The End of General Support for vSphere 5.5 is September 19, 2018. To maintain your full level of Support and Subscription Services, VMware recommends upgrading to vSphere 6.5, vSphere 6.7 or to a newer version. VMware has extended the general support for vSphere 6.5 to a full five years from the date of release, which means the general support for vSphere 6.5 will end on November 15, 2021. The End of General support for vSphere 6.7 will also be on November 15, 2021.
End of General Support for vSphere 5.5 (51491)
So, if you are still running your servers on the VMware ESXi Host version 5.5 then upgrade it to 6.5 or 6.7.
Upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.5
Follow the steps given below to upgrade ESXi 5.5 to 6.5.
- If you have physical access to your server then insert the ESXi 6.5 media in the DVD/Optical drive or connect the media through USB Drive.
- If you are accessing the server from a remote site then take the remote of the server through iLO and connect the media to it. Here, I have done this upgrade remotely by taking the remote through iLO. I have mounted the ISO media from my desktop as a CD/DVD.
- After connecting the media, press the F12 button on the keyboard to get the option to shut down or reboot the server.
01 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Press F11 to restart the server.
02 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Once the server starts, press the F11 to enter in Boot menu.
03 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Select the option Legacy BIOS One-Time Boot Menu option by pressing the Enter key.
04 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
05 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- It will proceed to the next step, now press number key 1 to select the option One Time Boot to CD-ROM. I selected this option because I have connected the media to CD-ROM. If you have connected to any other then please choose that option.
06 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
07 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Select the ESXi-6.5…………… as shown below screen.
08 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Now it will boot from ESXi-6.5…………… installer.
09 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- It will load the installer and proceed to the next step.
10 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
11 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Press Enter to continue for VMware ESXi 6.5.0 Installation.
12 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Press F11 to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) and Continue.
13 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- It will scan for the available hard drives.
14 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Select the local logical volume and press Enter to continue.
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- Select the option Upgrade ESXi, preserve VMFS datastore and press Enter to continue.
16 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Confirm Upgrade by pressing the F11 key.
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- Now it’s being upgraded.
18 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- Upgrade Completed successfully, now remove/unmount the media from the server and reboot the server.
19 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
20 VMware ESXi Host Upgrade 5.5 to 6.5
- That’s it, you have successfully upgraded your ESXi 5.5 to 6.5.
Last Updated: August 12, 2019