Updating ESXi, napp-in-one and omnios

[tnkrer]

I have not touched my set up in a long time (Almost 5 years) Thanks Gea!
I want to upgrade because I am not able to start the VMs automatically after server restart and hoping that new version of ESXi will have the capability. Also its a good practice to update to latest stable versions once in a while. (Or should I leave well enough alone?)

I am searching for other threads or tutorials on this, so if they are somewhere, please point me to those

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/updating-omnios-napp-it.3209/

server is Dell T20 with Xeon E3-1225v3 and 32GB of RAM
Esxi version is - 6.0.0 Build number: 3617585 version: 2016.03.02 Branch: vsphere60u2

napp-it version is ZFS appliance v. 17.06free Aug.14.2017 (Based on this version date, looks like I have updated napp-in-one once)

omniOS version is - v11 r151018

What is the right order of update?

esxi from 6.0.0 to 6.7u3 ? This should be a dell provided file? Need to find out how to upgrade this and if this upgrade will break anything. Should I upgrade to 7.0? That version for Dell also seems to be available.
Test that everything works

omnios from v11 r151018 to 151038r -> Need to figure out how to update, should be easy
Upgrading OmniOS - Does not list upgrades from 151018
And the note " Upgrading from versions not listed below has not been tested and is not supported. " So will need to figure out how to jump from r151018 to 151038
It seems I can go from
151018 to 151022 (Upgrading to r151022)
151022 to 151030 and then
151030 to 151038

Test everything works

napp-it from v. 17.06 to 18.01 free - This can be easily done from UI with about -> Update
Test everything works

What do I back up and how to be able to go back to prior good setup if something breaks in the upgrade?

Looking around it seems that one suggested way is, export napp it configuration (pool, users, what else?)
reinsall ESXi, and use latest napp-it template and import the configuration.
(https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/updating-omnios-r151014-to-latest.16084/)
I do have mysql installed and some databases there installed with the php mysql. So I will need to back those up and reinstall that stack.

 

[PD_ZFS-User]

tnkrer,

Hope this helps with your ESXi question. I think ESXi 6.0 may have the 'Autostart' capability as well. I know the free version of ESXi 6.7 includes the autostart capability and you can edit the settings using the vsphere html client. Look for the following in the menu: 'Host' > 'Manage' > 'System' tab > 'Autostart' and you should have several settings you can edit for each vm.

 

[gea]

I would first update ESXi (current is 7.0u2d), ex download free ESXi iso, create a bootable USB stick (Rufus), then boot it and select update.

As with an AiO, you only need NFS, no user or other settings, so simply export the pool, download and deploy a current napp-it ESXi template, import the pool and enable NFS. To save/restore napp-it settings, restore folder /var/web-gui/_log/*, optionally recreate same users (mainly for SMB) with same uid/gid.

Re-Add NFS storage in ESXi and import VMs (ESXi filebrowser, mouse right click on .vmx file)

Update from OmniOS 151018 to 151038 lts is theoretically possible but not a practical way.

 

[tnkrer]

Thanks PD_ZFS-User. However, that is the one menu missing in my 6.0 vsphere html client. I have all the remaining ones. I have searched around and found some suggestions, but those did not work. Good to know that 6.7 free version has that! I will go to 6.7 since I have the dell image for ESXi 6.7

tnkrer,

Hope this helps with your ESXi question. I think ESXi 6.0 may have the 'Autostart' capability as well. I know the free version of ESXi 6.7 includes the autostart capability and you can edit the settings using the vsphere html client. Look for the following in the menu: 'Host' > 'Manage' > 'System' tab > 'Autostart' and you should have several settings you can edit for each vm.

View attachment 19993

 

[tnkrer]

I would first update ESXi (current is 7.0u2d), ex download free ESXi iso, create a bootable USB stick (Rufus), then boot it and select update.

As with an AiO, you only need NFS, no user or other settings, so simply export the pool, download and deploy a current napp-it ESXi template, import the pool and enable NFS. To save/restore napp-it settings, restore folder /var/web-gui/_log/*, optionally recreate same users (mainly for SMB) with same uid/gid.

Re-Add NFS storage in ESXi and import VMs (ESXi filebrowser, mouse right click on .vmx file)

Update from OmniOS 151018 to 151038 lts is theoretically possible but not a practical way.

Thanks Gea! I will follow this. I will need to move my sqlserver to another vm, so that I will keep my NAS purely NAS. That will make it easier to upgrade
Recreating users (and remembering right passwords) could be painful. Some users of my server did not want to share password

 

[tnkrer]

Moved mysql to another vm. Upgraded ESXi to 6.7. Did not try to go to ESXi 7.0 since I read that Dell Perc H310 does not work with ESXi 7.0. Also I have Dell T20 and the last downloadable from dell is 6.7U3A03. The ESXi images after that need vmware account
ESXi 6.7 does have autostart and it works well! So my problem is solved
Next step is to upgrade OmniOS and napp it. Not needed, but probably worth doing