Installation guide

Upgrading Virtual Machines 7
After you perform an ESX/ESXi upgrade, VMware recommends that you upgrade all the virtual machines that
reside on the host. Upgrading virtual machines ensures that they remain compatible with the upgraded host
software, and can take advantage of new features.
The first step in upgrading virtual machines is to upgrade VMware Tools. If the virtual machines do not have
VMware Tools installed, you can use the VMware Tools upgrade procedure to install VMware Tools. After
you install or upgrade VMware Tools, upgrade the virtual machine hardware.
NOTE Do not use vmware-vmupgrade.exe to upgrade virtual machines.
VMware offers the following tools for upgrading virtual machines:
vSphere Client
Requires you to perform the virtual machine upgrade one step at a time, but
does not require vSphere Update Manager.
vSphere Update
Manager
Automates the process of upgrading and patching virtual machines, thereby
ensuring that the steps occur in the correct order. You can use Update Manager
to directly upgrade virtual machine hardware, VMware Tools, and virtual
appliances. You can also patch and update third-party software running on the
virtual machines and virtual appliances. See “Perform an Orchestrated
Upgrade of Virtual Machines with vSphere Update Manager,” on page 145
and the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update
Managerdocumentation.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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“About VMware Tools,” on page 142
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“About Virtual Machines and Host Upgrades,” on page 143
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“Virtual Machine Hardware Versions,” on page 144
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“Perform an Orchestrated Upgrade of Virtual Machines with vSphere Update Manager,” on page 145
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“Planning Downtime for Virtual Machines,” on page 150
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“Downtime for Upgrading Virtual Machines,” on page 150
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“Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Windows Virtual Machine,” on page 151
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“Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Linux Virtual Machine,” on page 152
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“Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Solaris Virtual Machine,” on page 154
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“Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a NetWare Virtual Machine,” on page 155
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“Operating System Specific Packages for Linux Guest Operating Systems,” on page 156
VMware, Inc.
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