Upgrading to VCF 4.3.1

Two weeks ago VCF 4.3.1 has been released and few hours later I had an opportunity to test upgrade procedure. In this post I will show you how to upgrade VCF software, NSX-T, vCenter, ESXi hosts and vRealize Suite components if you have vRealize Suite deployed in your environment. It’s a pretty straight forward process.

You can upgrade to VCF 4.3.1 from VCF 4.3, 4.2.1, 4.2, 4.1.0.1, or 4.1.

Upgrade order of Management Domain to 4.3.1 is as follow:

  • VCF software – SDDC Manager appliance and Lifecycle Management + configuration drift bundle for 2nd party software components – upgrade to 4.3.1;
  • vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager – upgrade to 8.4.1 build 18537943;
  • vRealize LogInsight – upgrade to 8.4.1 build 18136317;
  • vRealize Operations – upgade to 8.5 build 18255622;
  • Workspace ONE Acces (vIDM) – upgrade to 3.3.5;
  • NSX-T Data Center – upgrade to 3.1.3.1;
  • vCenter Server – upgrade to 7.0 U2d;
  • ESXi hosts- upgrade to 7.0 U2c;

NOTE!!! Remember to run upgrade precheck before every single patch installation.

SDDC Manager

Ensure that you have a recent successful backup of SDDC Manager using an external SFTP server and you have taken a snapshot of the SDDC Manager appliance you have recent successful backups of the components managed by SDDC Manager.

  1. Download bundle:

VMware Cloud Foundation Update 4.3.1.0
11 GB
Version
4.10.0-147961
Severity Critical
Bundle ID 4162045d-0b25-4ca3-8e38-0371908ed9e6
Description SDDC Manager version update
Update to Version 4.3.1.0-18624509
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

The VMware Cloud Foundation Update Status window displays the components that will be upgraded and the upgrade status:

Upgrade completed:

Drift bundle

  1. Download budle:

VMware Cloud Foundation Update 4.3.1.0
242 MB
Configuration drift bundle for 4.3.1 update.
Version 4.10.1-147963
Bundle ID 8f26c34a-7488-4960-aaf7-276ba313846b
DescriptionSDDC Manager version update
Update to Version 4.3.1.0-18624509
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

After the upgrade is completed click FINISH

vRealize Lifecycle Manager

NOTE!!! Ensure that you have a recent sucessfull backup of the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager appliance.

  1. Download bundle:

VMware Software Update 4.3.1.0
889 MB
Bundle ID4a03f57a-a6f2-4c6f-a581-ba53f5093400
Software Component 1vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
Description VRSLCM Update Bundle
Update to Version 8.4.1-18537943
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

NOTE!!! If the upgrade fails, you can revert to the snapshot created by the upgrade workflow. After you resolve the issue, you can retry the upgrade.

Once vRLCM is upgraded successfully click EXIT STATUS.

vRealize LogInsight

  1. Download bundle:

VMware Software Update 4.3.1.0
797 MB
Bundle ID 48d68f51-d07c-47e6-a8d5-847f68199c99
Software Component vRealize Log Insight
Description VRLI Update Bundle
Update to Version 8.4.1-18136317
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

And again, if the upgrade fails, you can revert to the snapshot created by the upgrade workflow.

After the upgrade is completed click `EXIT STATUS`

You can log in to vRLI to check if version is correct:

vRealize Log Insight Content Packs

According to VCF 4.3.1 Release Notes, vRealize Log Insight in-product marketplace store only the latest versions of the content packs for vRealize Log Insight. The Bill of Materials table contains the latest versions of the packs that were available at the time VMware Cloud Foundation is released. When you deploy the Cloud Foundation components, it is possible that the version of a content pack within the in-product marketplace for vRealize Log Insight is newer than the one used for this release.

