You upgrade the vSphere Replication appliance and the vSphere Replication server by using a downloadable ISO image.

Prerequisites

  • Download the VMware-vSphere_Replication-8.2.x.x-build_number.iso image from the vSphere Downloads page. Copy the ISO image file to a datastore that is accessible from the vCenter Server instance that you use with vSphere Replication.
  • If the vSphere Replication version that you run is not supported for direct upgrade to vSphere Replication 8.2, upgrade your vSphere Replication instance to a supported version. For example, to upgrade vSphere Replication 6.1.2 to version 8.2, you must first upgrade 6.1.2 to 6.5.1, and then upgrade 6.5.1 to 8.2. See the interoperability matrix at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/sim/interop_matrix.php for solution upgrade paths for vSphere Replication.
  • Verify that there is DNS and IP connectivity between the new vSphere Replication appliance and the old vSphere Replication appliance.
  • Verify that there is DNS and IP connectivity between the new vSphere Replication appliance and the vCenter Server.
  • Verify that the new vNIC configuration is identical to the one on the existing vSphere Replication appliance.
  • Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance can access port 443 of the ESXi that hosts the old appliance.
  • Verify that the vSphere Replication appliance has an OVF environment or context. See KB article Checking and Restoring the OVF Context of the vSphere Replication Appliance (2106709).

Procedure

  1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client on the site where you want to upgrade vSphere Replication.
    If you use the HTML5-based vSphere Client to deploy the OVF virtual appliance, on vSphere prior to vSphere 6.7 Update 1, the deployment succeeds, but vSphere Replication fails to start.
  2. On the home page, select Hosts and Clusters.
  3. Right-click on a data center, host or cluster, and select Deploy OVF Template.
    Note: You must deploy your additional vSphere Replication servers before the vSphere Replication appliance.
  4. Provide the location of the OVF file from which to deploy the vSphere Replication server, and click Next.
    • Select URL and provide the URL to deploy the appliance from an online URL.
    • If you downloaded and mounted the vSphere Replication ISO image on a system in your environment, select Local file > Browse and navigate to the \bin directory in the ISO image, and select the vSphere_Replication_OVF10.ovf, vSphere_Replication-system.vmdk, and vSphere_Replication-support.vmdk files.
  5. Accept the name, select or search for a destination folder or data center for the virtual appliance, and click Next.
    You can enter a new name for the virtual appliance. The name must be unique within each vCenter Server virtual machine folder.
  6. Select a cluster, host, or resource pool where you want to run the deployed template, and click Next.
  7. Review the virtual appliance details and click Next.
  8. Accept the end-user license agreements (EULA) and click Next.
  9. Select the number of vCPUs for the virtual appliance and click Next.
    Note: Selecting higher number of vCPUs ensures better performance of the vSphere Replication appliance, but might slow down the replications that run on ESXi host systems that have 4 or less cores per NUMA node. If you are unsure what the hosts in your environment are, select 2 vCPUs.
  10. Select a destination datastore and disk format for the virtual appliance and click Next.
  11. Select a network from the list of available networks, set the IP protocol and IP allocation, and click Next.
    vSphere Replication supports both DHCP and static IP addresses. You can also change network settings by using the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI) after installation.
  12. On the Customize template page, enter one or more NTP server host names or IP addresses.
  13. Set the password for the root account for the customized template, and click Next.
  14. Review the binding to the vCenter Extension vService and click Next.
  15. Review the settings and click Finish.
    The vSphere Replication appliance is deployed.
  16. Power on the vSphere Replication virtual machine.
  17. Open the console of the newly deployed vSphere Replication appliance.
  18. Select Upgrade.
    Option Description
    Continue Continue with the deployment of a new vSphere Replication appliance. After successful deployment, you must register the vSphere Replication appliance to the vCenter Server from the VAMI. As a result, you can no longer use the existing replications. You must create new ones.
    Shutdown Shut down the machine if you do not want to proceed with the upgrade.
    Upgrade Continue with the upgrade of the vSphere Replication appliance. During the upgrade process, the existing configuration of the vSphere Replication appliance is migrated to the new vSphere Replication appliance. After successful upgrade, all replications continue working.
  19. Enter the root password of the vSphere Replication appliance that you want to upgrade.
  20. Confirm that you want to continue with the upgrade process.
  21. Enter the credentials of a user with administrator privileges to vCenter Single Sign-On.
    Initially, only the user administrator@vsphere.local has these privileges.
  22. In a Web browser, log in to the virtual appliance management interface (VAMI).
    The URL for the VAMI is https:// vr_appliance_address:5480.
  23. Generate and install а new SSL certificate.
    For more information, see Change the SSL Certificate of the vSphere Replication Appliance.

What to do next

  • If your infrastructure uses more than one vSphere Replication Server, you must upgrade all vSphere Replication Server instances to version 8.2 on the protected and the recovery site.
  • Delete the virtual machine of the old vSphere Replication server.
Important: If the vSphere Replication appliance that you upgraded uses the embedded database, you must apply additional configuration to enable the support of up to 2000 replications. See http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2102463. No additional configuration is required for vSphere Replication appliances that are configured to use an external database.