Upgrading vSphere Web Client

This is the second post in a series of articles chronicling the process of upgrading my personal vSphere lab system from 5.1 to 5.5.

Before you get started with the upgrade, you should read the following KB article:

Upgrading to vSphere Web Client 5.5 on a Microsoft Windows platform (2058265)

Information Required for the vSphere Web Client Installation

Upgrade procedure:

Mount the vSphere 5.5 installation media. (As before, I prefer to use “Run as Administrator.”)

In the left pane, under Custom Install, click vSphere Web Client and then click Install.

Note: If any of the prerequisites are not met, they are listed in the right pane under Prerequisites.

Select the appropriate language from the dropdown and click OK.

Note: The installer window may disappear for a lengthy period of time, but is still running in the background.

In the welcome screen, click Next.

If a previous version of the vSphere Web Client is installed, the welcome screen displays this message:
An earlier version of vSphere Web Client is already installed on this computer and will be upgraded to vSphere Web Client 5.5

Review the End User License Agreement. If you agree, select the I accept the terms in the license agreement option and click Next.

Optionally, provide an alternative TCP port number for the vSphere Web Client Service and click Next.

Note: Changing the default ports is recommended only if you have an unchangeable port conflict in the same system.

Enter the SSO Lookup Service URL and SSO administrator username and password. You may be prompted to install the Lookup Service Certificate. Click Next.

Notes from the KB article:

• You must use the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and not the IP address.  Providing the IP address may allow you to proceed with the upgrade, but may result in certificate related errors when starting vCenter Server. For more information, see vCenter Server 5.x fails to start after upgrading Single Sign-On configuration from vSphere 5.1 to vSphere 5.5 (2058080).
• If you are configuring a HA SSO configuration, you must provide the FQDN of the load  balancer. Providing the FQDN of a single node may allow you to proceed with the upgrade, but may result in certificate related errors when starting vCenter Server. For more information, see vCenter Server 5.x fails to start after upgrading Single Sign-On configuration from vSphere 5.1 to vSphere 5.5 (2058080).

When prompted, verify the fingerprint of the certificate and click Yes.

In the Ready to Install screen, click Install.

Installing…

When the installation completes, click Finish

Success!

The vSphere Web Client has been upgraded to 5.5.

Next up is the upgrade of the vCenter Inventory Service.