to esx2 host. I assumed that vMotion was already been setup before this video tutorial? What would happen if we dont migrate the VMs? My ESXi -1 host is standalone running on bare-metal, and the 2nd ESXi-2 host is installed in Workstation 15 pro. Should I power off all the VMs running on the ESXi-1 before I put to maintenance mode?
@@sysadmintutorials I did. It makes a REAL tech video a little more personable, which is good. Plus for others it puts a face to the voice they have heard for a while.
Ummmm im getting "Failed to power on virtual machine Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit. Transport (VMDB) error -45: Failed to connect to peer process" Click here for more details. Is this really bad?
Hi Rocky, this error seems to be related to a full disk. Can you SSH into your ESXi host and check that you have enough free disk space. Let us know how you go.
@@sysadmintutorials Hi sysdamintutorials! Thanks for getting back to me. My Hosts are running esxi 7.0.3C, which has critical issues and needs to be upgraded to 7.0.3g ASAP. It has already corrupted several VM's.
Hi Foxtrot, that build number is update 3a, latest that is out now is update 3h. Just a pro tip, if you are not running skyline.vmware.com you should get it deploy, it's a free service that works by deploying a collector in your environment which then reports on any issues within your environment in regards to build versions, incompatible drivers, etc If I was you I would get that deployed and then work off the recommendations that it finds, for example it will let you know what version you should update your vcenter and esxi hosts to