As a Skyline Advisor Pro user looking for a consolidated remediation to address multiple findings in your environment by applying a single patch or upgrade, you can leverage the Upgrade Recommendations feature.

Upgrade Recommendations are important as they include critical patch updates to security hosts; being aware of the environment makes your environment less vulnerable to harm. It also has new and enhanced features and is compatible with other VMware solutions. It also improves your software's stability and removes outdated features, and most importantly, you can remediate dozens of Skyline proactive findings at once.

Furthermore, Skyline automatically performs a product interoperability checks for the proposed upgrade. This way you know whether you need to upgrade NSX-v first, before upgrading ESXi to 6.5 U3.

For example, you want to upgrade vCenter Server 6.0 to U2, which will address 10 Findings.

The following details are provided for each product listed within Upgrade Recommendations:

Product

The product (i.e. vCenter Server).

Current Version

The current version of the product.

Current Build

The current build of the product.

Findings

The total number of findings for the affected objects of the product.

Affected Objects

The total number of objects affected by the findings.

Expanding an upgrade recommendation for a product displays information about the upgrade recommendation.

Upgrade Version

The recommended upgrade version.

Upgrade Build

The recommended upgrade build number.

Findings Addressed

The number of findings addressed by upgrading to the recommended version/build.

Interoperability Issues

If a product is not interoperable with the upgrade recommendation, an Issues Detected alert is displayed. This indicates that a current product is not interoperable with the upgrade recommendation, and additional action is required before implementing the upgrade recommendation.

Action

Click Show Details to view additional information about the Upgrade Recommendation, including product interoperability, findings addressed, and affected objects.

You can find upgrade recommendations within the Findings & Recommendations page.

Procedure

  1. In Skyline Advisor Pro, click Findings & Recommendations.
  2. Click Upgrade Recommendations.
  3. Upgrade Recommendations for each product are shown under the managing vCenter Server. There may be multiple upgrade recommendations for a single product. To view all recommendations for the chosen product, click the arrow next to the product.
  4. The upgrade version, upgrade build, and findings addressed by the upgrade recommendation are displayed. To view more information about the upgrade recommendations, click Show Details.

Example: Upgrade Recommendation Example

In the example below, the ESXi hosts managed by vCenter Server have upgrade recommendations. The upgrade recommendations are as follows:

  • Upgrade to 7.0.3 U3, Build 21313629 or higher

Upgrading to ESXi 7.0.3 U3 can address 37 potential issues that Skyline has identified in your environment. Additionally, Skyline indicates that upgrading to the specified version or higher is recommended, as the upgrade recommendation is based on the minimum version/build required to resolve the reported findings. It's important to note that you can opt for an even higher product version.

However, please be aware that upgrading to a version beyond what is displayed may invalidate the automatic product interoperability check.

Figure 1. Upgrade Recommendation

Upgrade Recommendations are displayed.

What to do next

View Upgrade Recommendation Details.