About VMware Validated Design Upgrade

The VMware Validated Design Upgrade document provides step-by-step instructions for upgrading VMware software in a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) that are deployed according to the VMware Validated Design™ for Software-Defined Data Center.

You upgrade the SDDC management components by applying VMware Cloud Foundation bundles from SDDC Manager. During the upgrade of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, SDDC Manager replaces the standalone vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager instance with a vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager instance in VMware Cloud Foundation mode. After that, you import the existing cross-region Workspace ONE Access and vRealize Suite environments to the new vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager instance. When in VMware Cloud Foundation mode, vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager retrieves the software bundles from the SDDC Manager inventory, and SDDC Manager configures the load balancer for the cross-region Workspace ONE Access, vRealize Operations Manager, and vRealize Automation.

Before you start an upgrade of your SDDC, make sure that you are familiar with the update or upgrade planning guidance that is part of this guide.

Intended Audience

The VMware Validated Design Upgrade document is intended for infrastructure administrators and cloud administrators who are familiar with and want to keep VMware software up to date with the latest versions available.

Supported VMware Cloud Foundation Version

VMware Validated Design Upgrade is compatible with VMware Cloud Foundation™ 4.1.

Required VMware Software

VMware Validated Design Upgrade is compliant and validated with certain product versions. For more information about supported product versions, see VMware Validated Design Release Notes and VMware Software Versions in the Upgrade.

Before You Apply This Guidance

You apply the instructions in VMware Validated Design Upgrade on an environment with a certain configuration. Following the prescriptive path of VMware Validated Design, you deploy the virtual infrastructure of the management domain and workload domains by using VMware Cloud Foundation, then manually adding a region-specific Workspace ONE^® Access™ instance for central user management in VMware NSX-T^® Data Center. Then, you use vRealize Suite^® Lifecycle Manager™ to deploy the vRealize Suite components. For information on the deployment workflow of the SDDC components, see Deployment of VMware Validated Design in Introducing VMware Validated Design.

VMware Validated Design follows an example naming convention. The naming provides uniqueness of the objects across the SDDC. You can identify managed objects directly if you use many components that are linked together, for example, multiple vCenter Server systems working in Enhanced Linking Mode or management dashboards in vRealize Operations Manager monitoring multiple instances of the same component. For information on the naming convention, see Planning and Preparation Workbook.

Table 1. SDDC Management Components in VMware Validated Design Before the Upgrade
Domain	Management Component	Deployment Method
Management domain	VMware ESXi™ hosts	Manual deployment
	VMware vCenter Server^®	Automated deployment by using Cloud Builder
	NSX-T Manager and NSX-T Edge nodes with a region-specific and cross-region virtual network segments	Automated deployment by using Cloud Builder
	VMware vSAN™ as principal storage	Automated deployment by using Cloud Builder
	NFS as supplemental storage	Manual deployment
	VMware Cloud Foundation^® SDDC Manager™	Automated deployment by using Cloud Builder
	Region-specific Workspace ONE Access instance connected to NSX-T and vRealize Log Insight	Manual deployment
	vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode	Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager
	Cross-region Workspace ONE Access instance connected to vRealize Operations Manager, vRealize Log Insight, and vRealize Automation	Manual deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
	VMware vRealize^® Operations Manager™	Manual deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
	VMware vRealize^® Log Insight™	Manual deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
	VMware vRealize^® Automation™	Manual deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager
Virtual infrastructure workload domain	ESXi hosts	Manual deployment
	vCenter Server	Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager
	NSX-T Manager and NSX-T Edge nodes	Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager
	Principal storage	Automated deployment by using SDDC Manager
	Supplemental storage	Manual deployment
vSphere with Tanzu workload domain	Kubernetes control plane node	Validation by using SDDC Manager and manual deployment
	Tanzu Kubernetes cluster control plane node	Manual deployment
	Tanzu Kubernetes cluster control worker node	Manual deployment

To use this document, you must be acquainted with the following guidance:

Introducing VMware Validated Designs
Optionally, the following architecture and design documentation:
- Architecture and Design for the Management Domain
- Architecture and Design for a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain or Architecture and Design for a vSphere with with Tanzu Workload Domain
- Architecture and Design for Cloud Operations and Automation
Planning and Preparation Workbook
Deployment of the Management Domain in the First Region
Deployment of a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain in the First Region or Deployment of a vSphere with Tanzu Workload Domain in the First Region
Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation in the First Region

See Documentation Map for VMware Validated Design.

The same requirement applies if you are following the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation to deploy the operations and automation solutions. See the VMware Cloud Foundation documentation.

Update History

This Deployment of Cloud Operations and Automation in the First Region is updated with each release of the product or when necessary.


Revision	Description
16 DEC 2020	The password for the vcfadmin@local user on the new vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager instance must match the password of the admin@local user on the old vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager instance. See Upgrade the Cross-Region vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Appliance in Region A.
13 NOV 2020	You add the vSphere integration credentials to vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Locker by using the fully qualified user name, `svc-vrslcm-vsphere@rainpole.io`. See Configure the vSphere Integration Credentials in the Cross-Region vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager Instance in Region A.
03 NOV 2020	After updating vCenter Server, you move the vSphere Cluster Services virtual machines to the principle storage. See Move the Virtual Machines of the vSphere Cluster Services to the Principle Datastore in Region A. If the SDDC has a vSphere with Tanzu workload domain, after updating vCenter Server, you update the vSphere with Tanzu clusters. See Update the vSphere with Tanzu Clusters.
20 OCT 2020	Initial release.