The official documentation for deploying the vRealize suite can be found here
First step is to download the bundle by going to sddc-manager -> Repository -> Bundle management. Look for VMware Software Install Bundle – vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 8.1.0-16256499
After the download is complete we can go to Administration -> vRealize Suite and a deploy button should be available. If the deploy button is not available due to X-Region Application Virtual Network is not created errorplease follow the instructions found here:
Verify the Prerequisites and click on begin
Fill up the network settings and click next
Fill up the Virtual Appliance Settings:
Review the summary and click Finish
We can follow the progress by click on the Task on the bottom of the screen
This allows me to see the subtasks that are running
Once the deployment is complete we can open the vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager by clicking on the link
I wanted to reuse my VCF downloaded bundles on another SDDC Manager system so that i wont have to download it from internet again. Ive found an easy guide here in the VMware documentation. My goal was to download the specific bundle once and upload it on other SDDC Managers.
The first command from SDDC manager was to list the bundles. The lcm bundle transfer utility can be found in /opt/vmware/vcf/lcm/lcm-tools/bin
I replaced the ${depotUser} with my vmware email address and ${product_version} with the version of the VCF product i wanted to install in my case 4.0.1.1. I was greeted with a list of bundle IDs and the specific component that it was for:
Enter Myvmware user password:
Validating the depot user credentials...
Bundle Product Bundle Size Components
Version (in MB)
bundle-27565 4.0.1.1 10092.0 MB SDDC_MANAGER_VCF-4.0.1.1-16660200
bundle-27336 4.0.1.1 5220.0 MB VCENTER-7.0.0.10600-16620007-PATCH
bundle-27337 4.0.1.1 7613.0 MB VCENTER-7.0.0.10600-16620007-INSTALL
In my case i need the installer. To download a specific bundle we run
This allowed me to grab the download from /some/temporary/path and save it/upload it on my other SDDC Managers that were missing it.
Finally before the patch can be used in SDDC Manager we need to upload it to the repo. Please note that once we issue the upload command the download gets deleted, so make sure you save the download ahead of time
With all the recent releases for VCF i noticed that my file system was getting full and once the updates are complete i wanted to reclaim all that used space.
The first step was to identify the Bundle ID. We can find this by going to the bundle itself and checking out the details by clicking on View Details
For example this specific Bundle ID is ee194251-9fe4-4729-9c29-ca5172acffc6
At this point i had to log in to the sddc manager and issue the following command:
Once i logged on to my SDDC Manager i was able to see that na update is already available for me to download:
All i had to do was click on my management domain SDDC-MGT and then go to the Update\Patches tab
After reviewing the update notes click on Download now. The download will start and it will take some time to get there as it is about 11 GB. I took this time to check the environment to make sure everything was ready for the update
Once the download is complete click on Update Now
Once the upgrade starts we will get redirected to the update status page:
My update went thorough without a hitch and finished in 35 minutes. All i had to is click finish
Next is updating vCenter to 7.0.0c. Click on download now under Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Management domain -> Updates/Patches
Once the download is complete click on Update Now. This will initiate a task to perform the necessary steps to get the vCenter server upgraded to 7.0.0.c
Dont forget to follow the same steps for the workload domain if you have one
Ive ran recently in to an issue where i couldnt perform an update from the admin UI, in order to get up and running i executed the following from a ssh shell. I was luky enough to find the documentation here
I recently ran in to an issue where the vCenter server appliance update timed out. Rebooting the vCenter server brought the server back up but i was unable to log in to the administration section due to an Update installation in progress error
Doing some research i found that there is a file that holds this information fount at /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf At this point all i had to do was edit the file using vi
vi /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf
When opening the file i noticed that the state was INSTALL_IN_PROGRESS
Tge version was also different from what the console was showing
So i updated the file to reflect the actual version of the appliance. The end result looked like this:
I recently ran in to a problem where i couldn’t update my esx server from the UI so i wanted to to it from the command line. After doing some research this is the way i was able to do it:
Step 1 was to open the firewall by running:
esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
As i was installing\upgrading my lab environment to ESXi 7.0 i received an error that the CPU was unsupported. As per the release notes vSphere 7.0 release notes my CPU is no longer on the compatibility list.
Since this is a lab environment i wanted to continue using my current hardware. It goes without saying that this method should not be used in a production environment.
To allow the legacy CPU all i had to do is boot up from the ISO, on the boot Menu i pressed TAB or Shift + O and added allowLegacyCPU=True option as seen in the screenshot below
After a recent deployment of VRA 8 with a trial key in my lab i realized that my key was about to expire. It was time to get it changed with my production key. The key can be changed via Lifecycle Manager or via CLI.
