The VMware Validated Design Upgrade document provides step-by-step instructions for upgrading VMware software in Region A of a Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) that is deployed according to the VMware Validated Design™ for Software-Defined Data Center.
You upgrade the SDDC management components in Region A by applying VMware Cloud Foundation™ bundles from VMware Cloud Foundation™ SDDC Manager™.
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™ 4.2.
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 VMware Workspace ONE® Access™ instance for central user management in VMware NSX-T® Data Center. Then, you use VMware vRealize® Suite Lifecycle Manager™ to deploy the VMware 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 VMware vCenter Server® systems working in Enhanced Linking Mode or management dashboards in VMware vRealize® Operations Manager™ monitoring multiple instances of the same component. For information on the naming convention, see Planning and Preparation Workbook.
| Domain |
Management Component |
Deployment Method |
|---|---|---|
| Management domain |
VMware ESXi™ hosts |
Manual deployment |
| vCenter Server |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder™ |
|
| NSX-T Manager and NSX-T Edge nodes with a region-specific and cross-region virtual network segments |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder |
|
| VMware vSAN™ as principal storage |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder |
|
| NFS as supplemental storage |
Manual deployment |
|
| VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Builder |
|
| Region-specific Workspace ONE Access instance connected to NSX-T Data Center and VMware vRealize® Log Insight™ |
Manual deployment |
|
| vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager |
|
| Cross-region Workspace ONE Access instance connected to vRealize Operations Manager, vRealize Log Insight, and VMware vRealize® Automation™ |
Automated deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode |
|
| vRealize Operations Manager |
Automated deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode |
|
| vRealize Log Insight |
Automated deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode |
|
| vRealize Automation |
Automated deployment by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager in VMware Cloud Foundation mode |
|
| Virtual infrastructure workload domain |
ESXi hosts |
Manual deployment |
| vCenter Server |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager |
|
| NSX-T Manager and NSX-T Edge nodes |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager |
|
| Principal storage |
Automated deployment by using VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager |
|
| Supplemental storage |
Manual deployment |
|
| VMware vSphere® with VMware Tanzu™ workload domain |
Kubernetes control plane node |
Validation by using VMware Cloud Foundation 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 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.
