Whenever there is a new version of vRealize Network Insight available, you receive a notification.

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:
    • /- 6 GB (Only for the Platform1 node)
    • /var - 40 GB
  • Verify you have the minimum bandwidth requirement of 500 KB/s to download the upgrade bundle from the server. The Install and the Support page throws an error, if the download bandwidth is not sufficient.
  • 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. When an update is available, you see Update available message notification.
    Note:
    • If the update notification is not available, verify that both vRealize Network Insight platform and collector VMs have connectivity to svc.ni.vmware.com on port 443 and reg.ni.vmware.com on port 443 by running the show-connectivity-status command. If this connectivity requires http proxy, configure it on each VM using the set-web-proxy command. Ensure that the output contains upgrade connectivity status as Passed.
    • File a support ticket and provide the service tag from the product UI. The service tag is shown under Settings > About.
    • Log into the appliance and run the show-connectivity-status command. Provide a screenshot of the command output from each vRealize Network Insight platform and collector VMs.
  2. In the Update Available message notification, click View details to view details of update.
    vRealize Network Insight Upgrade screen appears.
  3. Read the Before you proceed instructions and click Continue.
  4. 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
  5. 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.
  6. Click Install Now.
  7. 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).
    • vRealize Network Insight starts migrating data to Foundation database. On the Data Migration Status screen, you see:
      • the overall status
      • the elapsed time
      • the table by table status
      • the number of records migrated
      For any issues, you can use the Export Migration logs option to share with the VMware support team.
    • 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.
  8. 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.