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VCF 9 Deployment Guide

Upgrade Path (5.2 → 9.0)

VCF 5.2 → 9.0 Upgrade Path

Supported Upgrade Paths

Direct upgrade to VCF 9.0 is supported from:

  • VCF 5.0 and later (sequential or skip-level)
  • VCF 5.1.x
  • VCF 5.2.x (recommended starting point)

Indirect upgrade paths:

  • VCF 4.x environments must first upgrade to VCF 5.2, then proceed to 9.0
  • Both management domain and all workload domains must reach 5.0+ before the 9.0 upgrade

Minimum component versions required:

  • NSX: 4.0.x or later
  • ESXi hosts: 8.0 or later
  • Aria Suite Lifecycle: 8.18 Patch 2 (if deployed)

Prerequisites

Mandatory components in VCF 9.0:

  • VCF Operations (formerly Aria Operations) - now mandatory
  • VCF Fleet Management (formerly Aria Suite Lifecycle) - now mandatory
  • VCF Operations Collector - deployed during upgrade

Identity management change:

  • No direct upgrade path from vIDM to VIDB (VCF Identity Broker)
  • Greenfield VIDB deployment required post-upgrade

Existing Aria Suite:

  • If deployed in “VCF aware mode,” upgrade Aria components first
  • No decoupling required before VCF core upgrade
  • Aria Operations for Logs 8.x has no upgrade path - fresh install required for VCF Operations-Logs 9.0

vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM):

  • All ESXi clusters must convert from baseline management to vLCM images
  • Baselines no longer supported in VCF 9.0

Pre-Upgrade Checklist

  1. Backups: Create backups of SDDC Manager, vCenter, NSX Manager, and all critical VMs
  2. Temporary IP addresses: Reserve one temporary IP per vCenter Server
  3. Download bundles: Obtain all upgrade bundles (offline depot if air-gapped)
  4. Certificate validity: Verify all certificates are valid and not expiring during upgrade window
  5. Password validity: Ensure no passwords expire during maintenance window
  6. vSAN HCL update: Update vSAN hardware compatibility database
  7. Hardware compatibility: Validate all hardware against VCF 9.0 compatibility list
  8. Firmware updates: Update server firmware to supported versions
  9. Avi Load Balancer: Upgrade to VCF 9-compatible release before NSX upgrade
  10. Third-party solutions: Verify compatibility (backup software, monitoring tools)

Upgrade Steps

Phase 1: Prepare Environment

  1. Run SDDC Manager precheck (Workload Domains > Management Domain > Updates)
  2. Resolve all precheck errors (warnings can be silenced if known false positives)
  3. Take SDDC Manager VM snapshot
  4. Ensure successful component backups

Phase 2: Upgrade Management Components (if existing)

  1. Upgrade Aria Suite Lifecycle to 8.18 Patch 2
  2. Upgrade Aria Operations to 8.18.x
  3. Upgrade Aria Automation to 8.18.x (if deployed)

Phase 3: Upgrade Core Components

  1. Navigate to Lifecycle Management > SDDC Manager
  2. Select version 9.0, download, run precheck
  3. Initiate SDDC Manager upgrade
  4. Build upgrade plan (Plan Upgrade button)
  5. Execute sequential component upgrades

Component Upgrade Order

  1. SDDC Manager - First component upgraded
  2. VCF Operations/Fleet Management - Deployed if not present
  3. NSX Manager - Network management plane
  4. vCenter Server - Compute management plane
  5. ESXi Hosts - Hypervisors (cluster by cluster)
  6. VCF Identity Broker (VIDB) - Only after SDDC Manager, vCenter, and VCF Operations reach 9.0
  7. Additional components - VCF Automation, VCF Operations for Networks, VCF Operations for Logs

Note: Workload domain upgrades are optional day-N procedures; management domain completes first.

Post-Upgrade Tasks

  1. Deploy VIDB - Configure single sign-on across all platform components
  2. Update vDS version - Upgrade vSphere Distributed Switch
  3. Update vSAN on-disk format - If using vSAN storage
  4. Verify VCF Operations - Confirm monitoring and alerting operational
  5. Migrate to VCF Operations console - SDDC Manager UI deprecated; use VCF Operations for lifecycle management
  6. Deploy VCF Operations-Logs - Fresh installation with optional 90-day data migration from Aria Operations for Logs
  7. Validate third-party integrations - Backup jobs, monitoring, automation scripts
  8. Documentation update - Update runbooks to reflect new interfaces

Rollback Options

No single rollback mechanism exists. Each component requires individual rollback:

  1. Checkpoint approach: Treat each sequential upgrade as a checkpoint
  2. Pre-upgrade snapshots: Take VM snapshots before each component upgrade
  3. Component-level rollback: Revert specific failed component to pre-upgrade state
  4. Restore from backup: Use file-based backups for SDDC Manager, vCenter, NSX

Rollback limitations:

  • Once ESXi hosts upgraded, rollback is complex
  • NSX configuration changes may not be reversible
  • Data written post-upgrade may be lost

Best practice: Engage Broadcom Support immediately if issues arise during constrained maintenance windows.

Sources