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Upgrading vSphere software from version 7.0 to 8.0

Upgrading vSphere software from version 7.0 to 8.0

You can upgrade the VMware vSphere® software on your VCF for Classic - Flexible instances to version 8.0.

Before you begin the upgrade

  • If you encounter a problem during the upgrade process, use the IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions upgrade ticket that you opened at the beginning of the process to contact IBM Support. If required, IBM® Support opens tickets with Broadcom® Support.
  • You must follow the support process so that VMware Solutions can provide Broadcom Support with all the information about the VMware vCenter Server® design and setup, and the IBM Cloud information.
  • By following the support process, accurate information can be shared with Broadcom Support, which shortens the support experience. After IBM Support provides the necessary information to Broadcom Support, you can interact with Broadcom Support directly.
  • Keep a record of all the new passwords and credentials that you create as part of the upgrade process. IBM Support requires these credentials at the end of the upgrade process to update its internal database.

Procedure to set the cluster DRS to manual

You must set the cluster DRS (Distributed Resource Schedule) to manual to prevent unexpected migrations during the upgrade process.

Complete the following steps from the vSphere Web Client:

  1. Select Host and Clusters > Cluster > Configure > DRS.
  2. Click EDIT.
  3. Set the DRS field to Manual.

Procedure to create a standard switch for the new vCenter Server Appliance

Temporarily install the new vCenter Server Appliance that you deploy onto a vSphere Standard Switch. One of the existing vmnics is reassigned from the distributed switch during the upgrade.

Complete the following steps from the vSphere Web Client:

  1. Select Hosts and Clusters > HOST > Configure > Virtual Switches. Select a host for the new vCenter Server Appliance.
  2. For the private network switch, select Managed Physical Adapters. The private network switch name ends with -private.
  3. Select uplink1/vmnic2, then click the Close icon Close icon to delete the adapter. Click OK.
  4. Return to the Virtual Switches pane and click Add Networking.
    1. Select Virtual Machine Port Group for a standard switch and click Next.
    2. For New Standard Switch, set the MTU to 9000 and click Next.
    3. Click the green Add icon Add icon to add an adapter. Click OK, then Next to accept vmnic2.
    4. For Connection Settings, keep the VM Network and VLAN ID None defaults. Click Next, then Finish. In the list of switches, Standard Switch: vSwitch0 is displayed.
  5. Make a note of the Network Setting for the vCenter Server Appliance VM. You must update the new vCenter Server appliance to match.
    • From the vSphere Web Client, click the VM for the vCenter Server appliance. Note the name, ending with vc.
    • From the middle pane, click the Networks tab. Note the name of the distributed port group, ending with -dpg-mgmt.

Procedure to upgrade vCenter Server

Follow the Broadcom instructions for upgrading vCenter Server. For more information, see Upgrade a vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 or 6.7 with an embedded Platform Services Controller by using the GUI.

Complete the following requirements during the upgrade:

  • To mount the VMware-VCSA ISO, go to the visa-ui-installer\win32 directory and run the installer.
  • In the vCenter Server installer, select the Upgrade flow and complete the steps in the installer.
  • You must use the IP address and credentials (administrator and root) for the current vCenter Server appliance. Use the IP address and the root password for the VMware ESXi host of the current vCenter Server Appliance and the host where you want to deploy the new vCenter Server Appliance version 8.0 or later. You must use a new temporary IP address, gateway, and subnet mask for the new vCenter Server Appliance during installation.
  • Complete Stage 2 when prompted. Note any warnings and take the appropriate actions.

Updating vCenter Server licenses

After you upgrade the vSphere software to version 8, update the licenses on vCenter Server. If you have a VMware vSAN cluster, you must also update the vSAN license. To access the new licenses, see Retrieving VCF license keys.

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.

Procedure to upgrade Stor VIB (Broadcom driver)

You must upgrade the Broadcom driver before you upgrade the ESXi host. Complete the following steps:

  1. Extract the 007.1316.0000.0000_Unified_StorCLI_PUL.zip file to a directory on your Windows jump server.

  2. Locate the vmware-storcli.vib file in the extracted file contents.

  3. Copy the .vib file to either a vSAN or NFS data store that is mounted on the ESXi hosts for the instance. Use vCenter Server to reference the extracted file on your jump server.

  4. SSH into each ESXi host and run the following VIB Upgrade command: esxcli software vib update -v /<path to vsan or nfs datastore from step 3>/vmware-storcli.vib --no-sig-check

    The following installation results are displayed. Message: Operation finished successfully.    Reboot Required: false    VIBs Installed: Broadcom_bootbank_vmware-storcli_007.1316.0000.0000-01    VIBs Removed: LSI_bootbank_vmware-storcli_007.0916.0000.0000-01    VIBs Skipped:

  5. Run the following command to validate the installation: > esxcli software vib list |grep vmware-storcli vmware-storcli 007.1316.0000.0000-01    Broadcom  PartnerSupported  2020-04-16

  6. Repeat the previous steps for each host.

Procedure to upgrade the ESXi hosts

  1. Apply any firmware updates that are available on the IBM Cloud classic. Complete the following steps for each host:

    1. Put the host into maintenance mode and power off the host.
    2. View the host details on the IBM Cloud classic portal.
    3. Click the Firmware tab and review the available firmware updates.

    For 10 GB NICs, the NIC firmware must be at version 9.50 or later.

