After the upgrade coordinator has been upgraded, the upgrade coordinator updates the NSX Edge cluster and hosts as per the order you select. The Management plane is upgraded at the end. Edge upgrade unit groups consist of NSX Edge nodes that are part of the same NSX Edge cluster. You can reorder Edge upgrade unit groups and enable or disable an Edge upgrade unit group from the upgrade sequence.

Note: You cannot move an NSX Edge node from one Edge upgrade unit group to another because the Edge upgrade unit group membership adheres to the NSX Edge cluster membership before the upgrade.

The NSX Edge nodes are upgraded in serial mode so that when the upgrading node is down, the other nodes in the NSX Edge cluster remain active to continuously forward traffic.

The maximum limit of simultaneous upgrade of Edge upgrade unit groups is twenty.

Note: Starting with VMware NSX® 4.0.1.1, NSX Edge virtual machine hardware will be upgraded to version vmx-20 during the edge upgrade for NSX edges that are managed by NSX 3.2 or higher and deployed on ESXi host version 8.0.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that the NSX Edge nodes are in an NSX Edge cluster.

    Any NSX Edge nodes that are not in an NSX Edge cluster are flagged during the upgrade coordinator pre-check and prevents the upgrade from proceeding.

  • Familiarize yourself with the upgrade impact during and after the NSX Edge cluster upgrade. See Operational Impact of the NSX Upgrade.

Procedure

  1. Enter the NSX Edge cluster upgrade plan details.
    Option Description
    Serial

    Upgrade all the Edge upgrade unit groups consecutively.

    This menu item is selected by default. This selection is applied to the overall upgrade sequence.

    Note: The maximum limit of simultaneous upgrade of Edge upgrade unit groups is five.
    Parallel

    Upgrade all the Edge upgrade unit groups simultaneously.

    For example, if the overall upgrade is set to the parallel order, the Edge upgrade unit groups are upgraded together and the NSX Edge nodes are upgraded one at a time.

    Note: The maximum limit of simultaneous upgrade of Edge upgrade unit groups is five.
    When an upgrade unit fails to upgrade

    Selected by default so that you can fix an error on the Edge node and continue the upgrade.

    You cannot deselect this setting.

    After each group completes

    Select to pause the upgrade process after each Edge upgrade unit group finishes upgrading.

  2. (Optional) Reorder the upgrade sequence of an Edge upgrade unit group.

    For example, if you configure the overall group upgrade as serial, you can reorder the Edge upgrade unit groups serving internal networks or Edge upgrade unit groups interfacing with external networks to be upgraded first.

    Note: It is recommended to follow an order so that critical standby nodes are upgraded before active nodes. This order allows only one failover to occur during upgrade for critical nodes.
    1. Select the Edge upgrade unit group and click the Actions tab.
    2. Select Reorder from the drop-down menu.
    3. Select Before or After from the drop-down menu.
    4. Click Save.

    You can also do this with the following REST API. Reorder an upgrade unit within the upgrade unit group by placing it before/after the specified upgrade unit.

    METHOD POST
    URI https://<nsx-mgr>/api/v1/upgrade/upgrade-unit-groups/<groupId>/upgrade-unit/<upgrade-unit-id>?action=reorder
    Payload { "id": "<upgrad-uniti-id>", "is_before": "false" }
  3. (Optional) Click Reset to revert to the default state.
    Caution: After reset, you cannot restore your previous configuration. Also, a reset causes the Edge upgrade unit group order to allow Edge nodes with standby logical routers to be upgraded first and followed by Edge nodes with active logical routers. This order reduces failovers.
  4. Click Start to upgrade the NSX Edge cluster.
  5. Monitor the upgrade process.
    You can view the overall upgrade status and progress details of each Edge upgrade unit group. The upgrade duration depends on the number of Edge upgrade unit groups you have in your environment.

    You can pause the upgrade to configure the Edge upgrade unit group that is not upgraded and restart the upgrade.

  6. Click Run Post Checks to verify whether the Edge upgrade unit groups were successfully upgraded.
    If some Edge upgrade unit groups failed to upgrade, resolve the errors.
  7. (Optional) In the NSX Manager, select System > Overview and verify that the product version is updated on each NSX Edge node.

What to do next

If the process is successful, you can proceed with the upgrade. See Configuring and Upgrading Hosts.

If there are upgrade errors, you must resolve the errors. See Troubleshooting Upgrade Failures.