vSphere 6 Lab Upgrade – Overview
Written by Sam McGeownThis post is part of the vSphere 6 Lab Upgrade series.
This article is now 11 years old! It is highly likely that this information is out of date and the author will have completely forgotten about it. Please take care when following any guidance to ensure you have up-to-date recommendations.
I tested vSphere 6 quite intensively when it was in beta, but I didn’t ever upgrade my lab - basically because I need a stable environment to work on and I wasn’t sure that I could maintain that with the beta.
I will be upgrading
- vCenter Server Appliance - currently 5.5 update 1
- vSphere Update Manager - currently 5.5 update 1
- 3 HP N54L resource hosts
- 1 Intel NUC management host
In my lab I run various VMware software suites listed below, although I typically run them in nested environments to keep my lab install relatively clean.
- vCloud Director
- vRealize Automation
- vRealize Orchestrator
- NSX
Other considerations:
- VSAN - I currently run VSAN 5.5 and will need to upgrade to 6.0
- Update Manager - I’d prefer to update my hosts using Update Manager where possible
- Certificates - I currently use a Microsoft CA, I’d like to move to the VMCA as a subordinate CA
- Drivers - VMware changed the drivers supported in ESXi, some consumer grade drivers are blacklisted
- Backup - I use the excellent Veeam Backup and Replication to protect key lab machines, and I know that it doesn’t yet support vSphere 6. That’s a hit I can take in my lab.
To upgrade I need to first verify everything is compatible using the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes.
High level plan
Having read a lot of vSphere 6 docs, my upgrade plan is as follows:
- Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance
- Upgrade vSphere Update Manager
- Upgrade ESXi
- Upgrade VSAN
- Upgrade nested labs and other software suites