Installation guide

Updating Version 3.5 Hosts in High Availability Clusters Before Upgrading
vCenter Server
Before you upgrade vCenter Server to version 5.0, make sure that any ESX 3.5 hosts that are in a vSphere HA
cluster are updated to a patch level that supports High Availability.
If a version 3.5 ESX or ESXi host is in a vSphere HA cluster and is not updated to a patch level that supports
High Availability, you cannot add that host to the HA cluster or remove it from maintenance mode after the
associated vCenter Server is upgraded to version 5.0.
Update ESX 3.5 hosts to ESX350-201012401-SG PATCH, and update ESXi 3.5 hosts to ESXe350-201012401-I-BG
PATCH. If you have updated your version 3.5 hosts to these patch levels but you still cannot add the hosts to
a HA cluster or remove them from maintenance mode after the associated vCenter Server is upgraded to
version 5.0, you might need to apply the following patches.
Apply these patches to ESX 3.5 hosts:
n
ESX350-201012401-SG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012402-BG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012404-BG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012405-BG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012406-BG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012407-BG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012408-SG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012409-SG PATCH
n
ESX350-201012410-BG PATCH
Apply these patches to ESXi 3.5 hosts:
n
ESXe350-201012401-I-BG PATCH
n
ESXe350-201012402-T-BG PATCH
For information about updating version 3.5 hosts with patches, see the ESX Server 3 Patch Management Guide.
You can download patches from the VI3 Patches and Updates page at
http://www.vmware.com/patch/download/.
Upgrade to vCenter Server 5.0
Upgrade vCenter™ Server 4.x to vCenter Server 5.0 on the same machine if the vCenter Server 4.x instance is
on a 64-bit machine.
This procedure requires downtime for the vCenter Server that you are upgrading. You do not need to turn off
virtual machines.
If an earlier version of vCenter Server is on your machine, the vCenter Server installer detects and upgrades
it. If the upgrade fails, no automatic rollback occurs to the previous vCenter Server version.
In-place upgrade to vCenter 5.0 is not supported on Microsoft Windows XP.
NOTE If your vSphere system includes VMware solutions or plug-ins, make sure they are compatible with the
vCenter Server version that you are upgrading to. See the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix at
http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php.
If the vCenter Server that you are upgrading from has plug-ins or plug-in versions that are incompatible with
vCenter Server 5.0, for example vSphere Converter or Update Manager, these plug-ins will be unregistered
during the upgrade process.
vSphere Upgrade
40 VMware, Inc.