Steps to Upgrade VxRail vCenter.

Before starting VxRail infra upgrade you need to go with pre-validation test using vCenter and command line using VxRail Manager.

 

Please take some time to review the Customer Preparation Guide KB:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000200768 

 Recommendation:

VxRail Engineering performed a data analysis, which has shown that 92% of upgrades complete with no issue when the ESXi nodes are proactively rebooted. This will identify VM's with potential vMotion issues, ESXi maintenance mode issues, reboot issues and refreshes all ESXi services.  

Therefore, RPS are recommending customers to perform a rolling reboot on the ESXi nodes, several days before the VxRail Upgrade (Customer Task).

If a customer has any issues during the reboots, they can open an SR with the VxRail Support team to address an issue.
Additionally, your Upgrade Engineer will also reboot all Service VM's (VxRail Manager, vCenter** & PSC**) and reset iDRAC on all nodes prior to starting the upgrade.
**Only if VxRail Managed. 

 

 1.      Run Skyline Health

Login to Vxrail vCenter -> Cluster -> Monitor

Under the vSAN Run Skyline

 



 

2. Check Resyncing Objects

Login to VxRail vCenter -> Cluster -> Monitor

Under the vSAN -> Resyncing Objects

If all object has already resync then it’s fine if not, then run the Resync from Configuration.

 



  

3.      Change VxRail cluster heartbeat duration to repair Object, default it is set to 60 Minutes.

Change it to 300Minutes or more to avoid object sync during node isolation.

 

Login to VxRail vCenter -> Cluster -> Configuration

Under the vSAN -> Service -> Advanced Option

Click Edit and set Object repair timer.

 

 





 

4.      Enable VxRail health Monitoring.

 



 

Login to VxRail vCenter using root credentials and below command to check health status.

Command -> vsan.whatif_host_failures 0

 



 

Download vxverify_XXX_XX_XXX.phy file

 



 

Open vxverify_XXX_XXX_XX file using phython

 

Once you will run this command, VxRail manager will start collecting health report like below.

 



 



 In preparation for your upcoming upgrade event, note the below known items:

Schedule the upgrade for a time outside of your peak I/O load, as performance degradation may occur during the migration of VMs while individual nodes or hosts are being upgraded.

Since VMs are vMotioned as part of the upgrade, ensure that VMs are available to be vMotioned in advance. Examples of issues which may prevent vMotion:

VM with an ISO mounted.

VM with external storage locally mounted

VM pinned to a host (Affinity rules)

 

Download the latest ISO from dell portal for VxRail upgrade.


https://dl.dell.com/downloads/PG9N6_VxRail-8.0.110-Composite-Upgrade-Package-for-7.0.x.zip


Mount the ISO in VxRail cluster

Login to vCenter -> Select Cluster -> Configuration

Under VxRail -> Updates -> Local Updates 

Select Update Bundle and Upload




Once ISO Image upload complete click start.

Once you click start it will go with Precheck -> Scan and then Update.

Now all the tasks will complete auto. first will upgrade vCenter -> ESXI host.

It will prompt to enter Temp IP that will be assign temporarily to vCenter during upgrade. 




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