Proactive Upgrade Case for HCX

Products

VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

Note: The Proactive Upgrade process outlined in this KB is available only to Advanced Support customers with a Support Account Manager (SAM) and/or Dedicated Technical Support Engineer (DTSE). All other customers are advised to follow HCX upgrade and to open a support case for any technical issue encountered.

Prerequisites to be followed before opening Proactive HCX Upgrade Cases:

Cases must be opened 10 business days in advance of the upgrade window.
Cases should be opened as Severity 4.
If your HCX Manager Cloud is managed by a cloud provider / Hyperscalers, please open a case with your provider and not Broadcom.
Collect the HCX Manager logs for both HCX Connector and HCX Cloud (select all the options including the database).
Follow HCX Upgrade

VMware by Broadcom Support will:

Ensure precheck issues are resolved.
Validate the target version and advise if a newer one is available.
Review HCX Manager logs for known issues that may impact the upgrade.
If a proactive Case is not raised with sufficient notice of 10 days, it will not be possible to offer log review and precheck resolution within the planned timeframe.
Once the proactive review completes the case will be closed.
2 days prior to upgrade the SAM or DTSE will open a maintenance case for you, this case will track the upgrade and can be uplifted to Severity 1 in the event of a failure.
The next available support engineer will engage with you. 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:
HCX from version:
HCX to version :
Number of Site Pairings:
Number of Service Meshes and Appliances (IX/NE):
Cloud provider:
Number of Extended Networks:
Is there any HCX DR protection?
Are you planning to upgrade the HCX Manager and all Service Mesh on the same maintenance window?

Upgrade Recommendations:

It is recommended to retain locally the HCX 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.
Verify the HCX Manager system reports healthy connections to: vCenter Server, NSX Manager (if applicable), Cloud Director/RMQ (if applicable).
Use the appliance management interface at <https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn:9443>. HCX Appliance Management UI, navigate to Dashboard and confirm the status is healthy (green).
Verify that the HCX Manager reports that there are healthy connections to the HCX Interconnect service components. In the HCX UI, navigate to Interconnect > Service Mesh and confirm the status is healthy (green).
Verify that Site Pair configurations are healthy. In the HCX UI, navigate to Site Pairing. For troubleshooting Site Pairing issues, refer to KB: HCX Site Pairing Connectivity Diagnostics.
Backup HCX Manager by configuring backups using the appliance management interface at <https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn:9443>. In the HCX Manager UI, navigate to Administration -> Troubleshooting > Backup & Restore. The best practice is to schedule Daily backups. Restoring from backup files that are more than two days old is not supported due to potential inventory changes from the backup time to present. For more information, access Backing Up HCX Manager.
Before upgrading, take snapshots of both the HCX Connector and HCX Cloud VM. Do not take snapshots of Fleet appliances (IX/NE).
Service Mesh appliances (IX and NE) should be upgraded to the same version as HCX Managers once the HCX Manager upgrade is completed.
If mobility operations are in progress using IX appliances, or networks are extended using NE appliances, you can delay upgrading Service Mesh appliances until the operations have been completed, and plan the appliance upgrade during a separate maintenance window. This should be informed to Broadcom prior to the upgrade to review the Interoperability Matrix.
Upgrading the IX requires no migrations ongoing/scheduled for switchover.
Upgrading the NE requires a downtime, requiring 30 seconds or more to re-establish data traffic across extended networks.
In case of HCX NE HA, failover can happen within a few seconds or less. The actual time to forwarding traffic depends on the overall environment.
After completing the Service Mesh upgrade, the HCX manager snapshot rollback is not possible.

Environment

VMware HCX

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 HCX 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.

Additional Information

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