Migrate from ESX to ESXi
VMware vSphere 5 is available only with ESXi, VMware’s most advanced bare metal hypervisor architecture. ESXi is the only hypervisor purpose built for virtualization that does not depend on a general purpose operating system. Thanks to its unique design, ESXi delivers unmatched reliability, security and performance while drastically simplifying hypervisor management. VMware will continue to provide technical support for VMware ESX according to the VMware vSphere support policy.
Existing vSphere customers who run ESX are encouraged to look into migrating to the ESXi architecture when upgrading to vSphere 5. Here are the basic steps to help you plan your migration:
- Start Testing ESXi. ESX and ESXi architectures share the same underlying code-base and thus behave nearly identical to one another, simplifying the transition from ESX to ESXi. All the functionality of vSphere is supported on both ESX and ESXi architectures when licensed properly. In fact, VMware vSphere supports clusters that contain both hypervisors. However, there are a few operational differences between ESX and ESXi. We recommend that you start familiarizing yourself with ESXi and leverage the content in this resource center to learn about the differences between the ESX and ESXi architectures.
- Familiarize Yourself with Remote Command Lines: The local COS command line in ESX has been replaced with remote command lines in ESXi, namely, vCLI and PowerCLI. These tools can be used to manage both ESX and ESXi so you can start using them even before you fully migrate to ESXi.
- Ensure Your Backup and Systems Management Products Integrate with ESXi. ESXi leverages an API-based partner integration model to reduce the management overhead associated with installing and managing agents in the console OS. VMware has worked closely with our partners to transition all partner products to the API-based integration model. As a result, the majority of systems management, back up and hardware monitoring vendors in the VMware ecosystem support ESXi today. If you are using an agent-based partner solution to integrate with ESX, please check with your vendor to see if a newer version of the product supports ESXi.
- Plan an ESXi Migration as Part of Your vSphere Upgrade. The easiest time to migrate to ESXi is when upgrading to the latest version of VMware vSphere. During the Migration process, prior versions of VMware ESX can be replaced with the latest version of VMware ESXi.
- Take a free training course on ESXi Essentials. VMware Education Services team has just made available a new, FREE elearning course dedicated to ESXi, "Transition to ESXi Essentials". The course is a self-paced three-hour online training that provides the knowledge necessary to make fundamental design decisions to successfully add VMware ESXi to a vSphere environment and to take advantage of all of the new features included in ESXi 4.1. The training is ideal for system administrators, consultants and engineers responsible for managing and supporting a vSphere environment.
For detailed information on how to upgrade to VMware vSphere 5 and migrate ESX deployments to ESXi visit the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center.
