esxsi.com – How to Upgrade to vRealize Operations Manager 8.3

Recently I installed vRealize Operations Manager 8.2 in my home lab environment. Less than a week later 8.3 was released – of course it was! The new version has some extra features like 20-second peak metrics and VMware Cloud on AWS objects, but what I’m interested to look at is the new Cloud Management Assessment (CMA). The vSphere Optimisation Assessment (VOA) has been around for a while to show the value of vRealize Operations (vROps) and optimise vSphere environments. The CMA is the next logical step in extending that capability out into VMware Cloud and vRealize Cloud solutions. You can read more in the What’s New in vRealize Operations 8.3 blog. This post walks through the steps required to upgrade vRealize Operations Manager from 8.2 to 8.3.

The upgrade process is really quick and easy for a single node standard deployment. The upgrade may take longer if you have multiple distributed nodes that the software update needs pushing out to, or if you need to clone any custom content. If you are upgrading from vROps 8.1.1 or earlier you will need to upgrade End Point Operations Management agents using the steps detailed here. The agent builds for 8.3 and 8.2 are the same.

Before upgrading vRealize Operations Manager we’ll run the Upgrade Assessment Tool; a non-intrusive read only software package that produces a report showing system validation checks and any removed or discontinued metrics. The latter point is important to make sure you don’t lose any customisation like dashboards or management packs as part of the upgrade. Here are some additional points for the upgrade:

• Take a snapshot or backup of the existing vRealize Operations Manager before starting
• Check the existing vRealize Operations Manager is running on ESXi 6.5 U1 and later, and managed by vCenter 6.5 or later
• Check the existing vRealize Operations Manager is running at least hardware version 11
• You can upgrade to vROps 8.3 from versions 7.0 and later, check the available upgrade paths here
• If you are using any other VMware solutions check product interoperability here
• If you need to backup and restore custom content review the Upgrade, Backup and Restore section of the vRealize Operations 8.3 documentation here

vROps 8.3 Upgrade Checks

First, download the vRealize Operations Manager upgrade files, you’ll need the Virtual Appliance Upgrade for 8.x or 7.x pak file, and the Upgrade Assessment Tool pak file. The vRealize Operations 8.3 release notes can be found here.

Browse to the FQDN or IP address of the vRealize Operations Manager master node /admin, and log in with the admin credentials.

From the left-hand navigation pane browse to Software Update. Click Install Software Update and upload the Upgrade Assessment Tool pak file. Follow the steps to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) and click Install.

Check the status of the software bundle from the Software Update tab. Once complete, click Support and Support Bundles. Highlight the bundle and click the download icon to obtain a copy of the report.

Extract the downloaded zip file and expand the apuat-data and report folders. Open index.html.

System validation checks and impacted components can be viewed. For any impacted components you can drill down into the depreciated metric and view any applicable replacements.

vROps 8.3 Upgrade Process

Following system and content validation checks the next step is to run the installer itself. Navigate back to the Software Update tab and click Install Software Update. Upload the vRealize Operations Manager 8.3 upgrade pak file.

When upload and staging is complete click Next.

Accept the End User License Agreement (EULA) and click Next.

Review the update information and click Next.

Click Install to begin the software update.

You can monitor the upgrade process from the Software Update page, however after about 5 minutes you will be logged out.

After logging back in, it takes around a further 15-20 minutes before the update is finalised and the cluster is brought back online. Refresh the System Status and System Update pages when complete.

I can now log back into vROps. The Cloud Management Assessment can be accessed from the Quick Start page by expanding View More, selecting Run Assessments and clicking VMware vRealize Cloud Management Assessment.

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