    1. To apply the firmware updates, click Actions > Update Firmware.
    2. Power on the host.
    3. Upgrade vSphere on the host.

  2. Upgrade the ESXi hosts. Complete the following steps:

    1. From the vSphere Web Client, click LCM menu > LifeCycle Manager.
    2. Select IMPORT ISO > IMPORT ISO, and then the ISO file.
    3. Create the baseline. Select BASELINE > CREATE and use the imported ISO from the previous step.
    4. For each host, choose the host in the vCenter browser tree. Then, select update (located in the far left in the main window).
    5. If the Zerto VRA is present on the host, put the host into maintenance mode first. Recent releases of Zerto stop the VRA, which otherwise would prevent the update.
    6. Complete the update.
      1. [ATTACH] Baseline, select the previously created baseline.
      2. Select Baseline and [REMEDIATE].

    When you are upgrading the ESXi hosts, consider the following information:

    • After you import the ISO file, vCenter Server might indicate that the image is "Incompatible" due to an unsupported Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version. For more information, see ESXi upgrade fails from 7.x to 8.x due to unsupported TPM version.
    • Proceed with the upgrade and ignore the incompatibility warning. It is safe to proceed because you are not using TPM functions.
    • After the upgrade, vCenter Server might flag a TPM compatibility error for your hosts. You can suppress this error. IBM's deployment automation already suppresses it for newly created clusters.

  3. Verify the RAID firmware and drivers (Cascade Lake only). After you upgrade the ESXi hosts, verify that the RAID firmware and drivers are at the appropriate level. Complete the following steps for each host.

    You do not need to complete the steps if you have Sapphire Rapids hosts.

    1. Connect to each host through SSH.
    2. Run the command esxcli storcli controller show all -i 0.
    3. In the output, find the version section and verify that the firmware version is 5.230.00-3803 or later and the driver version is 7.728.02.00 or later.

    If the versions are not correct, complete the following steps to install the firmware and driver:

    1. Put the host into maintenance mode.
    2. Locate the firmware file 9461-16i_nopad.rom and the driver file Broadcom-lsi-mr3_7.723.03.00-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807_20654446-package.zip.
    3. Copy the driver file to a file that is accessible to the ESXi host. The file location can be a local datastore, an NFS share that is mounted on the host, or the vSAN datastore (if the host is part of a vSAN cluster).
    4. To install the driver, run the command esxcli storcli /c0 download file=9461-16i_nopad.rom.
    5. To install the firmware, run the command esxcli software vib install -d /<root>/Broadcom-lsi-mr3_7.723.03.00-1OEM.700.1.0.15843807_20654446-package.zip, where <root> is the directory where you placed the file in a previous step.
    6. Restart the host.
    7. Repeat steps a, b, and c to verify that the correct versions are installed.
    8. Repeat the procedure for all hosts.

    If you have 10 GbE NICs in your hosts, you must install new NIC drivers. Complete the following steps for each host:

    You do not need to complete the steps if you have 25 GbE NICs.

    1. Obtain the new NIC drivers for 10 GbE NICs from IBM Support. The file name is Intel-i40en_2.9.2.0-1OEM.800.1.0.20613240_24226995.zip.
    2. Put the host into maintenance mode.
    3. Copy the driver file to a file accessible to the ESXi host. The file location can be a local datastore, an NFS share that is mounted on the host, or the vSAN datastore (if the host is part of a vSAN cluster).
    4. Decompress the file repeatedly until you have a directory structure. For example, /<root>/vib20/i40en/INT_bootbank_i40en_2.9.2.0-1OEM.800.1.0.20613240.vib, where <root> is the root directory where you copied the driver-compressed file. The location varies according to your environment.
    5. To install the driver, run the command esxcli software vib install –v /<root>/vib20/i40en/INT_bootbank_i40en_2.9.2.0-1OEM.800.1.0.20613240.vib.
    6. Restart the host. Then, verify that the firmware and driver are at the appropriate levels and run the command esxcli network nic get –n vmnic0.
    7. Remediate each host in turn. After remediation, take the host out of maintenance mode.

Update your IBM Support ticket to indicate that your upgrade is complete and request that the VMware Solutions database is updated to reflect that the version of the cluster is vSphere 8.

To upgrade your ESXi hosts, see Overview of the ESXi Host Upgrade Process. If you need to access an ISO file or upgrade bundle as part of your selected method, contact IBM Support.

If the upgrade process fails immediately and the host cannot enter maintenance mode error message is displayed, shut down the Zerto ZVAs and try again. The ZVRA VMs automatically start as each server comes out of remediation. For more information about continuing Zerto Replication during the upgrade process, see How to place a host with an associated VRA into maintenance mode.

Procedure to update ESXi host licenses

To update the ESXi host licenses, you must first retrieve your new vSphere licenses from the IBM Cloud console. For more information, see Retrieving VCF license keys.

  1. From the Licenses page, click + Add New Licenses.
  2. Enter the new vSphere 8 license keys in the New Licenses field. If you have multiple vSphere 8 license keys, input the all of the licenses in the New Licenses filed, enter a name for each license, and click OK.
  3. Complete the following steps from the Assets page.
    1. Select HOSTS.
    2. Select the host and click Assign License.
    3. Select one of the new vSphere 8 license keys and click OK.
    4. Repeat this step for each upgraded host.
  4. From the Licenses page, select all of the old vSphere 6 licenses and click Remove Licenses.