NSX Federation Upgrade Sequencing: Global and Local Manager Compatibility

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

When planning an upgrade of an NSX Federated environment (e.g., from version 4.x to 9.x), customers often inquire about the following:

• Whether Global Managers (GM) can manage Local Managers (LM) running an older version.
• The required upgrade sequence for Global Managers and Local Managers  clusters.
• Supportability of spacing out cluster upgrades over several days.

Environment

VMware NSX

Cause

This article provides guidance regarding the version interoperability and recommended maintenance windows for upgrading an NSX Federated deployment.

Resolution

In an NSX Federation environment, it is supported for Global Managers to run a higher version than Local Managers during an upgrade transition.

Upgrade Sequencing and Compatibility

1. Sequence: You must upgrade the Global Managers before upgrading the Local Managers.
2. Interoperability: A Global Manager running version 9.0.x is capable of syncing with and managing Local Managers running version 4.x.
3. Version Restriction: Never upgrade a Local Manager to a version higher than the current version of the Global Manager. This configuration is unsupported and will impact management capabilities and future upgrades.
4. Note: If it is a VCF environment, the mandatory sequence would require the Global Managers being upgraded first.

Maintenance Window Recommendations

• Phased Upgrades: While it is permissible to space out the upgrades of different clusters over a few days, it is strongly recommended to complete the entire federation upgrade within a reasonable maintenance window.
• Stability: Completing the upgrade across all sites promptly ensures full feature compatibility and environment stability.

Pre-Upgrade Checklist

• Ensure a Standby Global Manager site is upgraded before the Active Global Manager site to avoid pre-check failures. Refer to NSX Global Manager upgrade pre-check fails with "Active Global Manager site cannot be upgraded first. Please upgrade Standby Global Manager '<Secondary Global Manager Site Name>' before performing upgrade of this site." for details.
• Verify that all site sync statuses show as Success in the Global Manager UI (System > Location Manager) after each step. If a sync failure occurs, see Local Manager is out of sync with Global Manager: Sync Status shows "Failed".
• Backups should be taken locally and via SFTP for all clusters (Active GM, Standby GM, and all LMs) before starting..

Additional Information

Link to VMware NSX 4.x Upgrade guide: Upgrading your NSX Federation Deployment