VMware question: not Veeam related

[zoltank]

We're looking to upgrade from ESX 4.1 so we can run Windows 2012 VMs. According to IBM compatibility list, our SAN is only compatible up to ESXi 5.0 U1 with the current firmware. With a firmware upgrade it’s compatible up to 5.0 U2 or 5.1, and with the newest firmware it’s compatible up to 5.0 U3 or 5.1 (but we usually like to run our firmware one version back). So I'd like to ask which of the available versions people have found to be the most stable.

[Vitaliy S.]

It would be helpful if you could post your hardware make and model, so that community members could advise you on what firmware to install.

[zoltank]

Our SAN is an IBM DS3500 currently running firmware 07.77. You can see the IBM compatibility list here: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/support/s ... bility.wss

As it turns out our current ESX 4.1 U1 is not listed as compatible with the new SAN firmware. Therefore we'll need to either upgrade to ESX 4.1 U2 or to 5.0 U1 before we can update our SAN firmware. Looking at our options, I think the best option might be upgrading to ESXi 5.0 U1 Patch 4, since it'll allow us to start using Windows 2012 VMs. Then we can do the SAN firmware update and the upgrade to 5.0 U3 at our leisure.

If you would, please let me know what you think.

[Vitaliy S.]

If you don't want to upgrade to the latest release, then your plan of upgrading ESXi 5.0 U1 Patch 4 looks good to me.