Proactive Upgrade Case for NSX

Products

VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Note: The Proactive Upgrade process for NSX is limited to Advanced Support customers with a Support Account Manager (SAM) and/or Dedicated Technical Support Engineer (DTSE). All other customers are advised to follow the prechecks below and to open a support case for any technical issue that cannot be resolved.

Prerequisites to be followed before opening Proactive NSX Upgrade Cases:

Cases must be opened 10 business days in advance of the upgrade window.
Cases should be opened as Severity 4.
Upgrade prechecks must be run in advance and report any issues that cannot be resolved.
Collect the NSX Manager logs (don't set log age), also the precheck results file for upload to the new Case.
Read the target version Release Notes and be aware of Known Issues.
Confirm the target NSX version is compatible with other products in the environment. Also confirm the NSX upgrade path is supported. Reference Broadcom Product Interoperability Matrix.
If this is a VCF environment, open a proactive Case with VCF Support.
Validate NSX backup and restore functionality and ensure the passphrase is known.
Perform a sanity check using Certificate Analyzer, Results and Recovery (CARR) Script to fix certificate related issues in NSX.
Ensure ports required for the upgrade are open e.g. 443/8080 see VMware Ports & Protocols.
Action and resolve any open Medium or Critical Alarms.
If a bespoke Upgrade runbook is being followed ensure it is aligned with the official Upgrade Guide.
For 3.x upgrades, Broadcom recommends upgrading to 3.2.4.1 Release Notes.
For 4.x upgrades, Broadcom recommends upgrading to 4.2.2 Release Notes.
Note: NSX 3.0.x and 3.1.x are end of service as of 7th April 2025. NSX 3.2.x is end of service 2nd October 2025, see Broadcom Product Lifecycle.
Broadcom strongly recommends a rolling reboot of the NSX Managers prior to starting an upgrade due to a JDK issue impacting 4.2.0.x and 4.2.1.x, see NSX is impacted by JDK-8330017: ForkJoinPool stops executing tasks due to ctl field Release Count (RC) overflow

VMware by Broadcom Support will:

Ensure precheck issues are resolved.
Validate the target version and advise if a newer one is available.
Review Manager logs for known issues that may impact the upgrade.
If a proactive Case is not raised with sufficient notice of 10 days, it may not be possible to offer log review and precheck resolution within the planned timeframe.
Once the proactive review completes the case will be closed. If an issue occurs during upgrade that requires Broadcom Support engagement a new case should be opened.
Broadcom will not be able to provide dedicated support to be on standby during the activity.

Please complete the following template when opening the Case:

Upgrade Date & Time:
NSX from version:
NSX to version :
VCF from version:
VCF to version:
No. of VM Edges:
No. of Bare Metal Edges:
No. of Hosts:
No. of Managers:
vLCM environment?:
Upgrade Prechecks Passed?:
Federation?:
Security Only?:
NCP/Antrea?:

Upgrade Recommendations:

It is recommended to retain locally the NSX logs collected when opening the proactive Case until the upgrade has completed successfully.
Prepare a contingency plan to allow the upgrade maintenance window to be extended should a failure occur.
After completing the Edge and Host upgrade and before starting the NSX Manager upgrade, take another backup.
NSX Manager failures can be rolled back from version 3.2.1 and above see NSX Upgrade Guide.
In environments with long uptimes, especially if an upgrade has not been performed in a long time, it can be beneficial to perform a proactive reboot of all appliances prior to starting the upgrade. Rebooting Edges will require failovers so this could be performed at the start of the maintenance window.

Resolution

Advanced Support customers should open a Proactive Upgrade case via Broadcom Support.
The purpose of a proactive Upgrade Case is to prepare in advance for the NSX upgrade.
This is not an exhaustive health check of the environment, if this is required please engage VMware by Broadcom Professional Services.
If an issue is experienced during upgrade, Advanced Support customers should uplift their maintenance case.

All other customers should follow the prechecks in this KB and if an issue is experienced during the upgrade open a new support case.

For more details on Upgrade issues please see Troubleshooting NSX Upgrade Failures.

Additional Information

Listed below are other external KB articles created for the proactive upgrade process by product: