VC 2.5 upgrade preparation list

Preparation:

• Database

1) Backup SQL database: VirtualCenter, msdb, master

2) Check to make sure SQL user, vcenter, has the db_owner role in both VCenter database, and msdb database, but don’t have the sa role.

3) Copy VCenter, msdb, master backup to ATL1502

4) Create a new database for VMware Update Manager

5) Setup OCBD for Update Manager

• ESX servers

1) Make sure /tmp/vmware-root exists in every ESX servers.

· A tool ITQ VLan and Portgroup Manager from Paul Geerlings will make this task very easy. It can execute shell commands via SSH connection to multiple ESX servers from a central location. Use with care though. It is powerful enough to help with your tasks, and it is powerful enough to do some damage too.

• ·VirtualCenter

1. We have about 400 VMs sessions running in 17 physical hosts in our VMware environment. During upgrade, if a VM needs to do a hard reboot, it will be nightmare to search that VM by going to the hosts one by one. One of the prep jobs is to generate a list of all VMs along with all the host names.
2. HA error has been a known problem post VC upgrade. The error that upgrade could cause doesn’t limit to HA error, but also Service Console’s network connectivity. Although I have never seen this kind of recommendation in VMware’s documentation, I have experienced it myself, and I have seen many other people have the same problem.

The installation of VirtualCenter is pretty simple and straight forward. It is just like a normal Windows application.