VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1.x releases – Important information and Knowledge base articles

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

NOTE: Prior to initiating any upgrades, please review LCM service crashing on SDDC Manager (broadcom.com) and implement the corrective action.

Details:

• List of important information and Knowledge Base articles for VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1

Information

• Guide: Review the VCF 5.1 Lifecycle Management guide if planning a VCF 4.4.x and VCF 4.5.x, VCF 5.0.x  and VCF 5.0 to VCF 5.1 upgrade.

• Hardware compatibility: Before upgrading to VCF 5.1, check the VMware Compatibility Guide data and confirm the hardware compatibility.

• WCP: For VCF instance with WCP enabled domains, please refer to VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x to 5.x upgrade dependency on vSphere with Tanzu/WCP (broadcom.com)

• NSX Federation: For VCF instance with NSX Federation configured refer to Interop for VCF upgrades for NSX federated environments.

• VCF+ (connected) customers MUST disconnect their SDDC instances from the cloud gateway & assign the term keys that have been delivered to the Broadcom portal to enable upgrades to 5.1 & above. Customers are still subject to the SPD limitations for VCF. Disconnect SDDC Manager and Subscribed vCenter Servers from VCF+ Cloud Console and Apply License Keys (broadcom.com)

• VCF-S/Cloud Packs per core disconnected customers MUST assign the term keys that have been delivered to the Broadcom portal to enable upgrades to 5.1 & above. Customers are still subject to the SPD limitations for VCF.
  
  

Requirements

• All domains within a VCF instance must be running the same version before an upgrade.

• Upgrading from VCF 4.4.x will show two NSX bundles when target version selected is 5.1. Both bundles must be applied in the order shown. NSX will be rebooted twice with hosts going into maintenance mode.

• Two SDDC manager only upgrades are required when upgrading from VCF 4.4.x to VCF 5.1. Please refer VCF 5.1 Lifecycle Management guide.

• If your environment has been async patched using async patch tool or Out of band patching, use Async patch tool to enable future upgrade. Refer to Async Patch Tool documentation.

• Licenses: Update licenses for VCF components using Update Licenses for Workload Domain Component.

• Day – N workflows: Review the VCF 5.1 Lifecycle Management guide for VCF Day-N workflows supported during VCF 4.4.x/4.5.x to VCF 5.1 upgrade.

• vCenter Snapshots before upgrade : Follow steps in VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode pre-changes snapshot (online or offline) best practice (broadcom.com) for vCenter Snapshots in ELM mode before upgrade.

• If vCenter’s cannot be powered off for a snapshot, please take File level backup of all vCenter's in Enhanced Linked Mode before upgrade, please refer to File-Based Backup and Restore of vCenter Server for more information

• vCenter Enhanced Linked Mode considerations during upgrade from VCF 4.x to VCF 5.x: Please refer to Limitations of vCenter Enhance Linked Mode for mixed versions of vCenter 7.x & 8.x during upgrade to VCF 5.x (broadcom.com) , for information on mixed mode limitations during upgrade.

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1

Resolution

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