Installation guide

Clean Up the ESX Bootloader Menu After Upgrade

After you determine that the ESX 4.0 upgrade is stable, you can remove the ESX 3.x boot option from the ESX

4.0 bootloader menu to disable the ability to roll back to ESX 3.x.

After you upgrade a host from ESX 3.x to ESX 4.0, the ESX bootloader boots into ESX 4.0 by default, but retains

the option to boot into ESX 3.x. The ESX 3.x boot option is useful if the ESX 4.0 upgrade does not work as

expected in your environment. However, after you confirm that the upgrade is stable, you might want to

disable the ability to roll back to ESX 3.x.

This procedure is applicable only if you left the default rollback option enabled when you performed the

upgrade. If you deselected the rollback option, this procedure is not applicable. Only a system administrator

can perform this optional procedure.

Prerequisites

Before executing this script, make sure that you have copied all required data from the legacy ESX mount

points under /esx3-installation.

Procedure

1 In the ESX 4.0 service console, run the cleanup-esx3 command with the optional -f (force) flag.

If you omit the -f flag, the software prompts you to confirm that you want to disable the ability to roll

back to the ESX 3.x.

2 (Optional) Reboot the host.

While the server is powering on, observe that the bootloader menu does not include an option for ESX

3.x.

The host looks the same as a clean installation of ESX 4.0. The cleanup-esx3 script removes the following files

and references from the ESX 4.0 host:

ESX 3.x references in the /etc/fstab directory

ESX 3.x boot files in the /boot directory

The rollback-to-esx3 script in the /usr/sbin/ directory

Uninstalling the VMware License Server

After you upgrade all of your hosts to ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0, you can optionally uninstall your license server and

remove the license server configuration from vCenter Server.

NOTE Consider leaving the license server and the license server configuration in place if the vCenter Server

instance might need to manage ESX 3.x/ESXi 3.5 hosts in the future. The license server does not interfere with

operations if you leave it in place.

Procedure

1 As Administrator on the Microsoft Windows system, select Start > Settings > Control Panel >

Add/Remove Programs.

2 Select the VMware License Server and click Remove.

3 Click Yes to confirm that you want to remove the program and click Finish.

4 In vCenter Server, select Administration > vCenter Server Settings.

5 In the License Server text box, delete the path to the license server.

6 If the Reconfigure ESX 3 hosts using license servers to use this server option is selected, unselect it.

Chapter 12 Postupgrade Considerations for Hosts

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