This VMware Cloud Foundation Lifecycle Management document describes how to manage the lifecycle of a VMware Cloud Foundation environment. The information includes prerequisites, step-by-step configuration instructions, and suggested best practices.

Note:

Review the VMware Interoperability Matrix to verify compatibility and upgradability before planning and starting an upgrade.

You can perform a sequential or skip-level upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1 from VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4 or later. If your environment is at a version earlier than 4.4, you must upgrade the management domain and all VI workload domains to VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4 or later before you can upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1.

Caution:

vSphere with Tanzu enabled clusters, may require a specific upgrade sequence. See KB 92227 for more information.

The first step is to download the bundles for each VMware Cloud Foundation component that requires an upgrade. After all of the bundles are available in SDDC Manager, upgrade the management domain and then your VI workload domains.

SDDC Manager Functionality During an Upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.1

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

Composability

Compose / Decompose Server

N

N

Add / Remove Storage to Composed Server

N

N

NSX Edge Cluster

Expand edge cluster

Y

Y

DNS / NTP configuration

Validate / Configure DNS

Y

Y

Validate / Configure NTP

Y

Y

Hosts

Commission / Decommission Host

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

Networking

Create / Edit / Delete Network Pool

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

Unstretch 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

vSphere UI Client Plug-ins

Identify all vSphere UI client plug-ins prior to the upgrade. 

It may be possible to upgrade some vSphere UI client plug-ins before upgrading to vSphere 8.0.  Contact your 3rd Party vendor to determine the best upgrade path.

Supported Topologies for VMware Cloud Foundation

The following topologies are supported for the VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x upgrade.

Table 3. Supported Topologies for Upgrade

Supported Topologies

Supported Architecture Models

Upgrade Sequence

Single Instance - Single Availability Zone

  • Standard

  • Consolidated

Single Instance Topology Upgrade Sequence

Single Instance - Multiple Availability Zones

  • Standard

  • Consolidated

Single Instance Topology Upgrade Sequence

Multiple Instances - Single Availability Zone per VMware Cloud Foundation instance

  • Standard

  • Consolidated

Multiple Instance Topology Upgrade Sequence

Multiple Instances - Multiple Availability Zones per VMware Cloud Foundation instance

  • Standard

  • Consolidated

Multiple Instance Topology Upgrade Sequence

Monitor VMware Cloud Foundation Updates

You can monitor in-progress updates for VMware Cloud Foundation components.

Procedure

  1. In the In-Progress Updates section, click View Status to view the high-level update progress and the number of components to be updated.
  2. Details of the component being updated is shown below that. The image below is an example and may not reflect the actual versions.
    Image showing the details of component being updated in the In-Progress Updates section.
  3. Click the arrow to see a list of tasks being performed to update the component. As the task is completed, it shows a green check mark.
    Image showing a list of tasks being performed to update the component. Completed tasks show a green check mark.
  4. When all tasks to update a component have been completed, the update status for the component is displayed as Updated.
  5. If a component fails to be updated, the status is displayed as Failed. The reason for the failure as well as remediation steps are displayed. The image below is an example and may not reflect the actual versions in your environment.
    Image showing a scenario where a component fails to get updated.
  6. After you resolve the issues, you can retry the update.

View VMware Cloud Foundation Update History

The Update History page displays all updates applied to a workload domain.

Procedure

  1. In the navigation pane, click Inventory > Workload Domains.
  2. Click the name of a workload domain and then click the Update History tab.
    All updates applied to this workload domain are displayed. If an update bundle was applied more than once, click View Past Attempts to see more information.

Access VMware Cloud Foundation Upgrade Log Files

You can check the log files for failed upgrades to help troubleshoot and resolve issues.

  1. SSH in to the SDDC Manager appliance with the vcf user name and enter the password.
  2. To access upgrade logs, navigate to the /var/log/vmware/vcf/lcm directory.
    • lcm-debug log file contains debug level logging information.
    • lcm.log contains information level logging.
  3. To create an sos bundle for support, see Supportability and Serviceability (SoS) Utility in the VMware Cloud Foundation Administration Guide.