VMware vCloud Networking and Security Upgrade to VMware NSX : Migration Scenario with Minimal Production Impact
   
Migration Scenario with Minimal Production Impact
The following scenario shows an example of a service provider migrating from vCloud Networking and Security, while at the same time upgrading to new versions of vCloud Director and vSphere. Impact on the duration of the maintenance window (and thus on end users) is also discussed.
Table 3. Solution Version Overview
Solution
Initial Version
Target Version
vCloud Director
5.6.4
8.10
vCloud Networking and Security / VMware NSX
vCloud Networking and Security 5.5.4
VMware NSX 6.2.2
vSphere (vCenter Server and ESXi)
5.5U2
6.0U2
vCenter Chargeback Manager
2.7
2.7.x1
1 At the time of this writing, vCenter Chargeback Manager is not compatible with vSphere 6.

 
The recommended path for the solution installation and upgrades is described in the following table together with the impact on the vCloud Director portal, the ability to manage vCloud Director objects through the vCloud UI/API, and the impact on customer’s running workloads.
Table 4. Upgrade Scenario Steps
Step
Description
vCloud Director Portal Impact
Manageability Impact
Workload Impact
1.  
Upgrade vCenter Chargeback Manager from 2.7 to 2.7.x.
None
None
None
2.  
Upgrade vCloud Director from 5.6.4 to 8.0.1. This can be done as a rolling upgrade when only the last cell and database configure script actually requires vCloud Director downtime.
Yes (in minutes)
Yes (in minutes)
None
3.  
Disable a specific vCenter Server instance in vCloud Director1. Then upgrade the related vShield Manager with the VMware-vShield-Manager-Upgrade-bundle-to-NSX upgrade bundle. After the upgrade is complete, enable the vCenter Server in vCloud Director.
None
Yes for the workloads managed by the specific vCenter Server
(30-60 mins)
None
4.  
Repeat step 3 for all other vCenter Server instances managed by vCloud Director.
 
 
 
5.  
Deploy the NSX Controller cluster.
None
None
None
6.  
Upgrade VMware NSX VIBs on all hosts (see Section 4.6).
None
None
None
7.  
(Optional) Change the control plane mode and migrate all VXLAN networks.
None
None
None
8.  
Disable a specific vCenter Server instance in vCloud Director2. Upgrade the vCenter Server from 5.5U2 to 6.0U2. When complete, enable the vCenter Server in vCloud Director.
None
Yes, for the workloads managed by the specific vCenter Server
(30-60 mins)
None
9.  
Repeat step 8 for all other vCenter Server instances managed by vCloud Director.
 
 
 
10.  
Upgrade each ESXi host. (Use a similar approach to that discussed in Section 4.6.)
None
None
None
11.  
Upgrade vCloud Director from 8.0.1 to 8.10. This can be done as a rolling upgrade when only the last cell and database configure script actually requires vCloud Director downtime.
Yes (in minutes)
Yes (in minutes)
None
12.  
(Optional) Upgrade all NSX Edge gateways to version 6.2.
None
None
A few seconds of network impact on each NSX Edge gateway
1 See Disabled vCenter Server Continues to Accept vCloud Director Operations (https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2145610) for important considerations.

2 See Disabled vCenter Server Continues to Accept vCloud Director Operations (https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2145610) for important considerations.