During the upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1, some SDDC Manager functionality may be limited during each phase of the upgrade. Prior to initiating the upgrade determine if you will need to perform any of these tasks.

Upgrade States

  • Source BOM - Prior to initiating the upgrade all components are at VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x

  • Split BOM - Management domain or VI Workload Domain is only partially updated to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1.

  • Mixed 4.x/5.x BOM - Some workload domains (Management or VI) have been completely upgraded to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1 and at least one VI Workload Domain is at the Source 4.x BOM version.

  • Mixed 5.x BOM - Some workload domains (Management or VI) have been completely upgraded to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1 and at least one VI Workload Domain is at the Source 5.x BOM version.

  • Target BOM - All components are at VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1

When a VMware Cloud Foundation instance is in Source BOM or Target BOM, the features available within SDDC Manager are as expected for that given release. However when in a Mixed BOM the operations available vary per workload domain depending on which state the domain itself is in.

The following table indicates the functions available within SDDC Manager during the upgrade from VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x.

Table 1. SDDC Manager Functionality During Upgrade

Category

Feature

Mixed 4.x/5.x BOM

Mixed 5.x BOM

Backup / Restore

Configure and perform Backup / Restore

Y

Y

CEIP

Activate / Deactivate CEIP

Y

Y

Certificate Management

View/Generate/Upload/Install

Y

Y

NSX Edge Cluster

Expand edge cluster

Y

Y

DNS / NTP configuration

Validate / Configure DNS

Y

Y

Validate / Configure NTP

Y

Y

Licensing

Update License Key Information

Y

Y

Add License Key

Y

Y

Relicensing

Y

Y

License check

Y

Y

LCM

Connect to VMware or Dell Depot / Download Bundles

Y

Y

LCM Pre checks

Y

Y

Schedule Bundle Download

Y

Y

Password Management

Rotate/Update/Retry/Cancel

Y

Y

User Operations

Add / Remove User / Group

Y

Y

Workload Domain

Add/Remove ESXi Host

Y

Y

Add/Remove vSphere Cluster

Y

Y

Add 4.x Workload Domain

N

N/A

Add 5.x Workload Domain in ELM mode

N

Y

Add 5.x Isolated Workload Domain

Y

Y

Remove 4.x Workload Domain

N

N/A

Remove 5.0 Workload Domain

N

Y

Table 2. VI Workload Domain Feature Availability Across VMware Cloud Foundation Upgrade States

Category

Features

Split BOM

Domain Operations

Add Host

N

Remove Host

N

Add / Remove vSphere Cluster

N

Remove Workload Domain

N

Stretch a vSphere Cluster

N

Expand a Stretched vSphere Cluster

N

Shrink a Stretched vSphere Cluster

N

Lifecycle Operations

Install vCenter Patch

N

Install ESXi Patch

N

Password Management

Rotate / Update / Retry / Cancel

N

Certificate Management

View / Generate / Upload / Install Certificates

N