NSX 9.x is only supported as part of a VCF 9.x environment

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• Upgrading NSX from 4.x to 9.x is only supported as part of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) upgrade to 9.x.
• Install of NSX 9.x is only supported as part of a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.x installation.

Environment

• VMware NSX 4.x
• VMware NSX 9.x

Resolution

Upgrades to NSX 9.x can only be performed by VCF lifecycle management tools. Stand-alone NSX 4.x instances must be imported into VCF prior to being able to upgrade them to 9.x.

For environments that have been upgraded, they must be reverted to NSX 4.x.

NSX Manager:

• Power off all 3 NSX Managers
• Deploy a new NSX Manager
• Configure the external ftp backup server on the new Manager
• Select the backup from before the upgrade was initiated and click restore

When the restore completes, it is expected that all the Edges and Hosts will be in a disconnected state.

Edges:

• Deploy a new Edge
• Then use the Replace option to replace the 9.0 Edge
• System->Fabric->Nodes->Edge Clusters, select Actions -> Replace Edge Cluster Member
• This will need to be repeated one by one for each Edge

Hosts:

• Put the host in maintenance mode in vSphere client
• Drag the host out of the cluster
• On NSX UI check for the host
   System > Fabric > Hosts > Other hosts
   System > Fabric > Hosts > Standalone
• If it shows as prepared select the host and click Remove NSX
• Drag the host back into the cluster to reprepare for 4.x
• On the vSphere client Exit maintenance mode
• Repeat for all Hosts

Additional Information

VMware NSX Upgrade Path