Patching order for VCF Management Components, 9.1 to 9.1.1

Here is the patching order for the VCF management components while going from 9.1 to 9.1.1.

The short version is that only three components need to go in a fixed sequence. Once those are done, the rest can go in parallel.

A note on scope: this covers the management components only. The core components are not shown here, because that order has not changed at all since 9.0.x, or even back in the 5.x days.

1. Fleet Lifecycle

Fleet Lifecycle goes first, as it is documented. It orchestrates the patching of the rest of the components, so nothing else moves until this one is on 9.1.1.0.

See Patching Fleet Lifecycle 9.1.0.0 to 9.1.1.0.

2. VCF Operations

Then goes VCF Operations, which you can patch using Fleet Lifecycle itself.

See Patching VCF Operations 9.1.0.0 to 9.1.1.0.

3. VCF Services Runtime

Followed by VCF Services Runtime. This is the platform which hosts the rest of the management components, which is why it comes before them.

4. Then the rest, in parallel

Once those three are done, you can patch the rest of the components in parallel. No problem, as the dependencies are handled thoroughly by Fleet Lifecycle:

• SDDC Lifecycle, see Patching SDDC Lifecycle 9.1.0.0 to 9.1.1.0
• Identity Broker
• Software Depot
• Salt RaaS
• Salt Master
• Realtime Metrics Store
• Realtime Metrics
• Telemetry
• VCF Operations for Networks
• VCF Automation, which must be patched before the Migration Service Engine
• Migration Service Engine, only once VCF Automation is done

The release notes document a handful of dependencies between these components, such as the software depot blocking other patching while it runs, the identity broker and Salt RaaS needing their hosting runtime patched first, and the Migration Service Engine needing VCF Automation. You do not have to sequence these by hand, Fleet Lifecycle takes care of them.

The one to keep in mind is VCF Automation and the Migration Service Engine. If you go and patch the Migration Service Engine on its own before VCF Automation, it does not fail fast, it runs for six hours and then fails on vmsp_upgrade. See Patch VCF Automation before the Migration Service Engine.

What to remember

1. Fleet Lifecycle should be the first one. Nothing else moves until it is patched.
2. Then VCF Operations, then VCF Services Runtime, before heading to the rest of the components.
3. Everything after that can go in parallel, and Fleet Lifecycle handles the dependencies.
4. VCF Automation still goes before the Migration Service Engine. It is the one pairing worth keeping in your head.

For the wider picture on this release, including the known issues to look over before you start, see VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1.1 is now available.