Suggestions:-
1. Why do you want patch the server, Unless otherwise there is need and its necessary, VMware has recommended its not needed to patch the server.
For example, if there is a security vulnerability detected in the server and it needs a patch, then you can patch. Or there is a hardware compatability issue and you need a patch to fix that you can go head or if there is a patch that is mandatory before upgrade to higher level you can go head. Because for this things vmware would have recommended few patched.
rogernome wrote:
Is there anything to worry about when doing this amount of updates? Am I better off doing an in-place upgrade to v5?
So before performing the patch update, as a best practise you can take a backup of configuration of esx using the below command.
Back up the host configuration to the file C:\backup.txt:
vicfg-cfgbackup <conn_options> -s C:\backup.txt
Reset the host, that is, restore to factory settings:
vicfg-cfgbackup <conn_options> -r
Restore a configuration previously saved to C:\backup.txt to the host:
vicfg-cfgbackup <conn_options> -l C:\backup.txt
Refer the below link for detailed explaination on vicfg-cfbackup
http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/vcli41/doc/reference/vicfg-cfgbackup.html
So incase of any issue you can install the same version of Esx(I) and restore the configuraiton from backup.
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