Tag Archives: Upgrade

vSphere upgrade blog post header

vBrownbag Session – Upgrading from vSphere 5.5 to 6.x

VMworld 2018, I was lucky enough to get my name down on the list to present on the vBrownbag stage, a community driven source of brilliant knowledge articles, videos, and web meetings, for the community by the community. Read more about vBrownbag here

In the below session I took on the session that had proved to be a hit at VMUGs around the UK. “Upgrading from vSphere 5.5 to 6.x”

This session focuses less on the “how to upgrade the components themselves” but more what you need to cover for planning and preparation, considerations during the upgrades, and calling out known gotchas.

Since the above video, I’ve since joined VMware, and presented the official slide deck covering this subject at the UK VMUG Usercon with Kev Johnson, Technical Marketing Engineer – vSphere Lifecycle.

You can find the official free e-book that accompanies the VMware presentations here;

Regards

Dean


Veeam Availability Suite v9

Veeam v9 Backup and replication / ONE upgrade from v8

This is just a quick post showing the upgrade process of

  • Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager
  • Veeam Backup and Replication
  • Veeam ONE

I didn’t hit any issues with the upgrades.

  • It’s always a good idea to reboot your servers before any update

And plan for further updates once the Veeam upgrades have completed as well.

Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager

  • I had to install .Net Framework 4.5.2 to continue the upgrade, which required a reboot
  • I upgraded from v8.0.0.817 (so not the latest patch)
  • I was asked to confirm the SQL Database upgrade
  • The server needed rebooting at the end of the upgrade

1 - Veeam Backup and Replication Installer Spash2 - Veeam install pre-req Continue reading Veeam v9 Backup and replication / ONE upgrade from v8

2015 07 27 18 17 53

HP Virtual Connect – Upgrade from version 3.30 to 4.41

Hi,

Only a quick post, but after my last bashing of HP virtual connect. I’ve had to endevour another upgrade for a different customer. This time with two HP chassis that are connected together.

For this customer they are on version 3.30 and need to upgrade to the latest version 4.41.

After speaking with HP support, the suggested upgrade path is;

3.60 / 3.70 / 4.10 / 4.20 / 4.31 / 4.41

For me the each firmware took around 35 to 45 minutes to complete. And you need “Virtual Connect Support Utility 1.11.0” to upgrade to 4.31 and above.

Note: that if you use the vcsu.exe tool and have mutliple flex-10 modules connected together in a domain, the firmware will update all the modules at once, you cannot upgrade just 2 modules of 4, for example.

How to update the Virtual Connect Manager

Note: Please plan downtime for this, as in my case it took everything offline whilst updating both modules.

So to update the Virtual Connect Manager, leave the web interface, as you don’t do it there, you need to download the “Virtual Connect Support Utility”, you can find the latest version here.

To do this, you open up the command interface,

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As you can see this launches a command prompt in the install area of the utility.

1. Type vcsu.exe and enter

2. Type update and enter

3. Enter the IP address of the Onboard Administrator, username and password.

4. Drag your firmware file from its location into the CMD prompt window and this will automatically out the file location in for you.

4. Click through the options until it says “Initializing, please wait… [Step 1 of 2]”

5. When prompted it will tell you its discovered the Virtual Connect domain, enter the username and password for the Virtual Connect Manager

6. Enter yes after confirming the version you are on and version you are going to.

7. Once done it will tell you its completed and where the log files are loaded.

Here is a full screenshot of the process, with the steps highlighted in yellow with green marks for easy identification.

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Things to know about the Virtual Connect Support Utility

it saves everything in your temp location, so where it tells you it’s saved the log, copy the location and open it up

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So it doesn’t just output a file which is the copy of your update session, which in this case is called “vcsu-15044.log”

It saves a copy of your Virtual Connect Manager settings before the upgrade, of which mine was called “vcConfig-8895406-BLE01_vc_domain-201408130822

And finally there is the Support Info output which can be used by HP support to determine the status of your hardware before and after the firmware update “vcSupportInfo-8895406-BLE01_vc_domain-201408130823

If you run the “collect” command, then it produces an output to the temp location for the following files

– Session output

– ShowAll of OA

– ShowAll of Virtual Connect Manager

2014-08-13_10-08-11
Regards

Dean

2015 04 09 14 53 48

Cisco UCS – Install ESXi 6.0

So I’ve just deployed a Cisco UCS B Series system, which is on the HCL as supported by VMware for ESXi 6.0

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However there is no install media available as for previous ESXi versions.

How to install ESXi 6.0 on Cisco UCS

Quite simple actually, I installed the Customised version of ESXi 5.5 update 2d onto the B series servers, and then deployed vCenter 6.0, after setting up update manager, I imported the standard ESXi 6.0 ISO, and upgraded the hosts using update manager.

After a week, I can report that I’ve found no issues with this at all.

I posted on reddit about the location or availability of the media, and someone suggested this method of install, further more another user stated their Cisco Account Manager said everything should work with the standard ESXi install for the B200 M4 blades and not need additional drivers.

Hope this clears it up for some users who are hunting around for install media or an explanation that doesn’t yet officially exist.
Regards

Dean


site announcement

HP Chassis and Virtual Connect Firmware Upgrades – Don’t bother

So last night was a busy one thanks to the HP Chassis and “fantastic” Virtual Connect system.

Bare with this article, as its part what happens blah blah, and part, how to install firmware on Virtual Connect

The environment

So the environment consists of;

HP C7000 Chassis

6 x HP BL460c Blade Servers

2 x HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module

These VC Flex modules are connected by 2 x 10GB links in a LACP trunk to Cisco 3750X stack.

The plan of work

Continue reading HP Chassis and Virtual Connect Firmware Upgrades – Don’t bother