Planned Activity Precheck Review Case for VCF Environments

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

Note: The Planned Activity Precheck Review outlined in this KB is available only to Advanced Support customers with a Support Account Manager (SAM) and/or Dedicated/Designated Support Engineer (DTSE/DSE). 

The Planned Activity Precheck Review is provided on a best effort basis and is intended to assist with identified issues and precheck failures. While Broadcom Support strives to highlight potential risks, this review is not exhaustive and may not identify all issues or environment-specific considerations. It is not a commitment to participate during the planned activity nor is it a certification or validation of a runbook. The customer remains responsible for validating their activity plan and ensuring their environment if fully prepared for the change. 

Prerequisites before opening a Planned Activity Precheck Review Case for VCF:

• Cases must be opened at least 10 business days in advance of the upgrade window
• Cases should be opened as Low-P4
• Have a development environment upgraded before production to test that any customization still functions as expected on the latest version
• Upgrade pre-checks must be run in advance and report any issues that cannot be resolved
• Confirm the VCF upgrade path is supported
• Be familiar with the VCF Lifecycle Management Guide
• Review the upgrade preparation guidance in Upgrade VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 4.x and 5.x
• For 9.x upgrades, check the update sequence and compatible VMware product 
• For 9.1 upgrades, check the update sequence and related issues and the VCF Upgrade Planner

VMware by Broadcom Support will:

• Ensure pre-check issues are resolved
• Validate the target version and advise if a newer one is available
• Review provided logs for known issues that may impact the upgrade
• If a Planned Activity Precheck Review Case is not raised with sufficient notice of 10 days, it will not be possible to offer log review and pre-check resolution within the planned time-frame
• Once the review is complete, the Planned Activity Precheck Review case will be closed.
  • Two days prior to the upgrade, either you or your SAM/DTSE/DSE will open a maintenance case. This case will track the upgrade and can be uplifted to a Critical - P1 in the event of a production down outage during the upgrade. 
  • 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. 

Complete the following template when opening the Case: 

• Upgrade Date & Time?
• Current VCF version?
• Target VCF version?
• Product Interoperability checked?
• Have the release notes been reviewed for the target version?
• Do you have a backup of the vCenter, SDDC Manager, and NSX-T?
• Number of vCenter's being upgraded (if applicable)?
• Number of physical hosts?
• Estimated number of VMs?
• Resource utilization details?
• Is High Availability (HA) or Distribute Resource Scheduler (DRS) enabled?
• List of client plugins and extensions?

Additional data to be collected:

How to collect SDDC Manager logs

Using the VCF Diagnostic Tool for SDDC Manager

Perform Update Precheck in SDDC Manager

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x
• VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x
• VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x

Resolution

Open a Low - P4, Planned Activity Precheck Review case via Broadcom Support portal. 

The purpose of a Planned Activity Precheck Review case is to prepare in advance for the VCF upgrade.

If an issue is experienced during upgrade that causes a production down outage, Advanced Support customers should uplift the severity of the case to a Critical - P1.

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

Additional Information

For further Planned Activity Precheck Review guidance, please see the Planned Activity Precheck Review - Broadcom Advanced Support KB which details the process and includes all VCF specific products this is offered for. 

 

Preparation Requirements:

• Perform a rolling reboot of management components (SDDC Manager, vCenter Server, and NSX Managers) prior to the maintenance window to clear stale states.
• Execute the VCF Diagnostic Tool (VCF-VDT) and SDDC Manager LCM pre-checks at least 10 days before the scheduled activity.
• Verify if third-party plugins are in scope for synchronized upgrade cycles.
• Ensure validated file-based and image-level backups are complete for all management nodes.
• Review the comprehensive preparation checklist and upgrade sequence for VCF.