Installation guide

Supported Upgrades to ESXi 5.0
In most cases, you can migrate an ESX 4.x or upgrade an ESXi 4.x host directly to ESXi 5.0.
The details and level of support for an upgrade or migration from version 4.x ESX and ESXi hosts to ESXi 5.0
depend on the host to be upgraded and the upgrade method that you use.
Table 6-4. Supported Scenarios for Upgrade or Migration to ESXi 5.0
Scenario for Upgrade or Migration to ESXi 5.0 Support
3.x ESX and ESXi hosts Not supported for direct upgrade.
You must upgrade version 3.x ESX and ESXi hosts to ESX or
ESXi version 4.x before you can upgrade them to ESXi 5.0.
See the vSphere 4.x upgrade documentation.
Alternatively, you might find it simpler and more cost
effective to do a fresh installation of ESXi 5.0.
4.x ESX host that was upgraded from ESX 3.x with a partition
layout incompatible with ESXi 5.0
Not supported.
The VMFS partition cannot be preserved. Upgrading or
migration is possible only if there is at most one VMFS
partition on the disk that is being upgraded and the VMFS
partition must start after sector 1843200. Perform a fresh
installation. To keep virtual machines, migrate them to a
different system.
4.x ESX or ESXi host, migration or upgrade with vSphere
Update Manager
Supported. See “Using vSphere Update Manager to Perform
Orchestrated Host Upgrades,” on page 94 and the Installing
and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager
documentation.
4.x ESX or ESXi host, interactive migration or upgrade Supported. See “Upgrade or Migrate Hosts Interactively,” on
page 107.
The installer wizard offers the choice to upgrade or perform
a fresh installation. If you upgrade, ESX partitions and
configuration files are converted to be compatible with ESXi.
4.x ESX or ESXi host, scripted upgrade Supported. See “Installing, Upgrading, or Migrating Hosts
Using a Script,” on page 109.
In the upgrade script, specify the particular disk to upgrade
on the system. If the system cannot be upgraded correctly
because the partition table is incompatible, the installer
displays a warning and does not proceed. In this case,
perform a fresh installation. Upgrading or migration is
possible only if there is at most one VMFS partition on the
disk that is being upgraded and the VMFS partition must
start after sector 1843200.
4.x ESX host on a SAN or SSD Partially supported.
You can upgrade the host as you would a normal ESX 4.x
host, but no provisions will be made to optimize the
partitions on the disk. To optimize the partition scheme on
the host, perform a fresh installation.
vSphere Upgrade
82 VMware, Inc.