Appendix D: vCloud Director Upgrade Considerations : Background
   
Background
The upgrade process can be divided into four phases. After completion of a phase, the next phase can be started immediately or can be deferred until later without having a major effect on the vCloud infrastructure. However, new features are not available until all components in each phase are fully upgraded.
This document focuses on the considerations for Phase 1, Upgrade considerations for moving from VMware vCloud Director 1.5 to 5.1.
The following table lists the steps for each phase.
Table 24 Upgrade Phases
Phase
Steps
I
*Upgrade vCloud Director cells from 1.5.x to 5.1.
*Upgrade vCloud Networking and Security Manager and deployed vCloud Networking and Security Edge from 5.0 to 5.1.
*Upgrade Chargeback from 2.0.1 to 2.5.
*(Optional) Upgrade the Oracle/SQL Database versions on database servers.
Deferring next phase affect
vCloud Director 5.1 can manage existing vSphere 5.0, however new features are not available until the components in phases II, III, and IV are upgraded.
II
*Upgrade vCenter Server from 5.0 to 5.1.
*Upgrade vCenter Orchestrator 5.0 to 5.1 (equivalent).
Deferring next phase affect
vCenter Server 5.1 and vCenter Orchestrator 5.1 can manage vSphere ESXi 5.0, however new features are not available until the components below are upgraded.
III
Upgrade vSphere hosts from 5.0 to 5.1.
Deferring next phase affect
New features are not available until the components below are upgraded.
IV
*Upgrade vSphere Distributed Switches.
*Update vCloud Director configuration.
*Upgrade vApp hardware levels to hardware version 9.
*Upgrade VMware Tools.