In this blog, we will attempt to upgrade our vCD appliances from version 10.0 to 10.2.
Blog Series
- Deploy vCloud Director 10.X
- Adding HA to vCD 10.X Configuration
- Switch Standby vCD Node to Primary
- Generate CA-Signed SSL Certificates on vCD 10.X
- Unregister a Failed or Unreachable Standby Node
- vCloud Director User Interface not Accessible
- Reset Lost or forgotten vCD 10.x Root Password
- Upgrade vcD from 10.0 to 10.2
- One Page View of all vCD 10.X commands
Summary of vCD Upgrade
- VMware Interoperability Matrix
- Read Release Notes
- Read Production Documentation
- Power off Primary vCD, NFS
- Create snapshot of Cloud Director cells
- Power on the vCD
- Check database status
- Transfer the upgrade bundle to a vCD directory and extract it
- Upgrade the Primary Cell
- Upgrade all the Standby Cells
- Upgrade the vCloud Director database
- Reboot each vCD appliance only after vCD DB upgrade
Lab Topology
Our current vCD appliances are set up this way
| VM | Version | vCPU | Memory GB | Storage | Quantity |
| vCenter | 7.0 U1 | 2 | 10 | 100GB | 1 |
| NSX-V | 6.4.10 | 4 | 16 | 100GB | 1 |
| vCD-Cell-01(Primary) | 10.0 | 2 | 12 | 120GB | 1 |
| vCD-Cell-02(Standby) | 10.0 | 2 | 12 | 120GB | 1 |
| vCD-Cell-03(Standby) | 10.0 | 2 | 12 | 120Gb | 1 |
| NFS-01 | NA | 2 | 2 | 40GB |
VMware Interoperability Matrix
As seen we can move our vCD 10.0 to 10.2.2 in one hop
Upgrade the Primary vCloud Director Appliance
During the upgrade of the VMware Cloud Director appliance deployment, the VMware Cloud Director service stops working and some downtime can be expected.
Log in to the UI and verify the health of our vCD environment. Make a not of the primary cell as that’s the one that needs the initial upgrade.
1- Check the Database Status
sudo -i -u postgres /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/repmgr cluster show
2- Power off the primary vCloud Director node Power –> Shutdown Guest OS and take a Snapshot of the VM
3- Power on the primary vCloud Director node VM
4- Log in to the UI and verify if health stats are all good
5- Download the vCD upgrade bundle from VMware.com
6- Using FileZilla or WinSCP login into our Primary vCD node and create a new folder in the /tmp/local-update-package and copy the upgrade package to it
7- SSH into our primary appliance and navigate to /tmp/local-update-package folder
8- We will now extract the contents of the package using
tar -zxf VMware_Cloud_Director_10.2.2.5821-17855679_update.tar.gz
9- Now we need to configure the newly created directory /tmp/local-update-package as our update repository.
vamicli update –repo file:///tmp/local-update-package
10- Check for updates from the configured update repository and as seen below we see an upgrade is available
vamicli update –check
10 – Check Cell Status
# /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool -u administrator cell –status
Please enter the administrator password:
Job count = 28
Is Active = true
In Maintenance Mode = false
11- Pause Cloud Director with the following command:
/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool -u administrator cell –quiesce true
Please enter the administrator password
12 – Check Cell Status again to see if cell stastus is active or not
root@photon-machine [ ~ ]# /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool -u administrator cell –status
Please enter the administrator password:
Job count = 0
Is Active = false
In Maintenance Mode = false
13- Shutdown Cloud Director with the following command:
/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/cell-management-tool -u <admin username> cell –shutdown
This username could be administrator of vcdadmin
14-. Start the upgrade procedure on the primary node using the below command
vamicli update –install latest
Upgrade the Standby vCloud Director Appliances
15 – Perform step 6 to step 12 on the remaining standby/application nodes.
Upgrade the Cloud Director Embedded DB
16. Create a backup of the Cloud Director PostgreSQL Database from the primary node.
/opt/vmware/appliance/bin/create-db-backup
17. Perform the upgrade of the Cloud Director database.
/opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/upgrade
18. Reboot each Cloud Director appliance by SSH or GUI.
shutdown -r now
19- Log in to the provider portal to validate the version of the Cloud Director instance.
After you apply the upgrade to every VMware Cloud Director appliance and the database upgrade is complete, you must reboot each VMware Cloud Director appliance, wait for it to rejoin the PostgreSQL cluster before rebooting the other appliances.
