How to upgrade ESXi to vSphere 8.0 (or later) with VMware NSX 4.0 (or later)
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How to upgrade ESXi to vSphere 8.0 (or later) with VMware NSX 4.0 (or later)

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Article ID: 312013

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Updated On:

Products

VMware NSX VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

  • This article provides information on upgrading your vSphere (8.0 or later) environment with VMware NSX (4.0 or later) for VMware Out-Of-Band product upgrades / Non VCF workflows.
  • Follow the KB steps to recover, if ESXi NSX kernel module are not installed after ESXi upgrade.

    NOTE : For VCF workflows, the NSX VIBs installation as part of ESXi upgrade has been automated and is enabled by default. Please make sure the NSX is upgraded and on-demand precheck to check for presence of NSX LCP file is successful.

Environment

VMware NSX 4.0 and later
VMware ESXi 8.0 and later

Resolution

Upgrade using baseline group method:

  1. Upgrade vCenter Server (VC) to 8.0.
  2. Log in to the the upgraded VC.
  3. Navigate to Menu > Lifecycle Manager.
  4. In Lifecycle Manager, upload the ESXi 8.0 installation ISO.
  5. Download the VMware NSX: NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0, refer this to download software and patches.
  6. In the dropdown menu for "Select Version" choose appropriate NSX version, scroll down and download NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0.

NOTE:

It is very important that the VIB bundle used matches the NSX version.  If it does not match the NSX Version then, the upgrade of NSX will fail at 48%.

The error message will state as following, for example: "Node has invalid version 4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041 of software nsx-monitoring. Node has invalid version 4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041 of software nsx-vdpi.Node has invalid version 4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041 of software nsx-shared-libs.Node has invalid version 4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041 of software nsx-proxy..."

This is a partial list of VIBs that the error message will call out. In the example above version 4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041 was not a match for the VIBs that NSX 4.2.1.0.0.24405122 expected.  The expected version was 4.2.1.0.0.8.0.24302014.  Version  4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041 needed to be removed from the baseline and replaced by VIB bundle 4.2.1.0.0-8.0.24302041.This issue could leave hosts in a state requiring manual removal of NSX and other stale data.

7. In Lifecycle Manager, select ACTIONS > Import Updates, upload the VMware NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0

8. Create an upgrade baseline using the imported ESXi 8.0 installation ISO. For more information, refer this doc . 

9. Create an extension baseline using the uploaded kernel module.

10. Type nsx in the name filter to locate the kernel module.

11. Create a baseline group using two baselines as created above.

12. Attach the baseline group to a cluster.

13. Ensure the vmknics on the hosts are properly configured, if the vmknics are configured to use DHCP, ensure the DHCP server is working.

14. Start the remediate process.

15. Wait until all the upgrade completes.

 

Upgrade using combined ESXi 8.0 + VMware NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0

1. Upgrade vCenter to 8.0 or above.

2. Log in to the upgraded VC.

3. Navigate to Menu > Autodeploy. 

4. Click ENABLE IMAGE BUILDER.

5. On the Software Depots tab, upload the ESXi 8.0 software depot.

6. Download theVMware NSX 4.X NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0, refer this to download software and patches.


7. At Menu > Autodeploy > Software Depots tab, select esx80 and not esx70 (image below is just for example) and upload the VMware NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0 by clicking on 'Import' button.
 

 8. At Menu > Autodeploy > Software Depots, create a customized software depot.

 9. Choose the customized software depot.

10. Create a new image profile, choose all the packages from ESXi 8.0 software depot and VMware NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0.

11. After the new customized software depot image is ready, choose Export > ISO.

12. Upload the the exported ISO to Lifecycle Manager.

13. Create a baseline based on the uploaded ISO image in Lifecycle Manager, attach it to a cluster.

14. Start the remediate process.

15. Wait until all the upgrade completes.

16. If there are failures, retry the the remediate process again.

17. Host reboot is taken care of by Lifecycle Manager.

 
 

Upgrade using esxcli method 

1. Place ESXi host in Maintenance Mode. See this on how to place a host in maintenance mode.

2. Download the ESXi upgrade bundle to the host.

3. Install using this command: esxcli software profile update --depot <path-to-depot-file> -p ESXi-#.#.#######-standard

For example: esxcli software profile update --depot /vmfs/volumes/########-#######-####-############/VMware-ESXi-8.0.0-########-depot.zip -p ESXi-8.0.0-#########-standard
 
4. Now reboot the host, refer this on how to reboot a host.
 
5. Download the VMware NSX Kernel Module for VMware ESXi 8.0 to the ESXi host,  refer this to download software and patches.
 
6. Install using the following command:  esxcli software vib install -d /<path to nsx bundle>

    For example: esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/nsx-lcp-4.x.x.x.x.#######-esx80.zip

7. Exit Maintenance Mode. See this on how to exit a host from maintenance mode.

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