NOTE: Prior to initiating any upgrades, please review KB 95536 and implement the corrective action.
Details:
Guide: Review the VCF 5.0 Lifecycle Management guide if planning a VCF 4.3.x, 4.4.x and 4.5.x to 5.0 upgrade.
Hardware compatibility: Before upgrading to VCF 5.0, 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.
NSX Federation: For VCF instance with NSX Federation configured refer to VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.X, 4.4.X and 4.5.x to 5.x upgrade dependency with NSX Federation configured .
All domains within a VCF instance must be running the same version before an upgrade.
Upgrading from VCF 4.3.x and VCF 4.4.x will show two NSX bundles when target version selected is 5.0. Both bundles must be applied in the order shown. NSX will be rebooted twice with hosts going into maintenance mode.
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 5.0 Lifecycle Management guide for VCF Day-N workflows supported during VCF 4.3.x/4.4.x/4.5.x to VCF 5.0 upgrade.
vCenter Snapshots before upgrade : Follow steps in VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode pre-changes snapshot (online or offline) best practice for VC 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: Please refer to Limitations of vCenter Enhance Linked Mode for mixed versions of vCenter 7.x & 8.x during upgrade to VCF 5.0 , for information on mixed mode limitations.
This is an Informational KB.