Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
11.
The next page gives you the same cluster options shown in Figure 4.29. You can control
how the host's cluster should conform to its own DPM, HA, and FT settings and whether
to allow multiple hosts to be upgraded at the same time if the cluster has sufi cient
resources. Select the options required and click Next.
12.
Review the summary, and use the Back button if any settings need to be changed. Click
Finish when the settings are correct.
VUM then proceeds with the host upgrade at the scheduled time (Immediately is the default
setting in the wizard). The upgrade will be an unattended upgrade, and at the end of the
upgrade the host will automatically reboot.
Surprisingly enough, considering the inherent differences between ESX and ESXi, VMware
has done a great job of hiding the complex differences during this upgrade procedure. In fact,
unless you know which type of host you selected to upgrade beforehand, the only way you can
tell during the Remediate Wizard process is by the host version discreetly listed in the lower
pane shown in Figure 4.35.
After upgrading all the hosts in a cluster, you should consider upgrading VMware Tools
on the VMs and then their virtual hardware version. Upgrading a VM's hardware can prevent
that VM from running on older hosts, which is why you should ensure that all the hosts in the
same cluster are upgraded i rst. Otherwise, you can restrict the efi ciency of fundamental cluster
operations such as DRS and HA.
Keeping in mind that you should upgrade VMware Tools on the VMs i rst, discussed in the
section “Upgrading VMware Tools,” let's look at how to upgrade the virtual hardware.
Upgrading VM Hardware
So far, the idea of VM hardware hasn't been discussed, but the topic is covered in Chapter 9. For
now, sufi ce it to say that VMs brought into a VMware vSphere environment from previous ver-
sions of ESX/ESXi will have outdated VM hardware. You'll see outdated hardware most often
after you upgrade a host. In order to use all the latest functionality of VMware vSphere with
these VMs, you will have to upgrade the VM hardware. To help with this process, VUM lets you
scan for and remediate VMs with out-of-date VM hardware.
VUM already comes with a VM upgrade baseline that addresses this: the VM Hardware
Upgrade To Match Host baseline. This baseline is predei ned and can't be changed or deleted
from within the vSphere Client. The purpose of this baseline is to determine whether a VM's
hardware is current. vSphere 5.5 VMs use hardware version 10 by default. Hardware version 9 is
the version used by vSphere 5.1, and version 8 was used by 5.0.
To upgrade the virtual VM version, you again follow the same general sequence:
1.
Attach the baseline.
2.
Perform a scan.
3.
Remediate.
To attach the baseline, follow the same procedures outlined in the section “Attaching and
Detaching Baselines or Baseline Groups.” Performing a scan is much the same as well; be sure
you select the VM Hardware upgrade option when initiating a scan so VUM will detect out-
dated VM hardware. Even if the correct baseline is attached, outdated VM hardware won't be
detected during a scan unless you select this box.
