Before upgrading a vRealize product from one version to another, administrator needs to check how many phases or hops it might take for him to get to the desired version
Also , check if the compatibility with the other vRealize products will remain intact.
This used to be a manual effort from customer / administrator side and was little taxing on their part if you have large environments with multiple products involved
Coming vRSLCM 8.8.2 , we introduced a new feature called Upgrade Planner
There are two places where you would see an upgrade planner available
Under Environments pane which helps customers or administrators to create a report if vRealize products are integrated between multiple vRSLCM environments
For example , vRA might be a separate environment and vROPs managing or integrated with this vRA might be in another environment
Note:
Customer/Administrators should not deviate from the sequence of upgrades provided by Upgrade planner report as this will cause compatibility break
Inside an Environment where administrators or customers would like to upgrade vRealize Products within itself
You may download attached PDF which contains the procedure mentioned below if there is difficulty in reading screenshots
Running an Upgrade Planner inside an vRSLCM environment
Firstly , I upgraded my vRSLCM to 8.8.2 which provides me the new feature Upgrade Planner
In my lab , apart from the globalenvironment which is my VMware Identity Manager , I do have 2 environments
Environment called "Production" has multiple vRealize products in it
vRealize Automation
vRealize SaltStack Config
vRealize Operations
vRealize LogInsight
vRealize Network InsightEnvironment called "sevensix" has one vRA 7.x product in it
vRealize Automation 7.6Now let's click on "Production" environment to get further details about it
Now , let's click on "Upgrade Planner" , as shown below we are in an environment called "Production"
All of the products which are available inside environment "Production" would be listed
Upgrade Planner UI displays following data
Product: vRealize product name
Current Version: Current version of the product in this environment
Latest Version: Latest version of the product which has been released by VMware
Target Version: Target version of the product which is the desired one to go to
If we examine this in detail , this is how we can interpret the UI
Production Environment has .....
vRealize Automation 8.8.1 , whereas 8.8.2 is the latest version released. If i have to plan an upgrade , then the obvious target version would be 8.8.2
vRealize Log Insight 8.6.2 , whereas 8.8.2 is the latest version released. If i have to plan an upgrade , then the obvious target version would be 8.8.2 or 8.8.0
vRealize Operations 8.6.2 , whereas 8.6.3 is the latest version released. If i have to plan an upgrade , then the obvious target version would be 8.6.3
vRealize Network Insight 6.6.0 , whereas 6.7.0 is the latest version released. If i have to plan an upgrade , then the obvious target version would be 6.7.0
VMware Identity Manager 3.3.6 , whereas 3.3.6 is the latest version released. There is nothing to upgrade here
vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.8.8 , whereas 8.8.2 is the latest version released. There is nothing to upgrade here
The task at hand is to upgrade all of the eligible products to the latest ones. So let's generate our upgrade planner report
Remember/Note: While upgrade planner is being generated do not navigate away from this page
As seen in the above upgrade plan there is a need for 4 hops or windows needed for me to go from my existing versions to the target version ( latest available )
We can even download Upgrade Plan in PDF format so that it can be shared with wider group or stakeholders
Now that we have "Upgrade Plan" , let's understand what it says
Upgrade Plan presents me an optimal upgrade sequence of products in an environment. Out of all products selected in the environment , there are 4 eligible products which can be upgraded.
vRA 8.8.1 to 8.8.2 and it takes 1 hop or window or attempt to reach target version
vRLI 8.6.2 to 8.8.2 and it takes 1 hop or window or attempt to reach target version
vROps 8.6.2 to 8.6.3 and it takes 1 hop or window or attempt to reach target version
vRNI 6.6.0 to 6.7 and it takes 1 hop or window or attempt to reach target version
Using this data , I can now confidently plan my upgrades
Remember , Upgrade Planner will only show products which are not EOL or End of Life
Running upgrade planner outside vRSLCM environment
In this scenario , we will showcase how an upgrade planner can be leveraged outside of an environment
This generic upgrade planner option gives us a way to change current version too as it's not dependent on environment
Remember , end of life product releases will not be considered or even listed here
Let's now generate an upgrade plan by selecting least possible versions of the product and the target version to be same as the latest version
Select all of the products and then click on "Generate Upgrade Plan"
If I go ahead with all minimum versions of the product then i'd be getting below exception which throws all the details regarding incompatibilities
Let's say I have following environment and want to see upgrade path
vRA 8.2 --> 8.8.2
vIDM 3.3.2 --> 3.3.6
vRSLCM 8.2 --> 8.8.2
Based on the previous data , here's the upgrade plan i get
As seen in the above upgrade plan there is a need for 4 hops or windows needed for me to go from my existing versions to the target version ( latest available )
We can even generate a PDF out of this
If we interpret or understand the report
There are 4 windows / hops needed for us to reach target versions
Window / Hop 1
1. Upgrade vRSLCM 8.2.0 to 8.4.1
2. Upgrade vIDM 3.3.2 to 3.3.4
3. Upgrade vRA 8.2.0 to 8.3.0
Window / Hop 2
1. Upgrade vIDM 3.3.4 to 3.3.5
2. Upgrade vRA 8.3.0 to 8.4.1
Windows / Hop 3
1. Upgrade vRSLCM 8.4.1 to 8.6.2
2. Upgrade vIDM 3.3.5 to 3.3.6
3. Upgrade vRA 8.4.1 to 8.6.2
Windows / Hop 4
1. Upgrade vRSLCM 8.6.2 to 8.8.2
2. Upgrade vRA 8.6.2 to 8.8.2This is how an upgrade planner report can be generated and consumed in your planning.
I have not written about vCF aware vRSLCM based environment's upgrade planner yet as i don't have a lab handy but from functionality wise it's pretty much the same
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