Specifications

Prerequisites for Oracle Databases

To use a newly supported Oracle database, such as Oracle 11g, you do not need to perform a clean

installation of vCenter Server if your existing database is also Oracle. For example, you can upgrade

your existing Oracle 9i database to Oracle 10g or Oracle 11g and then upgrade vCenter Server 4.x to

vCenter Server 5.0.

The JDBC driver file must be included in the CLASSPATH variable.

Either assign the DBA role or grant the following permissions to the user:

grant connect to <user>

grant resource to <user>

grant create view to <user>

grant create any sequence to <user>

grant create any table to <user>

grant create materialized view to <user>

grant execute on dbms_job to <user>

grant execute on dbms_lock to <user>

grant unlimited tablespace to <user> # To ensure sufficient space

After the upgrade is complete, you can optionally remove the following permissions from the user

profile: create any sequence and create any table.

By default, the RESOURCE role has the CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE TABLE, and CREATE

SEQUENCE privileges assigned. If the RESOURCE role lacks these privileges, grant them to the

vCenter Server database user.

Prerequisite for IBM DB2 Databases

To use a newly supported IBM DB2 database, you must use vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 or higher. Previous

releases of VirtualCenter or vCenter Server do not support DB2 databases.

vCenter Server Database Patch and Configuration Requirements

After you choose a database type, make sure you understand the configuration and patch requirements for

the database.

NOTE vCenter Update Manager also requires a database. VMware recommends that you use separate

databases for vCenter Server and vCenter Update Manager.

vCenter Server databases require a UTF code set.

If your VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 database is not supported for upgrade to vCenter Server 5, first upgrade

your database and then upgrade to vCenter Server. You also can import your database into a database that

is supported for upgrade to vCenter Server.

If your database is not listed in Table 4-2, see “Supported Database Upgrades,” on page 34.

For information about specific database versions and service pack configurations supported with vCenter

Server, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.

Chapter 4 Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0

VMware, Inc. 33