Installation guide

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Virtual machines must be hosted on an ESX 3.0.1 or later, and VirtualCenter must be version 2.0.1 or later.
Virtual machines residing on a VMware Server host cannot be automatically upgraded.
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Virtual machines must be running a Linux or Microsoft Windows guest operating system that is supported
by ESX 3.0.1 or later and VirtualCenter 2.0.1 or later.
Procedure
1 Power off the virtual machine.
2 Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
3 On the Options tab, select VMware Tools.
4 In the Advanced pane, select Check and upgrade Tools before each power-on and click OK.
The next time you power on the virtual machine, it checks the ESX/ESXi host for a newer version of VMware
Tools. If a newer version is available, it is installed and the guest operating system is restarted (if required).
The VMware Tools label on the Summary tab changes to OK.
What to do next
(Recommended) Upgrade the virtual machine hardware to version 7.
Upgrade Virtual Hardware
You can upgrade the hardware version of virtual machines to the latest version of ESX/ESXi. For virtual
machines that are running on ESX 4.0/ESXi 4.0, VMware recommends that you upgrade the virtual hardware
to version 7.
Consider the following points:
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When you upgrade from virtual hardware version 3 to version 7, the upgrade is irreversible, even if you
take a virtual machine backup or snapshot before performing the upgrade. When you upgrade from virtual
hardware version 4 to version 7 the upgrade is reversible if you take a virtual machine backup or snapshot
before performing the upgrade.
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Upgraded virtual machines cannot be powered on by an ESX 2.x host, even if relocated to a VMFS2
datastore.
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To automate this process, consider using vCenter Update Manager for virtual machine upgrades. vCenter
Update Manager performs automatic backups before performing virtual machine upgrades. See the
vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide.
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When you upgrade virtual hardware, no downtime is required for vCenter Server or ESX/ESXi hosts. For
virtual machines, the only significant downtime is the time to reboot the guest operating systems.
Prerequisites
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Create a backup or snapshot of the virtual machine. See Basic System Administration.
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Upgrade VMware Tools.
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Make sure that all .vmdk files are available to the ESX/ESXi host on a VMFS3 datastore.
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Make sure that the virtual machine is stored on VMFS3 or NFS datastores.
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Make sure that no suspend files exist.
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Make sure that at least one virtual disk exists.
Chapter 13 Upgrading Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 95