In the appliances management interface, you can upgrade VMware Cloud Director Availability to the latest version by using an .iso image file containing the upgrade binaries that you mount to the CD-ROM drive of the virtual appliances.

Perform this procedure multiple times, to upgrade each VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance.

Prerequisites

  • Follow a strict order when upgrading the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances.
  • Download the VMware-Cloud-Director-Availability-release.number.xxxxxxx-build_sha.iso file, that contains the VMware Cloud Director Availability release.number Upgrade Disk Image.

Procedure

  1. Copy the .iso file to a datastore that is accessible from the vCenter Server instance that you use with VMware Cloud Director Availability.
  2. Mount the .iso file to each of the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances.
    1. Log in to the vSphere Client on the site where you want to upgrade VMware Cloud Director Availability.
    2. Navigate to the virtual machine that hosts the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance.
    3. Right-click this virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
    4. On the Virtual Hardware tab, select CD/DVD Drive > Datastore ISO File.
    5. Follow the prompts to add the CD/DVD drive to the VMware Cloud Director Availability virtual machine then select the Connected checkbox.
  3. By using the appliances console, mount the .iso file inside the guest operating system of each of the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances.
    1. Connect to the appliance console either by using a Secure Shell (SSH) client or by using the vSphere Client and log in as the root user.
    2. Mount the .iso file inside the guest operating system of each appliance. 
      mount /mnt/cdrom
  4. Log in to the service management interface of each VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance.
    1. Open a Web browser and according to the upgrade order go to each appliance management interface address.
      Upgrade Order VMware Cloud Director Availability Appliance Management Interface Address
      First Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance https://Appliance-IP-Address/ui/admin
      Repeat for all instances Replicator Appliance https://Replicator-IP-Address/ui/admin
      Last Tunnel Appliance https://Tunnel-IP-Address/ui/admin
    2. Log in by using the root user credentials.
  5. In the left pane, click Settings.
  6. Under Version, next to Product version click Check for updates.
  7. Upgrade this appliance by completing the Update wizard.
    1. On the Repository page, select Use CDROM Updates then click Next.
      If you skipped mounting the image, you see an error message: Could not download the release manifest from file:///mnt/cdrom/update/rel-manifest.json. To continue, perform step 3.
    2. On the Available updates page, select the update then click Next.
    3. On the Release notes page, read the notes for this version then click Next.
    4. On the Compatibility Check page, verify the paired on-premises appliances compatibility with the upgrade version then click Next.
      If you powered off the Tunnel Appliance and all Replicator Appliance instances before starting the upgrade of the Cloud Director Replication Management Appliance, the following expected error message shows for each paired site:

      Generic Network Error occurred on client side.

      If you did not power them off until now, once these compatibility checks pass, power them off.
    5. On the EULA Review page, to accept the end-user license agreement click Next.
    6. On the Ready for update page, confirm creating a backup by selecting the I have created a backup archive of the appliance. checkbox then click Finish.
      The upgrade process starts. Wait for the installation process to finish.
      Note: If you see either of the following messages, wait a few minutes before attempting to log back in:

      Timeout has occurred or Operation aborted due to an unexpected error.

  8. After the upgrade finishes, verify that the upgrade is successful.
    1. Connect to the appliance console either by using a Secure Shell (SSH) client or by using the vSphere Client and log in as the root user.
    2. Open the upgrade log file. 
      less /var/log/upgrade.log
    3. When upgrading to version 4.6.x, verify that the upgrade log contains the following log entry near the end.
      'Postupgrade to 4.6.x complete.'
      Once the following tailing lines are logged at the end of the log file, the appliance automatically reboots in 15 seconds: [date-timestamp] # set -o pipefail; /usr/bin/systemd-run --on-active=15 /usr/sbin/reboot 2>&1 | /usr/bin/gawk '{ print strftime("[%Y-%m-%d %T %Z]"), $0 }' | tee -a /var/log/upgrade.log 1>&2 [date-timestamp] Running timer as unit: run-re595c8a07fe845bbb87e6c36f866caf2.timer [date-timestamp] Will run service as unit: run-re595c8a07fe845bbb87e6c36f866caf2.service
  9. Unmount the .iso file.
    1. In the vSphere Client, shut down the virtual machine that hosts the appliance.
    2. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
    3. In the Virtual Hardware tab, select CD/DVD Drive and uncheck the Connected and the Connect At Power On checkboxes.
    4. Power on the virtual machine that hosts the appliance.

Results

After validating that the upgrade is successful, repeat this procedure for the next appliance, until you upgrade all appliances, according to the upgrade order in the above table.

What to do next

After you upgrade all the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliances, finish the upgrade by completing the post-upgrade configuration.