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

Prerequisites

  • 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 the appliance.
    1. Log in to the on-premises vCenter Server by using the vSphere Client.
    2. Navigate to the virtual machine that hosts the VMware Cloud Director Availability appliance.
    3. Right-click the 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 virtual appliance console, mount the .iso file inside the guest operating system of the appliance.
    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 the appliance. 
      mount /mnt/cdrom
  4. Log in to the management interface of the appliance.
    1. In a Web browser, go to https://Appliance-IP-address/ui/admin.
    2. Select Appliance login or SSO login and enter the root or the single sign-on user credentials.
    3. Click Login.
  5. In the left pane, click Settings.
  6. Under Version, next to Product version click Check for updates.
  7. Upgrade the 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 an update then click Next.
    3. On the Release notes page, read the notes for this version then click Next.
    4. On the EULA Review page, to accept the end-user license agreement click Next.
    5. 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.
  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.

What to do next

After you upgrade the appliance, complete the upgrade with a post-upgrade configuration. For more information, see Post-upgrade configuration.