7.6 vCenter Lifecycle: Update Planner, VAMI Patching & Upgrades

7.6 vCenter Lifecycle: Update Planner, VAMI Patching & Upgrades

Terminology and Order of Operations

Order matters. Check the VMware interoperability matrix, then:

1. Back up vCenter (file-based backup, Section 1.2). For Enhanced Linked Mode groups, also take coordinated offline snapshots (Section 1.5).
2. Update vCenter Server first. vCenter must be at the same or a newer version than its ESXi hosts.
3. Update ESXi hosts with vLCM (Sections 7.1 and 7.2).
4. Update VMware Tools and VM hardware (Section 7.2), and other components such as vSAN disk format versions, where applicable.

Update Planner (5.8)

Update Planner is built into the vSphere Client. Select the vCenter Server and open Updates > Update Planner. It:

• lists the available updates and upgrades for that vCenter,
• runs pre-update checks for a chosen target version,
• generates an interoperability report of the other VMware products registered with vCenter (such as NSX, SRM, and Aria) and whether they are compatible with the target version,
• lets you export the reports so you can plan product upgrades in the right order.

Requirement: to use Update Planner, you must join the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). That is the most common exam question about it. Update Planner also has a Monitor > Interoperability view for the current version.

Patching vCenter with the VAMI (5.12)

Log in to https://<vcenter-fqdn>:5480 as root and open Update:

1. Choose the source:
   • URL-based: the appliance is preset with Broadcom's default repository URL for its build. You can also point it at a custom repository URL, such as a web server inside your data center for air-gapped sites.
   • ISO-based: download the patch ISO (for example a full-product patch named VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-<version>-<build>-patch-FP.iso), attach it to the appliance's CD/DVD drive, and check for updates from the CD-ROM.
2. Check updates, review the release details, and run the pre-update checks.
3. Stage only, or Stage and Install. Staging downloads and validates the packages ahead of the maintenance window.
4. Accept the license, confirm you have a backup, and install. vCenter services restart. Plan a short outage of the vSphere Client and API.

vSphere 8 adds an important safety net: before installing a patch, the appliance automatically creates an LVM snapshot. If patching fails, you can choose to continue or roll back to that snapshot. You can also enable automatic checks for new patches.

The same tasks are available from the appliance shell with the software-packages utility (stage, list, and install).

Major Upgrades and Reduced Downtime Upgrade

• A major upgrade (for example 7.0 to 8.0) uses the vCenter installer ISO in two stages: deploy a new appliance, then copy the configuration and data from the old one.
• Reduced downtime upgrade (RDU), added in vSphere 8.0 Update 2, is a migration-based method driven from the vSphere Client. It deploys and prepares a new appliance while the old one keeps running, then switches over, cutting downtime to several minutes. When introduced, RDU supported only a single self-managed vCenter without vCenter HA and without Enhanced Linked Mode. If anything fails, the configuration reverts to the source appliance.

Patching a vCenter HA Deployment

The vSphere 8 vCenter upgrade documentation gives a simple procedure for a vCenter HA cluster:

1. In the vSphere Client, open Configure > vCenter HA and choose Remove vCenter HA. The Active node keeps running as a standalone appliance.
2. Delete the Passive and Witness nodes.
3. Patch the appliance through the VAMI or the appliance shell.
4. Re-create the vCenter HA cluster.

(The vSphere Availability guide also describes patching a vCenter HA cluster in place with the software-packages utility from the shell. Either way, take a file-based backup of the Active node first.)

Exam Traps

• Update Planner is not available until you join CEIP.
• VAMI patches come from a repository URL or an attached ISO. The installer ISO is for new deployments and major upgrades.
• Update vCenter before ESXi. An ESXi host newer than its vCenter is not supported.

Scenario: Planning a vCenter Update

Situation: vCenter 8.0 Update 1 manages hosts on 8.0 Update 1, plus NSX and SRM. The team wants 8.0 Update 3.

1. Join CEIP (if the organization allows it) so Update Planner is available.
2. In Update Planner, choose 8.0 Update 3 and run the pre-update checks. Generate the interoperability report, which shows whether the registered NSX and SRM versions support the target, and upgrade those first if the report requires it.
3. Take a file-based backup of vCenter.
4. In the VAMI, check the default repository (or attach the ISO), stage, then install during the window. The automatic LVM snapshot provides a rollback point if the patch fails.
5. Update the ESXi hosts with a vLCM image that uses the 8.0 Update 3 base image (Section 7.1).
6. Update VMware Tools and VM hardware where needed (Section 7.2).