VMware vCenter 5.1 Upgrade.
This is a 4 part Video Tutorial series that walks you through, how to successfully upgrade to VMware vCenter 5.1

vCenter 5.1 Upgrade Part 1 – Single Sign On Installation
In Part 1 we look at installing the new vSphere 5.1 Single Sign On. During the video you will learn how to create the databases and default users utilizing the provided scripts within the DVD and the walk through of installation steps for Single Sign On.
vCenter 5.1 Upgrade Part 2 – vSphere Web Client and Inventory Service Installation
In Part 2 we look at installing the vSphere 5.1 Web Client, configuring an identity source followed by upgrading the Inventory Service to 5.1
vCenter 5.1 Upgrade Part 3 – vCenter Upgrade, vSphere Client Upgrade and ESXi Host Agent Upgrade
In Part 3 we now begin the vCenter upgrade installation, setup permissions to access our vCenter server via the vSphere Web Client, a quick upgrade of the vSphere Client and lastly upgrading our ESXi host agent to version 5.1
vCenter 5.1 Upgrade Part 4 – vSphere Update Manager Install and ESXi Host Upgrade
In Part 4 we start with first up creating a new vSphere 5.1 Update Manager Database and setting all the permissions followed by installing vSphere 5.1 Update Manager. Lastly we walk through how to use vSphere 5.1 Update Manager to upgrade our VMware ESXi 5 host to ESXi 5.1
All the tutorials included on this site are performed in a lab environment to simulate a real world production scenario. As everything is done to provide the most accurate steps to date, we take no responsibility if you implement any of these steps in a production environment.
Thanks so much for your great job, i will do upgrade for our vsphere enviroment i already did vcenter upgrade part and now i am planning to do esxi part . my question is how can i upgrade my two esx 4.1 HA-DRS to esxi 5.1 ,,, do i need manually migrate the running VM if i am using update manager .???
Hi, thank you. That’s great that you have upgraded your vcenter server already to version 5.1. If your hosts in the cluster are ESX, there is unforunately no upgrade path to ESXi, you must re-install your host with a fresh ESXi installation. You can only upgrade your host if it is ESXi already
Thanks for reply,, if i do fresh install as you say ,,, what will happen to my old ESX configuration ? please advise .
it will be erased, as you have to re-install the host with ESXi
Thanks so much for the amazing job and for sharing!
great tutorial..i was finished for upgrading my vcenter server from 5.0 to 5.1..for the step is very same with this tutorial and SUCCSESS !!! thanks a Lot for amazing tutorial..
Yes you are right Flesz, I have edited the post