  1. Log in to the vRealize Log Insight and go to Content Packs;
  2. In the Content Pack pane, under Content Pack Market Place, click Updates and click Update All to upgrade all content packs to the latest version..

vRealize Operations

Similar as for vRLI:

  1. Download bundle:

VMware Software Update 4.3.1.0
797 MB
VMware Cloud Foundation Update 4.3.1.0
Released: Sep 21, 2021
size: 3 GB
Version: 4.10.6-147286
Update to Version: 8.5.0-18255622
Description: VROPS Update Bundle

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

VMware Identity Manager (Workspace ONE Access)

NOTE!!! Before the upgrade, take snapshots of the Workspace ONE Access. In case of upgrade failed, use these snapshots to perform the rollback operation.

NOTE !!! Workspace ONE Access must be upgraded via vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

  1. Download the VMware Software Update bundle for Workspace ONE Access:

VMware Software Update 4.3.0.0
4 GB
Version
4.9.10-140620
Bundle ID c856232b-4a8b-4b46-8efe-b7dbdd82c2b0
Description Workspace One Access upgrade bundle
Update to Version 3.3.5-18049997

2. Once the VMware Software Update bundle for Workspace ONE Access in SDDC Manager is downloaded , transfer the update bundle to vRSLCM by synchronizing the binary inventory with SDDC Manager:

  • Log in to vRSLCM, go to Lifecycle Operations -> Settings, under Servers and accounts, click Binary mapping. On the Product binaries tab, click Sync binaries.

Once sync binaries request is completed, vIDM upgrade bundle should be visible now:

3. Go to Lifecycle Operations -> Environments, in the globalenvironment card and click View details. On the VMware Identity Manager tab, click Upgrade.

In the Proceed to upgrade dialog box, configure these settings, and click Trigger inventory health. After inventory synchronization, click Proceed.

On the Select version page click Next.

On the Precheck page, click Run precheck. Wait for all prechecks to complete and click Next. On the Upgrade summary page, review the configuration details and click Submit.

Monitor the Request details page until the upgrade process become completed.

NSX-T Data Center

Ensure that the precheck results are green before proceeding. A failed precheck may cause the update to fail.

Upgrading NSX-T Data Center involves the following components:

  • Upgrade Coordinator
  • NSX Edge clusters (if deployed)
  • NSX Edge
  • Host clusters
  • NSX Manager cluster

To update NSX-T Data Center, NSX-T Edge Clusters in the SDDC must be updated first, next NSX-T host cluster and then NSX-T Manager cluster using single bundle.

  1. Download bundle:

VMware Software Update 4.3.1.0
7 GB
Version 4.10.10-147096
Severity Critical
Bundle ID 2f39eed1-94e3-4295-937d-2ea785a2485a
Description NSX_T_MANAGER Update Bundle
Update to Version 3.1.3.1.0-18504668
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

Once NSX_T is upgraded successfully click EXIT STATUS.

vCenter Server

  1. Download the VMware vCenter upgrade bundle:

VMware Software Update 4.3.1.0
6 GB
Version 4.10.12-147098
Severity Critical
Bundle ID 47d01e0c-ae43-4f74-a57a-b8b3ecbe878b
Description VMware vCenter Server Update Bundle
Update to Version 7.0.2.00500-18455184
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

NOTE!!! Backup the vCenter Server appliance before starting the upgrade.

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

Once vCenter is upgraded successfully click EXIT STATUS.

ESXi

NOTE!!! Ensure that the domain does not have any hosts or clusters in an error state.

  1. Download the ESXi bundle:

VMware Software Update 4.3.1.0
408 MB
Version 4.10.24-147100
Severity Critical
Bundle ID 50f69840-b920-4d1b-81fa-bb934fa13c24
Description VMware ESXi Server Update Bundle
Update to Version 7.0.2-18426014
Release Date Sep 21, 2021

2. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, click the management domain -> Updates/Patches.

In the Available Updates section, select the target release – 4.3.1.0 and click `UPDATE NOW`.

Once ESXi hosts are upgraded successfully click EXIT STATUS.

To confirm the VCF Mgmt domain is fully upgraded to 4.3.1, in SDDC Manager switch to Lifecycle Management -> Release Versions. Mgmt domain should be visible in Available Cloud Foundation Versions 4.3.1.

If you have any questions just ping me šŸ™‚