vRNI 6.x Guide and best practices on upgrading vRealize Network Insight

Products

VMware Aria Operations for Networks

Issue/Introduction

The purpose of this article is to provide information that will assist with the upgrade of Aria Operations for Networks. It includes general information relating to the upgrade process, and supplemental information based on common issues and the latest support trends.

Environment

VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.5.1
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.8.0
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.7.0
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.4.0
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.2.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.9.0
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.3.x
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.5.0
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.6.0
Aria Operations for Networks

Resolution

Prerequisites

Before upgrading Aria Operations for Networks, make sure that snapshots have been taken on both Aria Operations for Networks Platform and Collector VMs to revert back the deployment to a working stable state.
Ensure Aria Operations for Networks VMs are powered off from vCenter using Power Option>Shut Down Guest OS and then take snapshots.

Post upgrade is Successful ensure to delete the snapshots.

As an extra insurance, it is recommended to take full backups of your Aria Operations for Networks deployment. See Best practices to backup a vRealize Network Insight Cluster for more information.

Upgrade paths

Standard path
6.2.0 > 6.3.0>6.4.0>6.5.1>6.6.0>6.7.0>6.8.0>6.9.0
Jumps possible

6.2.0 > 6.4.0
6.3.0>6.5.1
6.4.0>6.6.0
6.6.0>6.8.0
6.7.0>6.9.0

Health checks to ensure a smooth upgrade

From vRealize Network Insight 3.8, we recommend to have 100% reservation. Please make sure reservation is set to 100% before the upgrade.
Check the disk I/O speed (by doing a DD command)and make sure there is no latency beyond 20ms. Both steps will reduce overall time for upgrade
Check the MD5SUM of the downloaded upgrade bundle and match with Customer Connect site.
Increase the UI timeout to more than 1 hour. This will ensure seamless UI upgrade
- Settings > System Configuration > User Session Timeout > Duration 24h.
If you are upgrading from vRealize Network Insight 3.7, you must increase the timeout values.

Upgrade methods

A. Online Upgrade

Prerequisities

To receive the notification upgrade, make sure that your deployment has access to the following URLs on port 443 :

svc.ni.vmware.com
reg.ni.vmware.com

Notification of new version available:

To check the update notification available on vRealize Network Insight 4.x.0:

Go to Settings > Install and Support.

Updates: A new version 4.x.0.########## is available!
Pop Up Notification: Upgrade available!
Click View details to view details of update.
Click Install Now on details page to download and upgrade the vRealize Network Insight deployment.
Verify the upgraded version from the product UI under Settings > About page to be 4.x.0.##########.

No notification of new version available:
If no notification is observed on vRealize Network Insight 4.x.0:
Verify that both vRealize Network Insight Platform and Proxy VMs have connectivity to svc.ni.vmware.com on Port 443 and reg.ni.vmware.com on Port 443.

Note: In case this connectivity requires http proxy, configure it on each VM using the set-web-proxy CLI command.

To confirm connectivity from vRealize Network Insight VMs:

Run this CLI command on each VM:

show-connectivity-status

Note: Ensure that the output contains upgrade connectivity status as Passed. For more information, see the Aria Operations for Networks Command-Line Interface Reference Guide.
Open a case with Broadcom support and provide the Service tag from the product UI. Service tag is shown under Settings > About page.
Provide screenshot of show-connectivity-status CLI command output from each Aria Operations for Networks Platform and Proxy VMs.

Note: After Broadcom support enables online upgrade, these notification are visible in Settings > Install and Support.

Updates: A new version 4.x.0.########## is available!
Pop Up Notification: Upgrade available!
Click View details to view details of update.
Click Install Now on the Details page to download and upgrade the Aria Operations for Networks deployment.

Note: Verify the upgraded version from the product UI under Settings > About page to be 4.x.0.##########.

B. Offline Upgrade

Use this option when both Aria Operations for Networks Platform and Proxy VMs do not have access to the internet. You must upgrade Platform VMs before Proxy VMs.

In case of Cluster Upgrade, platform1 must be upgraded first, then the other platforms will upgrade automatically. To confirm platform1 IP address, run this command in CLI: (cli)ping platform1

Download the upgrade bundle file VMWare-vRealize-Network-Insight-4.x.0.##########.upgrade.bundle.
Copy the upgrade bundle VMWare-vRealize-Network-Insight-4.x.0.##########.upgrade.bundle to vRealize Network Insight Platform and Proxy VMs.

To copy the file to vRealize Network Insight VM, use any one of these options:

Option 0 (The quickest way to upgrade) :
1. Go to Settings > Install and Support > Software Version > Click on "Click here" next to "Want to update using an update package" to upload the bundle to the appliances.
2. Click on "Browse" and on "Upload" to start the transfer.
3. Once the upload has been completed, when you are ready, click on "Install Now" to perform the upgrade.

Option 1:

- To copy the file from Linux VM to vRealize Network Insight VM, run this command:
  
  scp VMWare-vRealize-Network-Insight-3.#.0.##########.upgrade.bundle consoleuser@<IP_Address_vRNI_VM>:~/
- To copy file from Windows VM to vRealize Network Insight VM, run this command:
  
  Use pscp utility from https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/w64/pscp.exe
  
  pscp -scp <SOURCE_PATH>\VMWare-vRealize-Network-Insight-3.#.0.##########.upgrade.bundle consoleuser@<IP_Address_vRNI_VM>:~/

Option 2:

Log in to Aria Operations for Networks Platform CLI using consoleuser and run this command:

(cli) package-installer copy --host 192.168.21.22 --user johndoe --path /path/to/VMWare-vRealize-Network-Insight-4.#.0.##########.upgrade.bundle

Note: This command uses SCP to download the bundle from the host where the patch is downloaded, thus SCP server is required to be running on the host.
For more information, see Aria Operations for Networks Command-Line Interface Reference Guide.

Upgrade the appliance using package-installer upgrade command.

(cli) package-installer upgrade --name VMWare-vRealize-Network-Insight-4.x.0.##########.upgrade.bundle

Note: Upgrade would complete within 30 minutes after this step.
Verify the upgraded version using the show-version command.

(cli) show-version

You see the output similar to:

3.x.0.##########

Note: After a successful upgrade, it is not required to reboot the virtual machine.

Things to know

VRNI 3.X: changing the brick size from medium to large size

Additional Information

For any clarifications and issue troubleshooting, contact Broadcom Support.