This section discusses about the version upgrade and patch of the NSX Advanced Load Balancer.

Version Upgrade and Patch

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller can be upgraded to a more recent version along with the required patch as follows:

  1. Use the upgrade controller image_ref <image> controller_patch_ref <patch> as shown below to upgrade the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller along with a patch.

    [admin:controller]: > upgrade controller image_ref 18.2.7-5000-20200213.181331 controller_patch_ref 18.2.7-5000-2p1-20200213.182111

  2. Use the upgrade segroup image_ref <image> se_patch_ref <patch> command to upgrade a SE group with a patch.

  3. Use the upgrade system image_ref <image> controller_patch_ref <patch> se_patch_ref <se_path> command to upgrade the NSX Advanced Load Balancer System (Controller and SE groups) to the desired patch.

This ensures that the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller is upgraded and the desired patch is applied, at the same instance.

Note:

  • The patch should be of the same version as that of the Controller upgrade.

  • se_group_options and se_group_resume options are available in the NSX Advanced Load Balancer CLI.

Additional Options for Patch Upgrade

Apart from this, the following are the four options for the patch command:

  • Disruptive Patch

  • Controller Patch

  • SE Group Patch

  • System Patch

Disruptive Patch

The disruptive patch option is set to False by default. The se_group_refs attribute governs the scope of the upgrade. If the non-disruptive rolling upgrade of Service Engines are not required, this flag can be set to True to go through the upgrade process quickly. This flag can be set to True, when the require.

The below command initiates an upgrade with the disruptive flag set to True.

[admin:controller]: > patch segroup 
action_on_error   The error recovery action configured for a SE Group.                                                                                           
disruptive        Disable non-disruptive mechanism.                                                                                                              
se_group_refs     SE Groups subjected to patch operations.                                                                                                       
se_patch_ref      Image name for identifying SE patch image.                                                                                                     
skip_warnings     This is flag when set as true skips few optional must checks.
Note:

The action_on_error option is supported for SE group upgrade.

Controller Patch

[admin:10-50-54-122]: > patch  controller controller_patch_ref 18.2.12-9110-2p1-20210220.231845

SE Group Patch

If the se_group_refs option is not enabled, all SE groups are upgraded. When enabled, it identifies a specific SE group for patching. If more than one SE group require patching, each will require a separate patch command.

[admin:controller]: > patch segroup se_group_refs Default-Group se_patch_ref 18.2.8-9000-1p2-20200219.121101
[admin:controller]: > patch segroup se_group_refs Default-Group se_group_refs Default-Group abc-group se_patch_ref 18.2.8-9000-1p2-20200219.121101
Note:

If the se_group_refs option is not enabled, all SE groups are upgraded.

System Patch

Use the following command to patch the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller along with system patch.

[admin:controller]: > patch system controller_patch_ref 18.2.8-9000-1p3-20200219.121643 se_patch_ref 18.2.8-9000-1p3-20200219.121643


action_on_error   The error recovery action configured for a SE Group.                                                                                      
disruptive    	Disable non-disruptive mechanism.                                                                                                        
skip_warnings 	This is flag when set as true skips few optional must checks.
Note:

  • SEs check for the version present on the Controller. In the event of a mismatch, the SE is rebooted and upgraded with the new patch available on the Controller.

  • If a patch 18.2.6-5p1 is applied to the SE group, then all the entities in the system (SEs and Controller) — can only be upgraded to 5p1 or some member of the 5px patch series. For example, a different patch series 6p1 can be applied to the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller and 5p1 to the SE group.