vCenter upgrade from 5.0 to 5.5 update 2

1. Verify vCenter 5.5 update 2 is supported on Windows 2008 SP2
2. Upgrade vCenter Database from SQL Server 2008 Standard - 64-bit to SQL Server 2008 Standard R2 SP2 - 64-bit
• Run SQL Server 2008 R2 Upgrade Advisor to check for the pre-requisites
• Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 Standard R2 - 64-bit
• Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 Standard R2 SP2 - 64-bit
3. Upgrade  vCenter Server from vCenter Server 5.0 GA to vCenter Server 5.5 update 2
• Run Host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker for the pre-requisites
• Either can select Simple Install or Custom Install to install the components one at a time as follows:
1. vCenter Single Sign-On
• Prompt for the SSO administrator password
2. vSphere Web Client
• Prompt for the SSO administrator password entered in step 1
3. vCenter Inventory Service
• Prompt for the SSO administrator password entered in step 1
4. vCenter Server
• Prompt for the SSO administrator password entered in step 1
• Please note that the installation will prompt for 2 errors below
1. Warning 32014.A utility for phone home data collector couldn't be executed successfully. Please see its log file (with name PhoneHome) and vminst.log in system temporary folder for more details. Please note that you can also enable / disable this feature after installation through the application user interface.
2. The wizard was interrupted before VMware vCenter Server could be completely installed.
• The error is due to the 2 services below are incorrectly configured with ".\Administrator" as Log On As. They should be fixed as "Local System".  It is possibly a bug in vCenter 5.5 update 2 when upgrade.
1. VMware VirtualCenter Server
2. VMware VirtualCenter ManagementServices
• Once the issue is fixed, fix the vCenter installation by following the procedure - kb.vmware.com/kb/2017147 like this:
1. Click Start > Control Panel.
2. Click Programs and Features.
3. From the list of installed software, right-click VMware vCenter Server and click Change.
4. Last but not least, please remember to take VM snapshots at each checkpoints for quick rollback

Checksum type used in repomd.xml and for packages in the metadata between RHEL5 and RHEL6

• If you need to create a YUM repository on RHEL6 and need to provide the YUM repository service to RHEL5 clients, you need to create the repository using checksum type of sha because the of the differences below and RHEL5 clients cannot recognize sha256 checksum.

1. RHEL5 : The older default was "sha"
2. RHEL6 : The default is now "sha256".

•  Failure to do so will cause the error message below when you are accessing the YUM repository from a RHEL5 client with command like : "yum list"

1. Error Message : primary.xml.gz: [Errno -3] Error performing checksum

• Solution is as below:

1. createrepo -s sha