Before you upgrade Site Recovery Manager, you must perform preparatory tasks on both Site Recovery Manager sites and verify that you have certain information.

  • Make a full backup of the Site Recovery Manager database by using the tools that the database software provides. For information about how to back up the embedded database, see Back Up and Restore the Embedded vPostgres Database. Migration of data from an external database to the embedded database is not supported. Failure to back up the database results in the loss of all Site Recovery Manager data if the upgrade fails.
  • If you configured advanced settings in the existing installation, take a note of the settings that you configured in Site Pair > Configure > Advanced Settings in the Site Recovery user interface.
  • Before you upgrade, check the supported upgrade paths.
    For information about supported upgrade paths, see Upgrade Path > VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager in the VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes at http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/sim/interop_matrix.php? before you upgrade.
    Important: Upgrading from Site Recovery Manager 5.8.x to Site Recovery Manager 8.1 is not supported. You must first upgrade Site Recovery Manager from 5.8.x to 6.1.2.x. After upgrading Site Recovery Manager to 6.1.2.x, you must reconfigure the pairing between the Site Recovery Manager instances on the protected and the recovery site, before you continue with the upgrade to Site Recovery Manager 8.1.

    Upgrading from Site Recovery Manager 6.0.x to Site Recovery Manager 8.1 is not supported. Upgrade Site Recovery Manager to a Site Recovery Manager 6.1.x. After upgrading Site Recovery Manager to 6.1.x, you must reconfigure the pairing between the Site Recovery Manager instances on the protected and the recovery site, before you continue with the upgrade to Site Recovery Manager 8.1. See Upgrading Site Recovery Manager in the Site Recovery Manager 6.1 documentation for information about upgrading to 6.1.x.

  • The local and remote Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server instances must be running when you upgrade Site Recovery Manager.
  • Upgrade Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server on the site on which you are upgrading Site Recovery Manager.
  • Upgrade the Platform Services Controller, all vCenter Server components, and Site Recovery Manager on one site before you upgrade the Platform Services Controller, vCenter Server, and Site Recovery Manager on the other site.
  • Obtain the address of the Platform Services Controller instance for both sites. The Platform Services Controller must be running and accessible during Site Recovery Manager installation.
  • Obtain the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator user name and password for both of the local and remote sites.
  • Obtain the user name and password for the Site Recovery Manager database, if you are not using the embedded database.
  • To use Site Recovery Manager with vSphere Replication, upgrade vSphere Replication before you upgrade Site Recovery Manager Server. The Site Recovery Manager installer verifies the version of vSphere Replication during the upgrade and stops if it detects an incompatible version. This verification is not performed if you install vSphere Replication after you upgrade Site Recovery Manager Server, which might lead to incompatible versions. Incompatible versions of Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication cause the vSphere Web Client to stop working.
  • If you cannot upgrade an existing incompatible version of vSphere Replication, you must unregister vSphere Replication from both vCenter Server instances before you upgrade Site Recovery Manager. Incompatible versions of Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication cause the vSphere Web Client to stop working. See Unregister an Incompatible Version of vSphere Replication.
  • The Site Recovery Manager installer presents the SSL/TLS certificates of the vCenter Server components for validation when it runs. Obtain the necessary information to allow you validate the certificates for the Platform Services Controller instance on the local site and the Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server instances on the remote site.
  • If you use custom certificates, obtain an appropriate certificate file. Custom certificates must use at least the SHA1, or preferably SHA256, thumbprint algorithm. This release of Site Recovery Manager does not support certificates that use the MD5 thumbprint algorithm. See Requirements When Using Custom SSL/TLS Certificates with Site Recovery Manager.
  • Download the Site Recovery Manager installation file to a folder on the machines on which to upgrade Site Recovery Manager.
  • Verify that no reboot is pending on the Windows machine on which to install Site Recovery Manager Server. Verify that no other installation is running, including the silent installation of Windows updates. Pending reboots or running installations can cause the installation of Site Recovery Manager Server or the embedded Site Recovery Manager database to fail.
  • Important: Verify that there are no pending cleanup operations on recovery plans and that there are no configuration issues for the virtual machines that Site Recovery Manager protects.
    • All recovery plans are in the Ready state.
    • The protection status of all of the protection groups is OK.
    • The protection status of all of the individual virtual machines in the protection groups is OK.
    • The recovery status of all of the protection groups is Ready.
  • Optimize the Adobe Flash Player settings in your browser to increase the amount of storage space that the vSphere Web Client can use. Performing a recovery with Site Recovery Manager can sometimes exceed the default amount of storage space that Flash Player is permitted to consume. For information about how to optimize the Flash Player settings for Site Recovery Manager in the vSphere Web Client, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2106096.