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Q. What are the effects of VMware vSphere 4.1's x64-only release?

A. Microsoft gets all the ballyhoo for its Windows Server 2008 R2 OS being released in 64-bit only. But were you aware that vSphere 4.1 represents VMware's in-whole migration to the x64 platform? Did you know that vCenter Server will only install now to an x64 OS? If you're planning to move to vSphere 4.1, you'd better be ready to embrace its new and wider processor architecture.

If you're already at x64 with your 4.0 version of vCenter Server, you're well-prepared for the upgrade. But if your vCenter Server currently runs atop an x86 platform, pay particular attention to any x64 database drivers. These drivers are required for vCenter Server to talk with its database.

Migrating to another server is made a little easier through the use of the vCenter Server Data Migration Tool, which can be found on the vCenter Server 4.1 installation media in the \datamigration folder. This tool provides a mechanism to migrate settings inside vCenter Server, vCenter Update Manager, and VMware Orchestrator to a new server. It can also migrate your existing SQL Express 2005 database to that new server.

VMware knowledge base article 1022137 gives you all the details. Be aware, though, that VMware Update Manager still requires a 32-bit driver for its DSN connection, as VMware Update Manager 4.1 is still an x86 application.

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