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Upgrading vSphere
VMwareLifecycle Management

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 Upgrading vSphere

Table of contents

Upgrading vSphere ..................................................................................................................................... 3

You Are Here ............................................................................................................................................. 3

Upgrade Sequence ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Upgrading vSphere ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Upgrading vCenter Server ....................................................................................................................... 5

Upgrading ESXi ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Upgrading vSphere Distributed Switch ...................................................................................................... 8
Upgrading vSAN on-disk Format ............................................................................................................... 8

Upgrading Other Components .................................................................................................................... 10

Upgrading Host Profiles ......................................................................................................................... 10

Upgrading VMware Tools ....................................................................................................................... 10
Upgrading Virtual Hardware ................................................................................................................... 11

Resources ................................................................................................................................................ 13

Documentation ..................................................................................................................................... 13

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 Upgrading vSphere

Upgrading vSphere
You Are Here

This document is part of the vSphere 7 Upgrade Activity Path. Click here to return to the activity path.

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 Upgrading vSphere

Upgrade Sequence
The vSphere upgrade sequence requires vCenter Server to be upgraded first, followed by the ESXi hosts.

Important: Depending on your environment, you may be required to upgrade another VMware or 3rd party product before
upgrading vCenter Server. Consult the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices.

After that, the remaining order is interchangeable but is commonly followed by upgrading vSphere Distributed Switches. the vSAN
on-disk format and lastly things like Host Profiles, VMware Tools and VM Hardware (if required).

Note: VMware does not recommend upgrading virtual hardware version if you do not need the new features exposed by the new
version, or unless security vulnerabilities are mitigated by newer virtual hardware versions. See KB Article Upgrading a virtual
machine to the latest hardware version (multiple versions) (1010675) for more details.
Important: You must upgrade VMware Tools before upgrading virtual hardware.

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Upgrading vSphere
Upgrading vCenter Server

Documentation
Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance

Download the vCenter Server 7 installer media and mount it to a machine that can access the vSphere management network. In
the vCenter Server installer, navigate to the vcsa-ui-installer directory, go to the subdirectory for your operating system, and run
the installer executable file.
For Windows OS, go to the win32 subdirectory, and run the installer.exe file.
For Linux OS, go to the lin64 subdirectory, and run the installer file.
For Mac OS, go to the mac subdirectory, and run the Installer.app file.

On the Home page, click Upgrade and follow the upgrade wizard to deploy a new vCenter Server 7 with a temporary network
identity.

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Complete stage 2 to transfer the vCenter Server data from the old vCenter Server 6.7 to the new vCenter Server 7. The old
vCenter Server 6.7 is shutdown automatically, and the new vCenter Server 7 will adopt the network identity (full-qualified domain
name and IP address) of the the vCenter Server 6.7.

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 Upgrading vSphere

Verify the upgrade was successful by logging into the vSphere Client and observing that users, permissions, inventory, etc are all
correct.

Note: You may see some alarms due to the vCenter Server services being offline for a small period of time. Review these alarms,
clear and acknowledge as necessary

Important: After upgrading to vCenter Server 7, you will see vSphere Cluster Service VMs deployed to your clusters. This is
expected and normal. For more details, see vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS).

Upgrading ESXi

Documentation
Import an ISO Image to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Depot
Create a Host Upgrade Baseline
Remediating ESXi 6.5 or ESXi 6.7 Hosts Against an ESXi 7.0 Image

Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager import the ESXi 7.0 U3 ISO and create a host upgrade baseline and attach the newly created host
upgrade baseline to the ESXi 6.7 cluster.
Initiate a compliance check against the cluster to ensure the hosts are suitable to be upgraded with the attached baseline.
Perform a pre-remediate check to ensure there are no blockers to the upgrade. The pre-remediate check report notifies of any
actions that should be taken.

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Remediate the cluster against the host upgrade baseline and wait until all hosts have been upgraded.

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Once all hosts in the cluster have been upgraded to ESXi 7, you can convert the cluster to use vSphere Lifecycle Manager image-
based management.

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Upgrading vSphere Distributed Switch

Documentation
Upgrade a vSphere Distributed Switch to a Later Version
Export vSphere Distributed Switch Configurations
Import a vSphere Distributed Switch Configuration

You can upgrade vSphere Distributed Switch version 6.x to a later version. The upgrade lets the distributed switch take advantage
of features that are available only in the later version.

Note: To be able to restore the connectivity of the virtual machines and VMkernel adapters if the upgrade fails, back up the
configuration of the distributed switch. If the upgrade is not successful, to recreate the switch with its port groups and connected
hosts, you can import the switch configuration file.

On the vSphere Client Home page, click Networking and navigate to the distributed switch.
Right-click the distributed switch and select Upgrade > Upgrade Distributed Switch. Select the vSphere Distributed Switch version
that you want to upgrade the switch to and click Next. Review host compatibility and click Next. Complete the upgrade
configuration and click Finish.

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Upgrading vSAN on-disk Format

Documentation

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Upgrading vSAN Disk Format Using vSphere Client

Navigate to the vSAN cluster.

Click the Configure tab. Under vSAN, select Disk Management.
Click Pre-check Upgrade. The upgrade pre-check analyzes the cluster to uncover any issues that might prevent a successful
upgrade. Some of the items checked are host status, disk status, network status, and object status. Upgrade issues are displayed
in the Disk pre-check status text box. Click Upgrade. Click Yes on the Upgrade dialog box to perform the upgrade of the on-disk
format.

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Upgrading Other Components

Upgrading Host Profiles
There are two methods to upgrade host profiles to the latest version. You can either extract new host profiles from the ESXi 7
hosts or by copying the settings from an ESXi 7 hosts.
You can see the current version of the host profile in the vSphere Client. From the actions menu you can choose Copy Settings
from Host to upgrade the host profile from an ESXi 7 host.

Upgrading VMware Tools

There are several methods you can use to upgrade VMware Tools. One method is to use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to automate
the process at scale for an entire cluster.
You can select the virtual machines you wish to upgrade their VMware Tools instance and choose Upgrade to Match Host. You can
change the default remediation settings, including schedule the upgrade, and configure VM snapshot settings for rollback options.

Important: Often, VMware Tools upgrades require a reboot of the virtual machine.

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Upgrading Virtual Hardware

Warning: Always upgrade VMware Tools before upgrading virtual machine hardware. Failure to do so can result in new virtual
hardware not being detected by the guest operating system

Similar to upgrading VMware Tools, there are several methods to upgrade virtual hardware. For an individual virtual machine, you
can choose the virtual hardware version you wish to upgrade to.

To upgrade many virtual machines virtual hardware, you can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to automate the operation at scale.
When using vSphere Lifecycle Manager, you cannot specify the virtual hardware version. The VMs will be upgraded to the latest
virtual hardware version supported by the host. You can change the default remediation settings, including schedule the upgrade,
and configure VM snapshot settings for rollback options.

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Important: Upgrading virtual hardware requires a virtual machine to be powered-off. vSphere Lifecycle Manager will shutdown
virtual machines to perform the virtual hardware upgrade and power them back on again.

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Resources
Documentation
vCenter Server
Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance
About vCenter Server Upgrade
About the Upgrade Process of the vCenter Server Appliance
Preparing to Upgrade the vCenter Server Appliance
GUI Upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance
Verify Your vCenter Server Upgrade or Migration Is Successful

ESXi
Remediating ESXi Hosts Against vSphere Lifecycle Manager Baselines and Baseline Groups
Import an ISO Image to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Depot
Create a Host Upgrade Baseline
Attach Baselines and Baseline Groups to Objects
Initiate a Compliance Check for ESXi Hosts Manually
Generate a Pre-Remediation Check Report
Remediating ESXi 6.5 or ESXi 6.7 Hosts Against an ESXi 7.0 Image
Switching from Using Baselines to Using Images

vSphere Distributed Switch

Upgrade a vSphere Distributed Switch to a Later Version

vSAN
Upgrading vSAN Disk Format Using vSphere Client

Other
Upgrading Host Profiles in a vCenter Server Environment with Stateful ESXi 6.5 and 6.7 Hosts
Upgrading VMware Tools
Upgrade the VMware Tools Version of Virtual Machines
Manually Upgrade VMware Tools in Virtual Machines
Upgrade the VM Hardware Compatibility of Virtual Machines

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