Upgrading vSphere software from version 7.0 to 8.0

Procedure to update the vCenter Server license

Complete the following steps from the vSphere Web Client:

1. Click Administration menu > Licensing > Licenses.
2. From the Licenses page, click + Add New Licenses.
3. Enter the new vCenter Server license key in the New Licenses field. Then, enter a name for the license and click OK.
4. From the Assets page, select the vCenter Server instance under VCENTER SERVER SYSTEMS and click Assign License. Then, select the new license and click OK.
5. From the Licenses page, find the license with the product name VMware vCenter Server 6 Standard and click Remove Licenses.

Procedure to update the vSAN cluster license

Complete the following steps from the vSphere Web Client:

1. From the Licenses page, click + Add New Licenses.
2. Enter the new vSAN license keys in the New Licenses field. If you have multiple vSAN license keys, enter all the licenses in the New Licenses field, specify a name for each license, and then click OK.
3. Complete the following steps from the Assets page.
   1. Select VSAN CLUSTERS.
   2. Select the vSAN cluster and click Assign License.
   3. Select one of the new vSAN license keys and click OK.
   4. Repeat this step for each vSAN cluster.
4. From the Licenses page, select all the old vSAN cluster licenses and click Remove Licenses.

Procedure to remove the temporary standard switch

Reassign the vmnic that you temporarily used on the standard switch back to the distributed switch that it was originally associated with.

Complete the following steps from the vSphere Web Client:

1. Go to the new vCenter Server appliance.
2. Under Actions click Edit Settings.
3. For network adapter 1, browse to the name of the distributed port group that ends with -dpg-mgmt that you previously noted. Save the changes.
4. Go to the host where you deployed the new appliance. Select Hosts and Clusters > HOST > Configure > Virtual Switches. Then, click MANAGE PHYSICAL ADAPTERS for vSwitch0.
5. Select vmnic2 and click the red X to delete the adapter. Click OK. The There are no active physical network adapters for the switch. warning is displayed. Click OK.
6. Click the ... in the vSwitch0 display and then select Remove. Click OK to confirm you want to remove the switch.
7. In the same display, select the private switch and click MANAGE PHYSICAL ADAPTERS.
8. Select uplink1 and click +. vmnic2 is displayed.
9. Click OK, and then OK again to exit the window.

Preparing for the upgrade of ESXi hosts

To complete the upgrade from version 7 to 8, you must establish a baseline group configuration in VMware vSphere Update Manager (VUM) and attach it to the cluster that contains the hosts to be upgraded.

1. Import the ISO image and the updates files.

   Complete the following steps in the vSphere Web Client:

   1. Import the vSphere 8 ISO image. Go to the Lifecycle Manager section of vCenter Server and click the Imported ISOs tab. After the import is completed, the ISO image is displayed in the list.
   2. Import the NSX-LCP update that matches the version of VMware NSX that is installed. The file name is similar to nsx-lcp-esxio-4.2.3.0.0.24866350-esx80-unified.zip (ensure that it has unified in the name). After the import is completed, the update is displayed on the Updates tab. Ensure that the rollup toggle is off as this update is not a rollup update.
   3. Import the i40en network driver by following the previous step. Extract the contents of the Intel-i40en_2.9.2.0-1OEM.800.1.0.20613240_24226995-package.zip file and import it from the folder where you extracted it. After the import is completed, the i40en driver is displayed on the Updates tab.

2. Set up the NSX connection to vCenter Server.

   Complete the following steps on the NSX manager UI to allow for communications between vCenter Server and NSX Manager:

   1. Click the System tab and click Fabric > Compute Managers from the left navigation panel. Click the vCenter Server compute manager and click EDIT.
   2. On the Edit Compute Manager window, switch the Create Service Account and Enable Trust toggles to YES.
   3. Click EDIT next to the FQDN or IP Address field, enter the credentials for vCenter Server (administrator@vsphere.local and the correct password), and click SAVE.

3. Create baselines and baseline groups.

   Complete the following steps on the Create Baseline window to create an upgrade baseline for the ISO image file:

   1. Under Name and description, enter a name for the baseline and select the Upgrade option for Content. Click NEXT.
   2. Under Select ISO, choose the imported 8.0u3g ISO image file. Click NEXT.
   3. Under Summary, click FINISH.

   Complete the following steps on the Create Baseline window to create an extension baseline for the NSX Local Control Plane (LCP):

   1. Under Name and description, enter a name for the baseline and select the Extension option for Content. Click NEXT.
   2. Under Select Extensions, choose the imported NSX LCP. Click NEXT.
   3. Under Summary, click FINISH.

   Complete the following steps on the Create Baseline window to create an extension baseline for the i40en network driver:

   1. Under Name and description, enter a name for the baseline and select the Extension option for Content. Click NEXT.
   2. Under Select extensions, choose the downloaded i40en driver. Click NEXT.
   3. Under Summary, click FINISH.

