Upgrading vSphere with Tanzu Guest Clusters from 1.32 to 1.33: Key Considerations, Known Issues, and Prerequisites

Products

• VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service

Issue/Introduction

• When planning a rolling upgrade of a vSphere with Tanzu Kubernetes Cluster (TKC) from version v1.32.7+vmware.3-fips-vkr.1 to v1.33.3+vmware.1-fips-vkr.1, are there any limitations, known issues, or special considerations that need to be addressed?

Environment

• VMware Kubernetes Service

Resolution

While a direct rolling upgrade is a standard and supported process, there are key considerations to ensure a smooth, successful update with minimal disruption. The process replaces nodes one-by-one, ensuring high availability of workloads controlled by a Deployment or ReplicaSet.

Upgrade path and version compatibility

The upgrade from Kubernetes v1.32.7 to v1.33.3 is a standard minor version upgrade and is supported according to the standard upgrade path. The VMware Kubernetes Service platform is designed to handle these minor version increments gracefully. A sequential upgrade path is enforced automatically by the platform, which will ensure all necessary intermediate steps are taken, including any required component updates.

Refer to the release notes of VKr v1.33.3 for more details.

Before initiating the upgrade, some important considerations to check.

• Supervisor Cluster Status: Ensure the Supervisor Cluster is in a "Ready" state. You can verify this by checking the cluster status in the vSphere Client under Workload Management or by using kubectl.
• Available VMware Kubernetes Release (VKr): Confirm that the desired v1.33.3+vmware.1-fips-vkr.1 VKr is available in your subscribed content library.
• Backups: Perform backups of all critical application data and the vCenter Server. Although rolling upgrades are non-disruptive, a backup provides a recovery point in case of unexpected issues.