Proactive Upgrade Case for vSphere Replication

VMware Live Recovery

Cases must be opened 10 business days in advance of the upgrade window.
Cases should be opened as Severity 4.
Have a development environment upgraded before production to test that any customization still functions as expected on the latest version.
Read the target version Release Notes and be aware of Known Issues.
Reference the Interop Matrix to confirm the target vSphere Replication version is compatible with other integrations in the environment and plan to upgrade those if necessary. Also confirm the vSphere Replication upgrade path is supported.
If this is a VCF environment, open a proactive Case with VCF Support.
Validate there are good backups.
Walk through Monitoring and Managing Replications in vSphere Replication
Be familiar with Upgrade to vSphere Replication 9.0
Upgrading to the VMware Live Recovery appliance

Ensure pre-check issues are resolved.
Validate the target version and advise if a newer one is available.
If a proactive Case is not raised with sufficient notice of 10 days, it will not be possible to review pre-check resolution within the planned time-frame.

Upgrade Date & Time:
vSphere Replication from version:
vSphere Replication to version:
Secondary Site vCenter:
- DNS
- IP Address
- Install vCenter version & build number
Secondary Site VR Appliance (if applicable)
- DNS
- IP Address
- Installed vSphere Replication version and build number
Backing storage array type for replicated VMs:
- vSAN
- iSCSI or iSCSI vVols
- FC or FC vVols
- NFS
Backing Storage:
- Make
- Model
- Firmware/Software running version
Have you exported your SRM Configuration? (if applicable)
Have you exported your vSphere Replication configuration?
Have you backed up your vCenter configuration?
Upgrade Prechecks Passed?:
2 or more upgrade paths required?

It is recommended to retain locally the vSphere Replication 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.
Schedule a maintenance window for the entire upgrade so that VMs can be powered off to make backups. Make sure there are good backups just prior to the upgrade. A good backup is one that restores have been tested and everything boots as expected. Powered off snapshots can provide a quick rollback point and are also required before starting the upgrade.
Have full cold backups of the nodes in case a roll back is necessary if the upgrade is unable to be completed before the maintenance window.
If 2 or more upgrade should be performed in line, take the latest snapshots after last upgrade completed.
If an upgrade failure occurs, please raise new support request

Open an Upgrade Awareness Case via Broadcom Support portal.

The purpose of a proactive upgrade case is to prepare in advance for the vSphere Replication upgrade.

This is not an exhaustive health check of the environment. If this is required, please engage VMware by Broadcom Professional Services.

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