There are alternative strategies for the upgrade of VMware Live Site Recovery sites.

You can upgrade all components of one of your sites before upgrading all the components on the other site or you can upgrade the VMware Live Site Recovery components on both sites. When you upgrade all components of one of your sites, it is a best practice to upgrade the VMware Live Site Recovery components before the vCenter Server components.

An alternative strategy is to upgrade the VMware Live Site Recovery components on both sites before upgrading the vCenter Server components.

You can upgrade the ESXi hosts at any time.

Important:
  • If you configured bidirectional protection, in which each site acts as the recovery site for the virtual machines on the other site, upgrade the most critical of the sites first.
  • In an Enhanced Linked Mode environment, do not upgrade VMware Live Site Recovery and vSphere Replication under more than one vCenter Server instance at the same time.

Upgrading VMware Live Site Recovery by Sites

Upgrade the protected site first, so you can perform a disaster recovery on the recovery site if you encounter problems during the upgrade that render the protected site unusable.

  1. If you use vSphere Replication, upgrade any additional vSphere Replication servers on the protected site.
  2. Upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance on the protected site.
  3. Upgrade VMware Live Site Recovery Server on the protected site.
  4. If you use array-based replication, upgrade the storage replication adapters (SRA) on the protected site.
  5. (Optional) Upgrade all components of vCenter Server on the protected site.
  6. (Optional) Upgrade the ESXi host on the protected site.
  7. If you use vSphere Replication, upgrade any additional vSphere Replication servers on the recovery site.
  8. Upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance on the recovery site.
  9. Upgrade VMware Live Site Recovery Server on the recovery site.
  10. If you use array-based replication, upgrade the storage replication adapters (SRA) on the recovery site.
  11. (Optional) Upgrade all components of vCenter Server on the recovery site.
  12. (Optional) Upgrade the ESXi hosts on the recovery site.
  13. Verify the connection between the VMware Live Site Recovery sites.
  14. Verify that your protection groups and recovery plans are still valid.
  15. (Optional) Upgrade the virtual hardware and VMware Tools on the virtual machines on the ESXi hosts.

Upgrading VMware Live Site Recovery by Components

With this strategy, you can decide when to upgrade certain components. For example, you can delay the upgrade of the vCenter Server components or the ESXi hosts. Verify which new functionalities are available with earlier versions of vCenter Server.

  1. If you use vSphere Replication, upgrade any additional vSphere Replication servers on the protected site.
  2. Upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance on the protected site.
  3. Upgrade VMware Live Site Recovery Server on the protected site.
  4. If you use array-based replication, upgrade the storage replication adapters (SRA) on the protected site.
  5. If you use vSphere Replication, upgrade any additional vSphere Replication servers on the recovery site.
  6. Upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance on the recovery site.
  7. Upgrade VMware Live Site Recovery Server on the recovery site.
  8. If you use array-based replication, upgrade the storage replication adapters (SRA) on the recovery site.
  9. (Optional) Upgrade all components of vCenter Server on the protected site.
  10. (Optional) Upgrade all components of vCenter Server on the recovery site.
  11. Verify the connection between the VMware Live Site Recovery sites.
  12. Verify that your protection groups and recovery plans are still valid.
  13. (Optional) Upgrade the ESXi host on the recovery site.
  14. (Optional) Upgrade the ESXi host on the protected site.
  15. (Optional) Upgrade the virtual hardware and VMware Tools on the virtual machines on the ESXi hosts.