vRealize Network Insight supports the single-click offline upgrade of the product from Release 3.7 and later.

Prerequisites

  • Backup your deployment.
  • Download the new license key from my.vmware.com. This is required only for a major version upgrade.
  • The upgrade steps might fail if there is insufficient space in the /tmp directory. Verify you meet the following disk space requirements for platform and collector server:
    • /tmp - 6 GB
    • /home - 2 GB
  • Verify you meet the following disk space requirement for platform server:
    • /- 12 GB (Only for the Platform1 node)
    • /var - 40 GB
    Note: The bundle upload and the subsequent upgrade steps may fail if there is insufficient space in the /tmp directory.
  • To avoid the UI session timeout, go to Settings > System Configuration > User Session Timeout and increase the User Session Timeout to at least 2 hours. After you change the session timeout duration, you must log in again to the system.
  • Ensure that all the nodes are online. If any node is inactive, you will not be allowed to trigger the upgrade.
  • Take the snapshots of the VMs.
  • Note the following values to verify after migration:
    • Count of VMs
    • VM where Snapshot Count > 0
    • Count of Firewall Rule
    • Count of Security Group
    • Count of NSX Firewall

Procedure

  1. Download the required upgrade bundle file from My VMware and save the update package in your local disk.
  2. Check and ensure that the MD5SUM value of the downloaded bundle matches the MD5SUM value specified in the VMware website.
  3. On the Install and Support page, under Software version, select Click here.
  4. Click Browse to select the file and click Upload.
    When the upload is complete, vRealize Network Insight show the Bundle Upload Complete message notification within 2-3 minutes and the bundle processing happens in the background.
    Note:
    • Until the upload of the package happens, ensure that the session is not closed. If the session ends, you have to restart the upload process.
    • Do not refresh the page after bundle upload, until you see the Update Available message notification.
  5. In the Update Available message notification, click View details.
    vRealize Network Insight Upgrade screen appears.
  6. Read the Before you proceed instruction and click Continue.
  7. Wait for the pre-checks to complete, which verifies:
    • the customer table,
    • the disk space, including the space required for migration
    • the license requirement
    • the bandwidth
    • the version
    • the NTP sync status
  8. Click the I agree to the constraints option. If you are performing a major version upgrade, enter the new license key that you have obtained from my.vmware.com.
    Note: You get the grace period of seven days to add the new license key. If you do not update the new license key,
    • When an admin user logs in after upgrade, the user sees the license validation message to enter the new key.
      1. Click Proceed.
      2. Update the new key On the Add License page, Validate and Activate.

        The user also sees a warning message on the banner stating that the valid license is not available and the data collection stops after the grace period.

    • When a non-admin user logs in after upgrade, the user sees the message stating that the valid license is not available and to contact an administrator for adding a new valid key.
    You can see the approximate time required to complete the upgrade process (including the migration duration) on your setup.
  9. Click Install Now.
  10. Once the upgrade process begins, the vRealize Network Insight Upgrade screen provides the status of the upgrade process.
    Note:
    • If a node becomes inactive, the upgrade process does not continue. The upgrade will not resume until the node becomes active again.
    • The platform1 becomes the upgrade server. If platform1 is offline, then no other node is upgraded.
    • Once the platforms are upgraded, you can resume your normal vRealize Network Insight operations even though the collector upgrade happens in parallel. Until the upgrade process is completely over, the Node Version Mismatch detected message is shown in the Install and Support page.
    • After the services are upgraded, Nginx restarts to display the migration process. So, you might not be able to access the UI for a short period (one to two minutes).
    • The PostgreSQL data on the collectors are also migrated to Foundation DB as part of upgrade process. However, the collector migration status is not shown on the UI.
  11. Upon the completion of upgrade process, you see the confirmation message.
    All platforms and the collectors nodes are upgraded.

What to do next

  • Log in to vRealize Network Insight and perform your tasks.
  • After two or three days, delete the snapshots to save the disk space.