Preparing for the Upgrade

There are a few steps you should take — before you remove an already installed version of GSX Server and install the new version of GSX Server — to ensure the best possible upgrade experience.

If you plan to use virtual machines created under an earlier version of GSX Server, be sure they have been shut down completely before you remove the release you used to create them.

If any virtual machine is suspended, resume it in the earlier release, shut down the guest operating system, then power off the virtual machine.

Note: If you attempt to resume a virtual machine that was suspended under a different VMware product or a different version of GSX Server, a message appears, giving you the choice of discarding or keeping the file that stores the suspended state. To recover the suspended state, you must click Keep, then resume the virtual machine under the correct VMware product. If you click Discard, you can power on normally, but the suspended state is lost.

If you have an existing virtual machine with one or more virtual disks, and all the disks use persistent or undoable mode, upgrading is straightforward.

If you have an existing virtual machine with one or more virtual disks, and all the disks use nonpersistent mode, you need to take a few special steps when you upgrade VMware Tools. For details, see www.vmware.com/info?id=44.

If you plan to use an existing virtual machine that has disks in undoable mode, commit or discard any changes to the virtual disks before you remove the release you used to create them.

Resume or power on the virtual machine in the earlier release, shut down the guest operating system, power off the virtual machine and either commit or discard changes to the disk in undoable mode when prompted.

If the disks are in persistent or nonpersistent mode, be sure the virtual machine is completely shut down. If it is suspended, resume it, shut down the guest operating system and power off the virtual machine.

If you have an existing virtual machine that has multiple virtual disks and the disks are in multiple modes, the simplest approach to upgrading is to convert all the disks to persistent mode.

Resume or power on the virtual machine in the earlier release, shut down the guest operating system, power off the virtual machine and either commit or discard changes to any undoable mode disks when prompted. Then open the Configuration Editor and change all disks to persistent mode. After you upgrade, you can use the snapshot feature to preserve the state of a virtual machine and return to that state at a later time. For more information on the snapshot feature, see Taking Snapshots.

If you need to preserve special functionality that requires disks in multiple modes, review the information at www.vmware.com/info?id=40 before you upgrade.

As a precaution, back up all the files in your virtual machine directories — including the .vmdk or .dsk, .vmx or .cfg and nvram files — for any existing virtual machines you plan to migrate to the new version of GSX Server. Depending on your upgrade path, you may not be able to run your virtual machines under both the new version of GSX Server and your previous version of GSX Server.

Virtual machines created under GSX Server 1 must have their virtual hardware updated before they can run under GSX Server 3. Once they are updated, they cannot be run under GSX Server 1.

You have a choice with virtual machines that you created under GSX Server 2 or updated to use the GSX Server 2 virtual hardware.

You may update these virtual machines for full compatibility with GSX Server 3. In that case, the virtual machines can no longer be used under GSX Server 2.

You may choose not to update the virtual hardware. In that case, you can run the virtual machines under both GSX Server 2 and GSX Server 3, but you do not have the benefits of the new virtual hardware provided by GSX Server 3. Other new features are not available. For example, you cannot take a snapshot or revert to the snapshot while the virtual machine is running; you must power off before taking or reverting to the snapshot.

If you customized any virtual network settings or created a custom network, you must take note of these settings before you uninstall the previous version of GSX Server. Custom network settings cannot be preserved across product upgrades and must be configured again after you install the new version.

If you have GSX Server installed on your host system, you must remove it before you install the new version. Also, see When You Remove an Existing Version and Install the New Version.

If you have VMware Workstation installed on your host system, you must remove it before you install GSX Server. See the VMware Workstation product documentation for information on how to remove Workstation.

If the virtual machine is located on a different host or in a different directory on the GSX Server host, be sure to set permissions on the directory so that it is accessible to all users of the virtual machine. For more information on permissions, see Securing Virtual Machines and the Host.

There is a key precaution you should take when you remove an existing installation of GSX Server and install the new version.

The installation steps for your host may require that you run an uninstaller to remove a previous version of VMware GSX Server from your machine.

On a Windows host, the uninstaller asks whether you want to keep licenses in your registry. Do not remove the licenses. You can safely keep licenses for multiple versions of VMware products on the computer at the same time.

On a Linux host, the license remains in place. You do not need to take any special action. You may safely leave the license where it is.