Changing the vRealize Automation 8 License key via Lifecycle Manager
To change the license via lifecycle manager we need to go to Lifeycle Manager -> Locker -> License
In my case i already deleted the vra key. Next step is to click Add, give it a name and enter the new license key, click Validate and click Add
Alternatively Lifecycle Manager can download it from the my vmware account. Next we can go to Lifecycle Operations
We can find our Product under Environments -> View Details under the environment where the product is -> Select the product in this case VRA -> select options -> Add license
At the Select License windows select the new license we added and click finish. We are taken to the Request Details window and we can follow the progress
With that the license change is complete. We can follow the same process to change the license key for any of the other products that are managed by Lifecycle Manager
Changing the vRealize Automation 8 License key via CLI
The first step is to log in to the VRA appliance via ssh and run the “vracli license current” command. This will display the current installed license and its expiration date .
In order to replace the license we need to add the new license using “vracli license add new-license-key” then in order to remove it we need to run “vracli license remove old-license-key” . If we are unsure which license is active running the command “vracli license” will display all license keys installed.
When i logged on to my SDDC Manager i noticed that there weren’t any updates available and i was prompted with an information bar To view available updates, Authorize My VMware Account.
We can click directly on My VMware Account or go to Administration -> Repository Settings -> Authenticate
Once you enter the credentials the system will take a couple of minutes to perform a check with the permissions that are assigned to the user and download the metadata for the updates. If no updates show up verify that the specific user has the entitlement do download the updates.
After waiting a couple of minutes the bundle becomes available and can be downloaded by going to Repository -> Bundle Management -> Download now
In my case i was on the 4.0.0 release and path forward was to go to 4.0.0.1 first.
Once the download is complete we can go to Inventory -> Workload Domains, Select the Management domain and go to the Update/Patches Tab
Run a pre check to make sure the system is ready
Check the precheck details and make sure that if there are failures they can either be fixed or they are safe to ignore in order to continue with the upgrade. In my case i have a few failures because im running on hardware that is not on the HCL list
Once the issues are resolved we can go back to the previous screen and click on update now or schedule the update on an off hours time when more convenient
Once the upgrade starts you will be redirected to an upgrade page that will go through upgrading the SDDC Manager and its related services
After the upgrade is complete and we click finish we are redirected the main dashboard. The next step is to upgrade the rest of the components. For that we will go back to Inventory -> Workload Domains, Select the Management domain and go to the Update/Patches Tab. We will notice that a new package is available thats applicable for the vCenter Server. Click on download and once the download is complete we can click on update now
Once the update starts we will be presented with the following screen to track the update status
As well as the details about the upgrade:
To be continued…after the vCenter upgrade is complete we can proceed with SDDC Manager to 4.0.1. Click on Update now
Once the update starts we are redirected to the Update status page and we can follow each one of the steps in the update status page
Once the update is complete, verify that all steps have been successful and click finish to be returned to the main dashboard.
The last step for the management domain is to apply the configuration drift bundle. Go to Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Select the management domain -> Update/Patches. Under the Available updates there should be a Configuration drift bundle for 4.0.1 update. Click on Download now
Once the download is complete and verified we can click on Update Now. In my case the system redirected me to the Update status page and completed the upgrade. The next step was to click finish and move on the next step.
Going to Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Management Domain -> Update/Patches reveals that an upgrade for NSX-T 3.0.1 is available. Click on download now.
Once complete click on Update now. We will get presented with a selection of clusters that can be upgraded. Click next and Finish.
Once the upgrade has started we can follow the progress by expanding the tabs
After the upgrade coordinator is complete we can do the same for the NSX Manager. Click on Update now
Next next step is to upgrade the vCenter server to 7.0.0b. We can go to Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Select the workload domains -> Update/Patches Under available updates there should be a VMware Software update 4.0.1.0. Click on Download Now followed by Update Now
Once the vCenter upgrade is complete we can proceed with the ESXi server upgrades. We can proceed to Inventory -> Workload Domains -> select the management domain -> Update/Patches. Under available updates we can see the ESXi patch. Click on Download now followed by Update now.
Once the ESXi servers are patched the upgrade of the management domain should be complete. We can verify this by going to Inventory -> Workload Domains -> Management domain -> Update/Patches and verify there are no updates available under the available updates section
The next step is to continue with virtual infrastructure domain. We can follow the same steps as above to upgrade the rest of the infrastructure like vCenter and ESXi servers
