Specifications

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Make sure your system hardware complies with ESXI 5.0 requirements. See Chapter 3, “System
Requirements,” on page 13 and the VMware Compatibility Guide, at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php. Check for system compatibility, I/O
compatibility (network and HBA cards), storage compatibility, and backup software compatibility.
Server hardware for ESXi 5.0 must be 64-bit compatible. Intel VT must be enabled in the host BIOS.
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Make sure that sufficient disk space is available on the host for the upgrade or migration.
Migrating from ESX 4.x to ESXi 5.0 requires 50MB of free space on your VMFS datastore.
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If a SAN is connected to the host, detach the fibre before continuing with the upgrade or migration.
Do not disable HBA cards in the BIOS.
NOTE This step does not apply to ESX hosts that boot from the SAN and have the Service Console
on the on the SAN LUNs. You can disconnect LUNs that contain the VMFS datastore and do not
contain the Service Console.
3 Back up your host before performing an upgrade or migration, so that, if the upgrade fails, you can
restore your 4.x host.
IMPORTANT Once you have upgraded or migrated your host to ESXi 5.0, you cannot roll back to your
version 4.x ESX or ESXi software.
4 Depending on the upgrade or migration method you choose, you might need to migrate or power off
all virtual machines on the host. See the instructions for your upgrade or migration method.
5 After the upgrade or migration, test the system to ensure that the upgrade or migration completed
successfully.
6 Reapply your host licenses. See “Reapplying Licenses After Upgrading to ESXi 5.0,” on page 145.
7 Consider setting up a syslog server for remote logging, to ensure sufficient disk storage for log files.
Setting up logging on a remote host is especially important for hosts with limited local storage.
Optionally, you can install the vSphere Syslog Collector to collect logs from all hosts. See “Providing
Sufficient Space for System Logging,” on page 21. For information about setting up and configuring
syslog and a syslog server, setting up syslog from the host profiles interface, and installing vSphere
Syslog Collector, see the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation.
8 If the upgrade or migration was unsuccessful, and you backed up your version 4.x host, you can restore
your host.
Files and Configuration Settings Affected by the Migration or Upgrade to ESXi
5.0
The migration or upgrade from ESX 4.x or ESXi 4.x to ESXi 5.0 does not migrate all host configuration files
and settings.
After the upgrade, you must reconfigure some host settings.
vSphere Upgrade
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