NSX for vSphere Upgrade (6.4.0 to 6.4.6)

In the series of VMware component upgrade, next component i am upgrading is NSX for vSphere.In future posts, I am planning to cover migration of NSX-V to NSX -T and some use-cases.

• Current Version of NSX-V -> 6.4.0
• Target Version of NSX-V-> 6.4.6

Important notes and prerequisites:

• If you have a cross-vCenter NSX environment, you must upgrade the primary and all secondary NSX Managers to the same NSX version in a single maintenance window.
• If the controller cluster has less can 3 controller, add controller before starting upgrade
• An NSX Data Center for vSphere deployment upgrade proceeds as follows:
  NSX Manager —> NSX Controller Cluster —> Host Clusters —> Distributed Logical Routers —> Guest Introspection
• Health Status: Ensure the Health status of the NSX components are healthy before performing the backup.
• Check the interoperability with vCenter and any other product used in your environment.
• Backup: Taking backup of your existing environment is very important i.e, NSX, vCenter and Distributed switch (Export the configuration of your all vDS).

Below i have mentioned the procedure to take the configuration backup of NSX-V.

Procedure of upgrade:

Step 1: Login to NSX manager appliance with username “Admin”, Click Manage -> Upgrade and upload the NSX Manager upgrade bundle from VMware downloads.

Step 2: Click “Upload Bundle” and mount the bundle and “Continue” the process.

Step 3: Once the bundle assessment is completed, we can proceed with upgrade and soon u will notice that you are logged out of NSX.

Step 4: Re-login and wait to login with vCenter till the NSX Management service is started.

Step 5: After the service is started, you need 2 consequtive login to vCenter, so that the upgraded Plug-in is update in vCenter. Plug-in alert is shown below.

Step 6: Login to Web client of vCenter and go to “Networking and Security” -> “Installation and Upgrade” -> Upgrade

Step 7: Click on blue icon of “PLAN UPGRADE” and follow the wizard of selecting
-> Plan your upgrade
-> Which components to upgrade
-> Select Host cluster, NSX Edges and Service VMs
-> Review and start the plan.

Step 8: Each phase of upgrade can be review, For Controller cluster upgrade no intervention is required and once this phase is completed, the upgrade will be paused as selected.

Step 9: Click “Resume” and put the ESXi host in the cluster in maintenance mode as per possibility. New VIBs will be installed on each ESXi host.

Step 10: Click “Resume” again and all the edges will be updated as well.

Step 11: Click “Resume” again, Our upgrade is almost completed as in my lab i don’t have any service VM’s hence its empty. we will go ahead and complete the upgrade.

Conclusion:

Using the mentioned sequence and procedure the NSX Manager and its related components are upgraded from version 6.4.0 to Version 6.4.6.

NSX Manager —> NSX Controller Cluster —> Host Clusters —> Distributed Logical Routers —> Guest Introspection

Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Samesh Dhankhar
VCIX – DCV & NV