With vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you can upgrade the VMware Tools version and the hardware version of a virtual machine. You can also upgrade multiple virtual machines simultaneously if the virtual machines are in a container object, such as a folder or vApp. You can also upgrade simultaneously all virtual machines that run on a host, in a cluster, or in a data center.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager supports upgrading powered on, suspended, and powered off virtual machines.

During the upgrade of VMware Tools, the virtual machines must be powered on. If a virtual machine is in the powered off or suspended state before remediation, vSphere Lifecycle Manager powers it on. After the upgrade completes, vSphere Lifecycle Manager restarts the machine and restores the original power state of the virtual machine.

During the virtual hardware upgrade, the virtual machines must be powered off. If a virtual machine is powered on, vSphere Lifecycle Manager powers the machine off, upgrades the virtual hardware, and then powers the virtual machine on.

You can also upgrade VMware Tools and the hardware version of a virtual machine template. A template is a copy of a virtual machine that you can use to create and provision new virtual machines.

You can set up automatic upgrades of VMware Tools on power cycle. For more information, see Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools on Reboot.

You can configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager to take snapshots of virtual machines and to keep the snapshots indefinitely or for a specific period of time. By using snapshots, you can roll back a virtual machine to its previous state if upgrading the virtual machine with vSphere Lifecycle Manager fails. After the upgrade finishes, you can delete the snapshots if you do not need them. For more information about configuring virtual machine rollback settings, see Configure Virtual Machine Rollback Settings.

You can upgrade virtual machines immediately or schedule an upgrade operation to run at a convenient time.

If a host is connected to vCenter Server by using an IPv6 address, you cannot scan and remediate virtual machines that run on the host.

Upgrade the VM Hardware Compatibility of Virtual Machines

You can upgrade the hardware of virtual machines to the latest hardware version that the host supports. You can upgrade immediately or schedule an upgrade at a time that is convenient for you.

With vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you can upgrade the hardware compatibility version of a single virtual machine or multiple virtual machines simultaneously. Supported container objects for virtual machines in the vSphere inventory are folders, vApps, data centers.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to a single virtual machine or a container object.
    You can also initiate upgrade at the level of any inventory object where virtual machines run. For example, you can start the upgrade operation at a host or cluster level.
  2. Open the Upgrade VM Hardware to Match Host dialog box.
    Inventory Object Steps
    Virtual Machine
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. In the VM Hardware Compatibility panel, click Upgrade to Match Host.
    Container Object, Host, Cluster, Data Center, or vCenter Server Instance
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. Select Hosts > VM Hardware.
    3. If the selected inventory object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, select a cluster from the list.

      A list of all virtual machines in the cluster appears in the bottom pane.

    4. Select the virtual machines to upgrade.
    5. Click Upgrade to Match Host.
    A list of the virtual machines selected for upgrading is visible in the Upgrade VM Hardware to Match Host dialog box.
  3. (Optional) To change the selection of the virtual machines to upgrade, select or deselect virtual machines from the list.
  4. (Optional) To schedule the upgrade for a specific date and time, expand Scheduling Options and configure the scheduled task.
    1. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the scheduled upgrade task.
    2. Use the Powered On VMs, Powered Off VMs, and Suspended VMs drop-down menus to configure the upgrade to run immediately or at a specific date and time.
  5. (Optional) To configure the use of snapshots, expand Rollback Options and change the default settings.
    1. To allow or disallow taking of snapshots of virtual machines before upgrading them, select or deselect the Take snapshot of VMs check box.
      The option to take snapshots is selected by default.
    2. Select a period for keeping the snapshots.
      • Keep the snapshots indefinitely.
      • Keep the snapshots for a fixed period.
    3. Enter a snapshot name and, optionally, a description for the snapshot.
    4. Include the virtual machine memory in the snapshot by selecting the respective check box.
  6. Review your selections and click the Upgrade to Match Host button.

