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Article Number: 000019144

Dell EMC VxRail: Major Version Upgrade for VxRail with NSX

Summary: The automated NSX vib upgrade that occurs during a VxRail upgrade can expereince an issue that may cause the vib not to be updated which can lead to connectivity issues for any VMs that are connecting to Logical switches. To avoid this scenario the VxRail nodes will need to be upgraded one at a time, this can be achieved by setting DRS to manual and the user will need to manually migrate VMs off the host to be upgraded. ...

Article Content

Instructions

Update on Apr. 2, 2020
VxRail Manager has improvement on major version upgrade (version 4.0 to 4.5, 4.5 to 4.7, or 4.0 to 4.7) with NSX-v.

When upgrade target version is 4.5.400/4.7.300 or later:   
  1. Follow Pre Upgrade Step below to check compatibility and upgrade NSX first, if necessary.
  2. Start upgrade of the cluster following normal VxRail LCM upgrade procedure.
During the upgrade, the NSX Manager will push and install necessary VIB on the host while the host is still in maintenance mode after the ESXi upgrade has completed.

If somehow this is not completed, keep the host in maintenance mode, manually fix the issue, install NSX vib and retry upgrade in VxRail Manager using either legacy GUI or vCenter plugin.

DO NOT manually put the host out of maintenance mode, or VMs may lose connectivity.

Pre Upgrade Steps:    
  • Verify if NSX needs to be first upgraded to support the version of vSphere that will be upgraded to during the VxRail upgrade. Check the VMware Interoperability Matrix to ensure there are no incompatibilities between NSX and the vSphere version before starting any upgrade.
 
Note: If an NSX upgrade is first required, follow the NSX Upgrade guide to ensure all NSX components are upgraded to the correct NSX version first. Failure to do so may result in VMs loosing connectivity if the VxRail is upgraded before NSX Components.
 
Note: DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE NSX AND VXRAIL AT THE SAME TIME.
 
When upgrade target version is below 4.5.400/4.7.300:

Steps to Upgrade:     
  1. Log in to the vSphere UI for the vCenter managing the VxRail cluster and set DRS to Manual. This is critical as each host will need to upgraded one at a time so that NSX vib verification can be done on each host.
  2. Confirm each host has at least one VM running on the host to ensure a host upgrade does not start automatically.
  3. Validate the Health of NSX. Log in to the vSphere UI and go to Networking and Security to verify the health of the NSX components. Resolve any issues before attempting to start the VxRail upgrade.
  4. Refer to the Solve procedure to start the upgrade of the VxRail cluster. This will start with the VxRail Manager upgrade and then the VCSA/PSC if they internally managed by the VxRail Manager.
  5. Use the VxRail Manager UI to monitor the progress of the VxRail upgrade throughout this procedure. Once the VxRail Manager and VCSA/PSC (if internal) have completed upgrade, the first host (h1) upgrade will start and during the process, will attempt to enter maintenance mode, with running VMs on the host it will remain at 19%.
  6. Check if the host (h1) is trying to enter maintenance mode. The vCenter task should be at 19% as the host is unable to automatically migrate the VM.
  7. Migrate any VMs from the first host (h1) to other hosts in the cluster and the host will then enter maintenance mode once all VMs have been migrated off the host.
  8. Once the upgrade has completed on host (h1), it will exit maintenance mode. Log in to the vSphere UI and go to Networking and Security > Installation and Upgrade  >  Host Preparation. If the NSX installation status shows 'Not Ready', put the Host back into maintenance mode. This should automatically start the vib upgrade sequence. In the vSphere UI, go to Networking and Security > Installation and Upgrade > Host Preparation. You should see the vib upgrade in progress.
  9. Once complete, SSH into the ESXi server to confirm the vib is upgraded by running the following command:    
esxcli software vib list |grep nsx
kA5f1000000L0f0CAC_1_0
 
Note: The vib version should be 6.7 if the upgrade was successful.
  1. Once the upgrade is confirmed, the NSX vib has been upgraded on host (h1), take the host out of maintenance mode to let the upgrade process complete for that host.
  2. Repeat steps 3 - 7 for the remaining hosts (h2 - h(n)) in the cluster.
Post Upgrade Steps:   
  1. Log in into the vSphere UI for the vCenter Server and change the DRS setting from Manual to Fully Automated.
  2. Go to Networking and Security and verify all the NSX components are showing as Healthy.

Article Properties

Affected Product

VxRail Appliance Series

Product

VxRail Appliance Series

Last Published Date

20 Nov 2020

Version

2

Article Type

How To

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