Before you upgrade VMware Cloud Foundation, make sure that the following prerequisites are met.

Table 1. Upgrade Prerequisites

Prerequisite

Additional Information

Allocate a temporary IP address for each vCenter Server upgrade

[Conditional]​ When upgrading from VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5.x.

Required for each vCenter Server upgrade. Must be allocated from the management subnet. The IP address can be reused.

Obtain updated licenses

New licenses required for:

  • vSAN 8.x
  • vSphere 8.x

Verify there are no expired or expiring passwords

Review the password management dashboard in SDDC Manager.

Verify there are no expired or expiring certificates

Review the Certificates tab in SDDC Manager for each workload domain.

Verify ESXi host TPM module status

[Conditional] If ESXi hosts have TPM modules in use, verify they are running the latest 2.0 firmware. If not in use they must be disabled in the BIOS. See KB 312159

Verify ESXi hardware is compatible with target version

See ESXi Requirements and VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php.

Manually update the vSAN HCL database to ensure that it is up-to-date.

See KB 2145116

Back up SDDC Manager, all vCenter Server instances, and NSX Manager instances.

Take file-based backups or image-level backups of SDDC Manager, all vCenter Servers, and NSX Managers. Take a cold snapshot of SDDC Manager.

Make sure that there are no failed workflows in your system and none of the VMware Cloud Foundation resources are in activating or error state.
Caution:

If any of these conditions are true, contact VMware Technical Support before starting the upgrade.

Review the Release Notes for known issues related to upgrades.

Deactivate all VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x async patches and run an inventory sync before upgrading to VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 and later no longer require using the Async Patch Tool to enable upgrades from an async-patched VMware Cloud Foundation instance. See VMware Cloud Foundation Async Patch Tool Options for more information

Review Operational Impacts of NSX Upgrade in NSX Upgrade Guide to understand the impact that each component upgrade might have on your environment.

In the vSphere Client, ensure there are no active alarms on hosts or vSphere clusters.
Download the upgrade bundles. See Downloading VMware Cloud Foundation Upgrade Bundles.