HCX Upgrade v4.9 To v4.10: A Step-by-Step Technical Guide

This blog post will provide a detailed, step-by-step guide to upgrading HCX components seamlessly. Upgrading VMware HCX (Hybrid Cloud Extension) is a vital process to ensure that your environment remains secure, feature-rich, and compatible with the latest VMware products.

Why Upgrade HCX?

Upgrading HCX ensures that your infrastructure benefits from:

1. Enhanced Security: Patches and updates address vulnerabilities and strengthen your environment.

2. New Features: Access the latest tools and functionalities to improve workload migration and management.

3. Compatibility: Maintain alignment with the latest VMware products and ensure a smooth operational workflow.

4. Stability Improvements: Reduce the likelihood of issues and downtime with bug fixes and performance enhancements.

Pre-Upgrade Checklist:

Before proceeding with the HCX upgrade, ensure the following:

• Verify the HCX Manager system reports healthy connections to vCenter, NSX Manager (if applicable), Site paring connection, Service Meshes, All Existing Extended Network status.

• Take a backup of the HCX Manager. In addition to backing up HCX Manager, optionally use the vSphere snapshot feature to take a snapshot of the HCX Manager at the source and the destination sites. If necessary, you can use snapshots to roll back the HCX Manager version.

• Confirm the compatibility of the HCX version using VMware compatibility guide.

• Verify access credentials for HCX Manager, vSphere, and NSX (if applicable).

• Make sure no on-going Migration/replication jobs scheduled during that time.

Step-by-Step HCX Upgrade Procedure:

Current Environment Details & HCX Deployment Mode:

• HCX Deployment Mode: Connected Mode/Site (Where HCX connects to VMware online depot to download the HCX upgrade bundles).

• In this blog post, we will demonstrate HCX Upgrade from current version 4.9.0.0 to 4.10.3.0.

Let's Start,

1. Log in to the HCX interface: https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn.

   (Note - You can update site-paired HCX Managers simultaneously)

2. Navigate to the Administration tab.

3. Navigate to the System Updates section.

4. Select the Current Version, and click on Check For Updates. This process may take few minutes to perform check.

Note - You will need to perform this step (4) on HCX Manager in both sites (HCX

Connecto & Cloud)

5. Click on "Download" to start the HCX Bundle download. This download takes time based on the available network bandwidth, so better to start the download on both site's HCX Manager to save time.

   
   

   Note - There are several options available from the drop down, you can select per your requirement.

6. Download has started.

   
   

7. Download is completed now.

   
   

8. Go to "Select Service Update" and click "Upgrade" to start the HCX Manager upgrade. Reference screenshots attached below.

   
   

Service Not Available - The system reports that the upgrade is underway. After the upgrade file is downloaded and installed. The HCX system reboots. Allow a few minutes for the system to reinitialize.

9. After upgrade completes, open the HCX Appliance management interface in a browser tab and Perform POST Upgrade HCX Health Check.

   
   

   Example:

   
   

   https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn:9443.

   Navigate to the dashboard and verify the registered systems display a healthy

   connected state.

   
   

   https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn:443.

   - Navigate to the dashboard and verify the registered systems display a healthy

   connected state.

   - Navigate to AdministrationSystem Updates and review the software version running on the site.

   
   

Post Upgrade, Reference Screenshots Attached Below:

HCX Manager both sites upgraded successfully to "4.x".

Service Mesh after HCX upgrade is in Healthy state.

After HCX Manager upgrade, it allows Service Mesh upgrade, as can see below.

10. Now, we will perform Service Mesh Appliance upgrade. Note, this upgrade is initiated from HCX Manager Connector (source site) only, and it performs service mesh appliance upgrade subsquently in target site as well same time.

    
    

    Reference screenshots attached below for Service Mesh upgrade.

    
    

    a. Login to HCX Manager Connector, go to Service Mesh > select the service mesh > click on Update appliance.

b. Acknowledge and click on Update to start the update.

c. Go to task to monitor the progress.

d. Now, we have successfully upgraded the Service Mesh Appliance.

e. Perform Health check of Service Mesh, here it looks healthy.

This completes the upgrade process for the HCX Manager and component service appliances in the HCX Service Mesh as well.

Conclusion:

By Following these steps, you can effectively & seamlessly perform HCX Manager and it's Service Mesh Appliances upgrade in source and target HCX.

!Best of luck!