Thanks Don, it appears this registry setting has been added to VM tools since ESX 3.0.2  All the VMs have the tools running 3.5 Update 1 and they are having 60 sec. There are no SQL/Exchnage VMs and hope everything goes quiet.

It is running 3.3.3 Firmware upgrade doc. says it must go through several hops not directly to a latest. It looks really hard even to add a temporary array since they both need be at same level when going through each hop.

Thanks for your suggestion Don. Per updates available on website, here is what I believe my upgrade path is:

4.3.8 -> 5.0.7

4.1.7 Patch L1 -> 4.3.8

4.0.7 -> 4.1.7 Patch L1

3.3.3 -> 4.0.7

Thanks for your time again.