{"id":1822,"date":"2016-01-02T23:55:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-02T23:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2016-01-02T23:55:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-02T23:55:21","slug":"reasons-to-upgrade-from-5-5-to-vcentre-6-and-plan-to-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/research\/reasons-to-upgrade-from-5-5-to-vcentre-6-and-plan-to-upgrade","title":{"rendered":"Reasons to Upgrade from 5.5 to vCentre 6 and Plan to Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"
The benefits of this upgrade for the client are as follows:<\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>VM Component Protection<\/b> – https:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/vsphere\/2015\/06\/vm-component-protection-vmcp.html<\/a> and https:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/smb\/2015\/07\/vmware-vsphere-6-ha-virtual-machine-component-protection-vmcp.html<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Performance improvements in vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client <\/b>\u2013 http:\/\/www.vmware.com\/files\/pdf\/techpaper\/Whats-New-Perf-vSphere6.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Better support of Microsoft Clustering (including vMotion of clustered VMs)<\/b> \u2013 http:\/\/kb.vmware.com\/kb\/1037959<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>x-Switch vMotion<\/b> \u2013 https:\/\/www.vmware.com\/files\/pdf\/vsphere\/VMW-WP-vSPHR-Whats-New-6-0-PLTFRM.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Different security enhancements (host security, certificate management through centralized CA, etc.)<\/b> \u2013 https:\/\/www.vmware.com\/files\/pdf\/vsphere\/VMW-WP-vSPHR-Whats-New-6-0-PLTFRM.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>vNUMA improvements<\/b> \u2013 http:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/vsphere\/2013\/10\/does-corespersocket-affect-performance.html?utm_source=longwhiteclouds<\/a>, https:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/cto\/vnuma-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters\/<\/a>, and http:\/\/vxpertise.net\/2015\/04\/shall-i-upgrade-vhw-enhanced-vnuma-support-with-hardware-version-11-vhw11-in-vsphere-6\/<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
I would also highly recommend considering Enterprise Plus edition of vSphere for the client in the future, as it brings features that can further standardize and automate the system as follows:<\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>vSphere Distributed Switch <\/b>\u2013 http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/ChristopherWahl\/vmworld-vsphere-distributed-switch-60-technical-deep-dive<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Host Profiles<\/b> \u2013 http:\/\/www.vmware.com\/files\/pdf\/techpaper\/VMW-Host-Profiles-Tech-Overview.pdf<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Storage I\/O control (SIOC) and IOPS reservation<\/b> \u2013 https:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/vsphere\/2015\/07\/sioc-io-distribution-with-reservations-limits-part1.html<\/a><\/span><\/div>
\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Cross-vCenter vMotion and Long Distance vMotion<\/b> \u2013 https:\/\/www.vmware.com\/files\/pdf\/vsphere\/VMW-WP-vSPHR-Whats-New-6-0-PLTFRM.pdf<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
The process of upgrading to vSphere 6.0 consists of the following subsequent steps:<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Upgrading vCenter Server<\/b> (3 days<\/b>):<\/span><\/div>
a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preparing vCenter 5.5 for upgrade<\/span><\/div>
b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Upgrading vSphere and vCenter licenses (requires access to the MyVMware portal)<\/span><\/div>
c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Migrating from SSO to PSC<\/span><\/div>
d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Upgrading vCenter<\/span><\/div>
e.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Upgrading vSphere Update Manager<\/span><\/div>
f.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Testing the new vCenter<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Installing ESXi on new hosts<\/b> (3 days<\/b>):<\/span><\/div>
a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Checking \/ configuring remote access to the servers (iLO)<\/span><\/div>
b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Updating firmware and BIOS to the latest versions<\/span><\/div>
c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Setting up the BIOS settings on the hosts<\/span><\/div>
d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Preparing image for auto-installation<\/span><\/div>
e.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Performing installation<\/span><\/div>
f.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Configuring the management network<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Configuring the hosts<\/b> (2 days<\/b>):<\/span><\/div>
a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Configuring networking on the hosts (best practices!)<\/span><\/div>
b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Configuring hosts for storage and attaching datastores (best practices!)<\/span><\/div>
c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Migrating VMs<\/span><\/div>
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Upgrading VMs<\/b> (work time depends on the company\u2019s policy for the planned system outages<\/b>):<\/span><\/div>
a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Scheduling VMware Tools upgrade<\/span><\/div>
b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Scheduling VM hardware upgrade<\/span><\/div>
c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Optimizing VMs according to the running applications and the best practices.<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The benefits of this upgrade for the client are as follows:\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 VM Component Protection – https:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/vsphere\/2015\/06\/vm-component-protection-vmcp.html and https:\/\/blogs.vmware.com\/smb\/2015\/07\/vmware-vsphere-6-ha-virtual-machine-component-protection-vmcp.html\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Performance improvements in vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1823,"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions\/1823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pariswells.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}