upgrading nexus 1000v 4.2(1)SV2(1.1a)

[Dragomir]

I am currently running esxi 5.1 on nexus 1000v 4.2(1)SV2(1.1a)

before I upgrade esxi from 5.1 to 5.5, do I upgrade the nexus 1000v first before going to 5.5 or do I upgrade to esxi 5.5 first then upgrade the 1000v?

what is the procedure?

[chrisb2 · Accepted solution]

Tony,

Check out this utility:

Nexus 1000V and ESX Upgrade Utility

You put in the version of the n1k and ESXi that you are upgrading to and from and it prints out the steps.

In this case you need to update to at least SV2(2.1) for ESXi 5.5 support.  The choice of version to upgrade to (SV2(2.1), SV2(2.1a) or SV2(2.2) is up to you.  Check out the release notes for each version and choose which one is best for your environment:

Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch for VMware vSphere - Release Notes - Cisco

As an example, let's say you are upgrading to SV2(2.2) (the latest).  Here's the steps needed from the above tool:

Follow these steps to upgrade:

1. Upgrade VMware vCenter and vCenter Update Manager to 5.5 and reload vCenter [link]
2. Upgrade VSM to 4.2(1)SV2(2.2) and reload the VSM [link]
3. In maintenance mode, simultaneously upgrade VEM to 4.2(1)SV2(2.2) and upgrade ESX/ESXi to 5.5 [link] then reboot ESX