   Complete the following steps on the Create Baseline Group window to combine the previous baselines into a baseline group. A baseline group is a container that allows selection of a set of baselines to apply.

   1. Under Name and description, enter a name for the baseline group and click NEXT.
   2. Under Upgrade Baseline, ensure that the Add the following baseline to the group checkbox is selected and click NEXT.
   3. Under Patch Baselines, click NEXT. You don't need to include any patches.
   4. Under Extension Baselines, select the previous extension baselines (NSX LCP and i40en driver). Click NEXT.
   5. Under Summary, click FINISH.

   On the Lifecycle Manager UI, verify that the new baseline group is displayed and select it to verify that its content is correct.

4. Attach the baseline group to the cluster.

   Complete the following steps in the vSphere Web Client:

   1. Click the cluster name from the left navigation panel and click the Updates tab.
   2. Scroll down the page and under Attached Baselines click ATTACH > Attach Baseline or Baseline Group.
   3. Select the baseline group that was created in a previous step and click ATTACH. The baseline group gets attached to the cluster.

Remediating the ESXi hosts

Complete the following steps in the vSphere Web Client:

1. Select a host that does not have vCenter Server installed, for example, host-wd003. Verify that the vCenter Server VM does not exist on this host.

2. Click the Updates tab and scroll down the page. In the Attached Baseline and Baseline Groups table, select the baseline group that was attached in a previous step.

3. Right under Attached Baseline and Baseline Groups, click REMEDIATE.

4. Accept the Foundation Agreement and click OK. If you see a warning HA admission control will be disabled, you can ignore it.

5. Expand the Remediation setting section and ensure that the checkbox Ignore warnings about unsupported hardware devices is selected so that any TPM 1.2 warnings are ignored.

6. Click REMEDIATE. A number of tasks start to run in the tasks list, for example, Migrate virtual machines or reboot.

7. Monitor the remediation progress in the Remediate entity task:

   • The host is put into maintenance mode and then powered off.
   • As a result, the host status in vCenter Server displays disconnected.
   • The entire process for a single host can take 15-20 minutes, with multiple host restarts.

8. Repeat the previous steps to remediate all hosts that do not have vCenter Server installed. After all hosts are remediated, the Updates tab of the cluster shows all hosts at version 8.

Enabling Lifecycle Manager

For ongoing maintenance, convert the upgraded cluster to an LCM (Lifecycle Manager) cluster by enabling single image management through LCM.

Complete the following steps in the vSphere Web Client:

1. Click the cluster name from the left navigation panel and click the Updates tab.
2. Click MANAGE WITH A SINGLE IMAGE. In the table, ensure that the autodetected network driver is included. Other components, such as the NSX LCP, is not displayed in this table. Click SAVE.
3. Under Check Image Compliance, a message indicates that the hosts are not compliant because TPM 1.2 exists on the hardware and vSphere FDM is missing. vSphere FDM was not automatically installed when the baseline group was attached. Click FINISH IMAGE SETUP.
4. With the cluster selected in the left navigation panel, click REMEDIATE ALL.

The process of remediation starts. For each host:

• The VMs are moved off the host.
• The host is put into maintenance mode.
• The host is restarted one or more times.
• The host is taken out of maintenance mode.

Then, the process continues with the next host until all hosts are remediated.

Remediating new hosts that are added

If you add a host to a vSphere 8 cluster from the VMware Solutions console, the host is provisioned with vSphere 7. After the host is added, you see errors and alarms in the vSphere Web Client and in NSX Manager, which indicate that the host has compatibility issues or is not available.

To remediate the new host so it matches the current vSphere version of the cluster, complete the following steps in the vSphere Web Client:

1. Click the cluster name from the left navigation panel and click the Updates tab. A message indicates that the host is not compliant.

2. Click REMEDIATE ALL to review the remediation impact.

3. Accept the Foundation Agreement and click START REMEDIATION. A number of tasks start to run in the tasks list.

4. If you see problems with the NSX configuration of the new host on the NSX Manager UI, wait for the additional tasks that are running in the vSphere Web Client to complete.

   You might see the Apply NSX Solution task running, which is updating the new host with the NSX VIB bundles needed for the NSX configuration.

5. While tasks are running in the vSphere Web Client, monitor the progress on the NSX Manager UI:

   • If you see errors, click Install Failed > VIEW ERRORS.
   • After some time, the errors are resolved and the NSX configuration displays Success.

The entire process can take 10-15 minutes after which the operation is complete in vCenter Server and the Updates tab of the cluster shows all hosts at version 8.

Upgrading the disk format post-remediation

To upgrade the disk format, complete the following steps in the vSphere Web Client:

1. Click the cluster name from the left navigation panel and click the Configure tab.
2. Click vSAN > Services. On the vSAN Services page, click PRE-CHECK UPGRADE.
3. On the same page, click UPGRADE, and then click UPGRADE again on the window that appears.

A number of tasks start to run in the tasks list. Monitor their progress until completion.