In a VMware Cloud Foundation instance, you use SDDC Manager for life cycle management of the management components in the entire instance except for NSX Global Manager and VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle manages the life cycle of the components that it deploys.

Life cycle management of a VMware Cloud Foundation instance is the process of performing patch updates or upgrades to the underlying management components.

Table 1. Life Cycle Management for VMware Cloud Foundation

Component

Management Domain

VI Workload Domain

SDDC Manager

SDDC Manager performs its own life cycle management.

Not applicable

NSX Local Manager

SDDC Manager uses the NSX upgrade coordinator service in the NSX Local Manager.

NSX Edges

SDDC Manager uses the NSX upgrade coordinator service in NSX Manager.

NSX Global Manager

You manually use the NSX upgrade coordinator service in the NSX Global Manager.

vCenter Server

You use SDDC Manager for life cycle management of all vCenter Server instances.

ESXi

  • SDDC Manager uses either vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines and baseline groups or vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to update and upgrade the ESXi hosts.

  • Custom vendor ISOs are supported and might be required depending on the ESXi hardware in use.

  • SDDC Manager uses either vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines and baseline groups or vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to update and upgrade the ESXi hosts.

  • Custom vendor ISOs are supported and might be required depending on the ESXi hardware in use.
VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle performs its own life cycle management.

Not applicable

VMware Cloud Foundation Life Cycle Management Requirements

Consider the design requirements for automated and centralized life cycle management in the context of the entire VMware Cloud Foundation environment.

Table 2. Life Cycle Management Design Requirements for VMware Cloud Foundation

Requirement ID

Design Requirement

Justification

Implication

VCF-LCM-REQD-001

Use SDDC Manager to perform the life cycle management of the following components:

  • SDDC Manager

  • NSX Manager

  • NSX Edges

  • vCenter Server

  • ESXi

Because the deployment scope of SDDC Manager covers the full VMware Cloud Foundation stack, SDDC Manager performs patching, update, or upgrade of these components across all workload domains.

The operations team must understand and be aware of the impact of a patch, update, or upgrade operation by using SDDC Manager.

VCF-LCM-REQD-002

Use VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle to manage the life cycle of the following components:

  • VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle

  • Workspace ONE Access

VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle automates the life cycle of VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle and Workspace ONE Access.

  • You must deploy VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle by using SDDC Manager.

  • You must manually apply Workspace ONE Access patches, updates, and hotfixes. Patches, updates, and hotfixes for Workspace ONE Access are not generally managed by VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle.

VCF-LCM-RCMD-001

Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to manage the life cycle of vSphere clusters.

  • With vSphere Lifecycle Manager images, firmware updates are carried out through firmware and driver add-ons, which you add to the image you use to manage a cluster.

  • You can check the hardware compatibility of the hosts in a cluster against the VMware Compatibility Guide.

  • You can validate a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image to check if it applies to all hosts in the cluster. You can also perform a remediation pre-check.

  • Updating the firmware with images requires an OEM-provided hardware support manager plug-in, which integrates with vSphere Lifecycle Manager.

  • An updated vSAN Hardware Compatibility List (vSAN HCL) is required during bring-up.
Table 3. Life Cycle Management Design Requirements for NSX Federation in VMware Cloud Foundation

Requirement ID

Design Requirement

Justification

Implication

VCF-LCM-REQD-003

Use the upgrade coordinator in NSX to perform life cycle management on the NSX Global Manager appliances.

The version of SDDC Manager in this design is not currently capable of life cycle operations (patching, update, or upgrade) for NSX Global Manager.

  • You must explicitly plan upgrades of the NSX Global Manager nodes. An upgrade of the NSX Global Manager nodes might require a cascading upgrade of the NSX Local Manager nodes and underlying SDDC Manager infrastructure before upgrading the NSX Global Manager nodes.

  • You must always align the version of the NSX Global Manager nodes with the rest of the SDDC stack in VMware Cloud Foundation.

VCF-LCM-REQD-004

Establish an operations practice to ensure that prior to the upgrade of any workload domain, the impact of any version upgrades is evaluated in relation to the need to upgrade NSX Global Manager.

The versions of NSX Global Manager and NSX Local Manager nodes must be compatible with each other.

Because SDDC Manager does not provide life cycle operations (patching, update, or upgrade) for the NSX Global Manager nodes, upgrade to an unsupported version cannot be prevented.

The administrator must establish and follow an operations practice by using a runbook or automated process to ensure a fully supported and compliant bill of materials prior to any upgrade operation.

VCF-LCM-REQD-005

Establish an operations practice to ensure that prior to the upgrade of the NSX Global Manager, the impact of any version change is evaluated against the existing NSX Local Manager nodes and workload domains.

The versions of NSX Global Manager and NSX Local Manager nodes must be compatible with each other.

Because SDDC Manager does not provide life cycle operations (patching, update, or upgrade) for the NSX Global Manager nodes, upgrade to an unsupported version cannot be prevented.

The administrator must establish and follow an operations practice by using a runbook or automated process to ensure a fully supported and compliant bill of materials prior to any upgrade operation.