VMware Cloud on AWS regularly performs updates on your SDDCs. These updates ensure continuous delivery of new features and bug fixes, and maintain consistent software versions across the SSDC fleet.

Upgrades to even-numbered releases of the SDDC software, such as VMC Version 1.10 or 1.12, will be provided to all SDDCs and are mandatory. Odd-numbered releases, such as 1.11 or 1.13, are available only for new SDDC deployments. These optional releases are not available for upgrades.

When an SDDC update is upcoming, VMware sends a notification email to you. Typically, this occurs 7 days before a regular update and 1-2 days before an emergency update. Delays to upgrades could result in your SDDC running an unsupported software version. See Supported SDDC Versions.

You also receive notifications by email when each phase of the update process starts, completes, is rescheduled, or is canceled. To ensure that you receive these notifications, ensure that [email protected] is added to your email allow list.

Note: By default, upgrade and maintenance notifications are sent to all organization owners and organization users. You can modify the notifications that you receive by email following the instructions in Set Notification Preferences.

Upgrade Process for SDDCs Using NSX

The figure below shows the upgrade process for SDDCs with networking based on .

The upgrade process for the SDDC, divided into 3 phases

The impact of the upgrade on different elements of the SDDC infrastructure is shown in the figure below.

A diagram showing the impacts of different migration phases on availability of different components of the infrastructure.
Important: During upgrades:
  • Do not perform hot or cold workload migrations. Migrations fail if they are started or in progress during maintenance.
  • Do not perform workload provisioning (New/Clone VM). Provisioning operations fail if they are started or in progress during maintenance.
  • Do not make changes to Storage-based Policy Management settings for workload VMs.
  • Ensure that there is enough storage capacity (> 20% slack space) in each cluster.

Maintenance is performed in three phases.

Phase 1: Control Plane Updates. These are the updates to vCenter and NSX Edge. A backup of the management appliances is taken during this phase. If a problem occurs, there is a restore point for the SDDC. A management gateway firewall rule is added during this phase. There is an NSX Edge failover during this upgrade phase, resulting in a brief downtime. You do not have access to NSX Manager and vCenter during this phase. During this time, your workloads and other resources function as usual subject to the constraints outlined above.

Certificates for vCenter and NSX Edge are replaced during Phase 1 if the certificates were last replaced more than 14 days ago. If you are using other software that relies on the vCenter certificate, such as Horizon Enterprise, VMware Aria Automation, VMware Site Recovery, and many third-party management applications, you must re-accept the vCenter and NSX certificates in that software after Phase 1 of the upgrade.

Note: VMware Site Recovery certificates in the SRM and VR appliances are also replaced if the vCenter certificate was replaced. VMware HCX has its own certificates that are not replaced as part of the SDDC Upgrade process.
More information on updating certificates for specific products can be found below:

When Phase 1 is complete, you receive a notification. After Phase 1 is complete, there is a waiting period until Phase 2 starts. Phase 2 is initiated at a designated start time.

Phase 2: Host Updates. These are the updates to the ESXi hosts and host networking software in the SDDC. An additional host is temporarily added to your SDDC to provide enough capacity for the update. You are not billed for these host additions. vMotion and DRS activities occur to facilitate the update. The upgrade process has been improved so that only one NSX Edge migration occurs during the update. During this time, your workloads and other resources function as usual subject to the constraints outlined above. When Phase 2 is complete, the hosts that were temporarily added are removed from each cluster in the SDDC.

When Phase 2 is complete, you receive a notification. After Phase 2 is complete, there is a waiting period until Phase 3 starts. Phase 3 is initiated at a designated start time.

Phase 3: These are the updates to the NSX appliances. A backup of the management appliances is taken during this phase. If a problem occurs, there is a restore point for the SDDC. A management gateway firewall rule is added during this phase. You do not have access to NSX Manager and vCenter during this phase. During this time, your workloads and other resources function as usual subject to the constraints outlined above.

When Phase 3 is complete, you receive a notification.

For more information on estimating the duration of each phase, see Estimating the Duration of SDDC Maintenance.

When an SDDC upgrade for your SDDC is scheduled, you can see information about upcoming or ongoing maintenance in the Maintenance Tab of the VMware Cloud Console. For more information, see View an SDDC Maintenance Schedule Reservation.

On-Premises NSX Edge Compatibility for L2VPN

If your SDDC includes a Layer 2 VPN (L2VPN), the NSX upgrade might introduce an incompatibility between the server (SDDC) and client (on-premises) ends of the L2VPN. Take these steps to minimize L2VPN downtime after an SDDC upgrade:
  1. See Correlating VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC Versions With Their vSphere Components for the NSX version that the upgrade will apply.
  2. See the L2VPN Interoperability table in Install and Configure the On-Premises NSX Edge in the VMware Cloud on AWS Networking and Security for the set of supported L2VPN client and server versions.
  3. If the version of NSX that the SDDC upgrade will apply is compatible with your existing on-premises NSX Edge, no action is needed. Otherwise, follow the procedure in Install and Configure the On-Premises NSX Edge to replace your existing on-premises NSX Edge with a compatible version. If there is an NSX Edge version that is compatible with your SDDC pre- and post-upgrade, upgrade the on-premises Edge before the SDDC upgrade begins. If these is no NSX Edge version that meets this criterion, you must wait until the SDDC upgrade is complete before you upgrade the on-premises Edge. This scenario will result in L2VPN downtime for the duration of the on-premises upgrade.

Updates for VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX)

For customers using HCX:
  • The VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX) for the SDDC managers will not be upgraded as part of this release.
  • Avoid starting HCX migrations that might overlap with the SDDC upgrade window. HCX bulk migration processes might be halted, and HCX vMotion migrations might fail.
  • For more details, see the VMware HCX User Guide at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-Hybrid-Connect/index.html.

Updates for the VMware Cloud Gateway

For customers using VMware Cloud Gateway:
  • The VMware Cloud Gateway will be updated to the latest release.
  • The user interface for VMware Cloud Gateway might be inaccessible during the upgrade of the appliance.
  • For more information, see the documentation for VMware Cloud Gateway at Updates to VMware Cloud Gateway and Component Features.

Updates for Horizon Enterprise

For information about the impact of an SDDC upgrade on a Horizon Enterprise installation running on VMware Cloud on AWS, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74599.

Impact of Updates on VMware Site Recovery

The SDDC upgrade affects the VMware Site Recovery service, because during upgrades inbound management network traffic is stopped, and the vCenter instance is restarted. The impact is as follows:
  • You cannot open the Site Recovery UI for the SDDC under maintenance. From the remote SDDC Site Recovery UI, this site will appear as disconnected.
  • Recovery plan failover operations towards the SDDC under maintenance cannot be initiated. Failover operations in progress might fail when maintenance starts.
  • Incoming replications are interrupted. Depending on RPO settings and the maintenance duration, RPO violations notification for these replications might appear in the remote Site Recovery UI. RPO violations should disappear automatically sometime after the maintenance is completed, depending on when vSphere Replication manages to sync the accumulated delta. Replications outgoing from the SDDC under maintenance are not affected.
  • For more information, see the documentation for VMware Site Recovery at https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Site-Recovery/index.html.