Results

The hardware versions of the selected virtual machines are upgraded and the virtual machine status changes to Up to Date.

Upgrade the VMware Tools Version of Virtual Machines

You can upgrade the VMware Tools version of virtual machines to the latest version that the host supports. You can upgrade immediately or schedule an upgrade at a time that is convenient for you.

With vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you can upgrade the VMware Tools version of a single virtual machine or multiple virtual machines simultaneously. Supported container objects for virtual machines in the vSphere inventory are folders, vApps, data centers.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to a single virtual machine or a container object.
    You can initiate the upgrade at the level of any inventory object where virtual machines run. For example, you can start the upgrade operation at a host or cluster level.
  2. Open the Upgrade VMware Tools to Match Host dialog box.
    Inventory Object Steps
    Virtual Machine
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. In the VMware Tools panel, click Upgrade to Match Host.
    Container Object, Host, Cluster, Data Center, or vCenter Server Instance
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. Select Hosts > VMware Tools.
    3. If the selected inventory object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, select a cluster from the list.

      A list of all virtual machines in the cluster appears in the bottom pane.

    4. In the VMs in Cluster pane, select the virtual machines to upgrade.
    5. Click Upgrade to Match Host.
    A list of the virtual machines selected for upgrading is visible in the Upgrade VMware Tools to Match Host dialog box.
  3. (Optional) To change the selection of the virtual machines to upgrade, select or deselect virtual machines from the list.
  4. (Optional) To schedule the upgrade for a specific date and time, expand Scheduling Options and configure the scheduled task.
    1. Enter a name and, optionally, a description for the scheduled upgrade task.
    2. Use the Powered On VMs, Powered Off VMs, and Suspended VMs drop-down menus to configure the upgrade to run immediately or at a specific date and time.
  5. (Optional) To configure the use of snapshots, expand Rollback Options and change the default settings.
    1. To allow or disallow taking of snapshots of virtual machines before upgrading them, select or deselect the Take snapshot of VMs check box.
      The option to take snapshots is selected by default.
    2. Select a period for keeping the snapshots.
      • Keep the snapshots indefinitely.
      • Keep the snapshots for a fixed period.
    3. Enter a snapshot name and, optionally, a description for the snapshot.
    4. Include the virtual machine memory in the snapshot by selecting the respective check box.
  6. Review your selections and click the Upgrade to Match Host button.

Results

The VMware Tools version that runs on the selected virtual machines is upgraded and the VMware Tools status changes to Up to Date.

Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools on Reboot

You can automate the process of upgrading VMware Tools for the virtual machines in your inventory.

You can set up vSphere Lifecycle Manager to check the VMware Tools version of a virtual machine when the virtual machine is rebooted. If necessary, vSphere Lifecycle Manager upgrades VMware Tools to the latest version supported by the host on which the virtual machine runs.

Note:

When you perform a VMware Tools upgrade on power cycle, vSphere Lifecycle Manager does not take a snapshot of the virtual machine and you cannot roll back to the previous version of the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the Manage Patches and Upgrades.Remediate to Apply Patches, Extensions, and Upgrades privilege.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to a single virtual machine or an inventory object that contains virtual machines.
  2. Configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager to automatically upgrade VMware Tools on reboot.
    Inventory Object Steps
    Virtual machine
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. In the VMware Tools panel, click Turn On.
    Container Object, Host, cluster, data center, or vCenter Server instance
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. Select Hosts > VMware Tools.
    3. If the selected inventory object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, select a cluster from the list.

      A list of all virtual machines in the cluster appears in the bottom pane.

    4. In the VMs in cluster pane, select the virtual machines for which you want to enable the automatic upgrade of VMware Tools.
    5. Click Set Auto Update and select On.

      The new status is visible in the Auto Update column.

Results

The next time you power on or restart a virtual machine, vSphere Lifecycle Manager checks the version of VMware Tools installed on the virtual machines and performs an upgrade, if necessary.