Lifecycle Management

Lifecycle Management (LCM) enables you to perform automated updates on VMware Cloud Foundation services (SDDC Manager and internal services), VMware software (NSX for vSphere, vCenter Server, ESXi, and vRSCLM), and Dell EMC VxRail in your environment. You can download the update bundles and apply them manually or schedule them within your maintenance window allowing for flexibility in your application.

For more information on VMware Cloud Foundation Lifecycle Management, see Patching and Upgrading Cloud Foundation. For information on upgrading VMware Cloud Foundation, see VMware Cloud Foundation Upgrade Guide..

The LCM bundles that are available are:

• VxRail Partner Bundle: You can download the Dell EMC VxRail partner bundle to update the VxRail appliance.
• Patch Update Bundle: A patch update bundle contains bits to update the appropriate Cloud Foundation software components in your management domain or VI workload domain. In most cases, a patch update bundle must be applied to the management domain before it can be applied to VI workload domains.
• Cumulative Update Bundle: With a cumulative update bundle, you can directly update the appropriate software in your workload domain to the version contained in the cumulative bundle rather than applying sequential updates to reach the target version.
• Install Bundle: If you have updated the management domain in your environment, you can download an install bundle with updated software bits for VI workload domains and vRealize suite components.