vCenter Chargeback Manager – Version 2.5 is required for vCloud Director 5.1. vCenter Chargeback Manager 2.5 is backwards compatible with VMware vCloud Director 1.5x. VMware recommends stopping vCenter Chargeback Manager services and upgrading only after vCloud Director is fully upgraded.

vCloud Networking and Security Manager – This usually requires a specific build to work with vCloud Director. vCloud Director 5.1 supports vCloud Networking and Security Manager 5.1 but does not support vCloud Networking and Security Manager 5.0 when deploying new vCloud Networking and Security Edge devices.

vCloud Networking and Security Manager – Although vCloud Networking and Security Manager 5.0 will continue to work with older edge devices after vCloud Director is upgraded, new vCloud Networking and Security Edge devices cannot be deployed until vCloud Networking and Security Manager is upgraded from 5.0 to 5.1.

vCloud Portal and API – The vCloud portal and API are not available during this phase. It is difficult to determine specific downtime, because downtime depends on the number of cells and size of each customer’s database. The VMRC is not available to users.

vCloud Director database – The upgrade changes the schema, so a database backup is important. vCloud Director 5.1 does not support Oracle 10 (all release versions). vCloud Director 5.1 provides support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP3 Standard/Enterprise.

Rollback – Rollback is complex because the database changes are irreversible.

Back up the database after stopping the vCloud Director Services before proceeding.

Back up the vCloud Networking and Security Manager database using the UI FTP commands. This is the only method of possibly restoring the vCloud Networking and Security Manager for a redeployment.

Perform a backup of the vCenter database at this time, as well as during future steps, as the vCloud Director services get started multiple times throughout the process and can affect the vCenter and vCloud Networking and Security Manager databases.