Specifications

3 Make sure your system meets vSphere hardware and software requirements.
See Chapter 2, “System Requirements,” on page 13.
4 Upgrade vCenter Single Sign-On, vCenter Inventory Service, vCenter Server, and the
vSphere Web Client.
IMPORTANT If you use vCenter Server Heartbeat in your vSphere deployment, use the vSphere Server
Heartbeatinstallation and upgrade documentation to upgrade vCenter Server and related components.
See Chapter 4, “Upgrading vCenter Server,” on page 61. Use the topic “Required Information for
Installing or Upgrading vCenter Single Sign-On, Inventory Service, vCenter Server, and the vSphere
Web Client,” on page 41 to create a worksheet with the information you will need when you install
vCenter Single Sign-On, vCenter Inventory Service, and vCenter Server.
5 If you use VMware Update Manager, upgrade VMware Update Manager.
See Chapter 6, “Upgrading Update Manager,” on page 139.
6 Upgrade your ESXi hosts.
See Chapter 7, “Upgrading and Migrating Your Hosts,” on page 143. vSphere provides several ways to
upgrade hosts:
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Use vSphere Update Manager to perform an orchestrated upgrade of your ESXi hosts. See “Using
vSphere Update Manager to Perform Orchestrated Host Upgrades,” on page 166.
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Upgrade a single host at a time, interactively, from an ESXi ISO installer image stored on a CD,
DVD, or USB flash drive. See “Upgrade or Migrate Hosts Interactively,” on page 180.
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Use a script to perform an unattended upgrade for multiple hosts. See “Installing, Upgrading, or
Migrating Hosts Using a Script,” on page 182
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If a host was deployed using vSphere Auto Deploy, you can use Auto Deploy to upgrade the host
by reprovisioning it. See “Using vSphere Auto Deploy to Reprovision Hosts,” on page 196.
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Upgrade or patch ESXi 5.x hosts by using esxcli commands. See “Upgrading Hosts by Using esxcli
Commands,” on page 200.
7 Reapply your host license.
See “Reapplying Licenses After Upgrading to ESXi 5.5,” on page 214.
8 Upgrade virtual machines and virtual appliances, manually or by using VMware Update Manager to
perform an orchestrated upgrade.
See Chapter 8, “Upgrading Virtual Machines and VMware Tools,” on page 215.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“How vSphere 5.x Differs from vSphere 4.x,” on page 11
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“Differences Between vSphere Upgrades and Updates,” on page 12
vSphere Upgrade
10 VMware, Inc.