You can upgrade vRealize Automation by using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you have upgraded the earlier versions of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager to the latest version. For more information on upgrading your vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, see Upgrade vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.x for the target version.
  • Ensure that you have upgraded VMware Workspace ONE Access. For more information on VMware Workspace ONE Access upgrade and version support, see Upgrade Workspace ONE Access.
  • Verify that you have installed the required versions of vRealize Automation releases.
  • Perform the binary mapping of the vRealize Automation upgrade ISO from Local, myvmware, or NFS share. For more information on binary mapping, see Configure product binaries.
  • Increase the CPU, memory, and storage as per the system requirements of the target version of vRealize Automation. For more information, see the Hardware Requirements section of the vRealize Automation 8.x Reference Architecture publication for the target vRealize Automation version. For related information, see the System Requirements section of the Installing vRealize Automation with vRealize Easy Installer publication for the target vRealize Automation version.

To enable multi-tenancy for vRealize Automation, see to Tenant management in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager.

Procedure

  1. On the Lifecycle Operations page, click Manage Environments.
  2. Navigate to a vRealize Automation instance.
  3. Click View Details and click Upgrade.

    A pop-up menu appears, alerting you to perform an inventory sync.

  4. Click Trigger Inventory Sync of the product before you upgrade.
    Note: A drift or a change in the environment outside of vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager can occur. Be aware of the current state of your system and verify that the inventory to upgrade is up-to-date.
    1. If the product inventory is already synced and up-to-date, click Proceed Upgrade.
      Note: If the source vRealize Automation version is 8.0.x, use the steps given in the KB article 78325 before you upgrade to restore expired root accounts. Other KBs may exist for other source vRealize Automation versions.
  5. After the inventory is synced, select the vRealize Automation version that you are upgrading to.
  6. To specify the Repository Type, select vRealize Suite LCM Repository if you have mapped the ISO binary map or select Repository URL to use a private upgrade repository URL.
  7. If you selected Repository URL, enter the unauthenticated URL and then click Next.
  8. Click Pre-Check.
    Pre-check validates the following criteria:
    • SSH enabled - Verifies that SSH for the root user is enabled.
    • Version check - Verifies if the target version selected for upgrade is compatible with the current vRealize Automation version.
    • Disk space on root, data, and services log partition - Verifies if the required amount of free disk space is available in the root, data, and services log partition.
    • CPU and Memory Check - Verifies if the required amount say 12 CPU and 42 GB memory resources available in each vRealize Automation nodes before upgrade.
    • vCenter property existence check - Verifies if the vCenter details are present as part of each node in the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager inventory. Because a snapshot is taken during the upgrade process, it is important to have the right vCenter details within the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager inventory.
    • vRealize Automation VMs managed object reference ID retrieval check - Verifies if the managed object reference ID of the VM can be retrieved from the details available in the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager inventory. This is required as you perform snapshot-related operations on the VMs, finding the VM using the same.
  9. Click Next and Submit.
    After you click Submit, you can navigate to the Request Details page to view the upgrade status.
    You can also monitor the upgrade process by using the vracli upgrade status --follow command.
    At various stages of the upgrade process, logs capture stage activity. The following commands can also be helpful in monitoring the upgrade progress:
    • tail -f vami.log
    • tail -f postupdate.log
    • tail -f deploy.log
    • tail -f /var/log/vmware/prelude/upgrade-2022-11-06-15-22-15.log

What to do next

To learn more about the vRealize Automation upgrade stages, see Upgrade Functionality of vRealize Automation.