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vSphere 4.0 Best Practices

May 24th, 2009 |

Author: Rich Brambley

VMware has released a series of KB articles outlining the requirements and best practices for installing vSphere, upgrading to vSphere, and upgrading ESX 3.0 virtual machines to ESX 4.0 hardware. VMware also provides a vCenter Installation Worksheet that could be useful for documentation purposes. Links to these KB articles are provided in this post along with quick quotes and notes providing additional information on each topic. Be sure to read the KB articles for the best practice details.

Installing ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices

This article provides additional steps which may be useful when installing ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0.

Notes: This article assumes that you have read the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide. This guide contains definitive information. If there is a discrepancy between the guide and this article, assume that the guide is correct.

Upgrading to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0 best practices

This article provides additional steps which may be useful when upgrading to ESX 4.0 and vCenter 4.0.

Note: This article assumes that you have read the vSphere Upgrade Guide. This upgrade guide contains definitive information. If there is a discrepancy between the guide and this article, assume that the guide is correct.

vCenter Server Installation Worksheet

The attached vCenter Server Installation Worksheet complements the information found in the Required Data for Installing vCenter Server section of the ESX and vCenter Server Installation Guide.

This guide has detailed information on how to answer each response prior to starting your installation

vCenter_Server_Installation_Worksheet.pdf

Upgrading an ESX 3.x virtual machine to ESX 4.0

This article provides information about upgrading an ESX 3.x virtual machine to an ESX 4.0 virtual machine.

Note: The above procedures of upgrading VMware Tools and virtual hardware can be done manually from within each virtual machine or VMware Update Manager can be used:

More information about upgrading manually VMware Tools and virtual hardware can be found in the vSphere Upgrade Guide.

More information about upgrading VMware Tools and virtual hardware using VMware Update Manager can be found in the vCenter Update Manager Administration Guide.