VCP6-DCV Section 4: Upgrade a vSphere Deployment to 6.x

-
Section 4 of the VCP6-DCV blueprint

Objective 4.1: Perform ESXi Host and Virtual Machine Upgrades

 Minimum System Requirements for ESXi 6.0
- 2 x CPU CORES
- 64 bit x86 processor, released after Sept 2006
- Requires NX/XD bit to be enabled on CPU
- Minimum of 4GB of physical memory (RAM) 8GB recomended
- To support 64-bit machiens, hardware virtualization options must be enabled (Intel VT-x or AMD RVI)
- One or more Gigabit Ethernet adapter
- SCSI disk or a local non-network RAID LUN with unpartitioned space for VMs
- Minimum Storage resources
   - 1GB (or larger) boot device
   - 5.2GB (Or larger) when booting form local disk, SAN or iSCSI
- If smaller disk or LUN is used teh installer attempts to allocate a scratch region on a separate local disk.
  1. Configure download source(s)

  2. Setup UMDS to setup download repository

  3. Import ESXi images
    • Home -> Update Manager -> Solutions and Applications
    • ESXi Images tab -> Import ESXi Image
    • browse to location of ESXi host image.
    • finish
  4. Create Baselines and/or Baseline groups
    • Home -> Update Manager -> Solutions and Applications 
    • Click on Baselines and Group tab -> Create
    • Give it a unique name and description
    • Under Baselien Type, select Host Upgrade and select the uploaded ESXi image.
  5. Attach Baselines to vSphere objects

  6. Scan vSphere objects

  7. Stage patches & Extensions

  8. Remediate an object

  9. Upgrade a vSphere Distributed Switch
    • Upgrading to version 6.0 allows,
      • Network I/O control - Support for Per-VM Distributed vSwitch bandwidth reservations to gaurantee isolation and enforce limits on bandwidth.
    • Upgrade
      • Home -> Networking -> Select your vSphere Distributed switch to upgrade
      • Right click -> Upgrade -> Upgrade Distributed Switch
      • From the Upgrade wizard select the version you want to upgrade to (6.0)
      • Review host compatibility and then finish.
  10. Upgrade VMware Tools
    • Home -> Virtual Machines and templates -> Right click on the VM -> Edit Settings
    • Under VM Options Expand VMware Tools
    • select option "Check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power on
  11. Upgrade Virtual Machine hardware
    • Home -> Virtual Machines and templates -> Select your VM -> Power Off
    • Actions -> All vCenter Actions -> Compatibility -> Upgrade VM Compatibility 
    • Select the version to upgrade to (ESXi 6.0 Hardware verison is 11.
  12. Upgrade an ESXi Host using vCenter Update Manager
    • Botht he vCenter server and vSphere Update Manager need to be updated to version 6.0 first
    • You can upgrade directly from ESXi version 5.0, 5.1, 5.5
    • You cannot use VUM if the host was previously upgraded from ESX 3.x or 4.x
    • Hosts must have more than 350MB free space in /boot
  13. Stage multiple ESXi Host upgrades

  14. Align appropriate baselines with target inventory objects.



Objective 4.2: Perform vCenter Server Upgrades
  1. Compare the methods of upgrading vCenter Server

  2. Backup vCenter Server database, configuration and certificate datastore

  3. Perform update as prescribed for Appliance or Installable

  4. Upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA)

  5. Given a scenario, determine the upgrade compatibility of an environment

  6. Determine correct order of steps to upgrade a vSphere implementation

    Popular posts from this blog

    VCP6-DCV Section 6: Backup and Recover a vSphere Deployment

    -
    Section 6 of the VCP6-DCV blueprint Objective 6.1: Configure and Administer a vSphere Backups/Restore/Replication Solution Compare and contrast vSphere Replication compression methods Differentiate VMware Data Protection capabilities Configure recovery point objective (RPO) for a protected virtual machine Explain VMware Data Protection sizing guidelines Create/Delete/Consolidate virtual machine snapshots Install and Configure VMware Data Protection Create a backup job with VMware Data Protection Backup/Restore a virtual machine with VMware Data Protection Install/Configure/Upgrade vSphere Replication Configure VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) integration with vSphere Replication Configure vSphere Replication for Single/Multiple VMs Recover a VM using vSphere Replication Perform a failback operation using vSphere Replication Deploy a pair of vSphere Replication virtual appliances
    Read more

    VCP6-DCV Section 7: Troubleshoot a vSphere Deployment

    -
    Section 7 of the VCP6-DCV blueprint Objective 7.1: Troubleshoot vCenter Server, ESXi Hosts, and Virtual Machines Monitor status of the vCenter Server service Perform basic maintenance of a vCenter Server database Monitor status of ESXi management agents Determine ESXi Host stability issues and gather diagnostics information Monitor ESXi system health Locate and analyze vCenter Server and ESXi logs Determine the appropriate Command Line Interface (CLI) command for a given troubleshooting task Troubleshoot common issues, including: vCenter Server service SSO vCenter Server connectivity Virtual machine resource contention, configuration and operation Platform Services Controller (PSC) Problems with installation VMware Tools installation Fault Tolerant network latency Objective 7.2: Troubleshoot vSphere Storage and Network Issues Identify and isolate network and storage resource contention and latency issues Monitor networking and storage re...
    Read more