ComputersNSX

Upgrading VMware NSX to 6.3.2 NSX Manager

VMware NSX is an exciting network virtualization platform that is being developed at a fairly aggressive pace.  Each upgrade provides additional features and or bug fixes to an existing NSX installation.  VMware has a fairly ironed out process to upgrade your existing NSX environment.  This includes applying the upgrade to your NSX Manager, controllers, and updating your host VIB files installed.  In this post we will take an overview look at Upgrading VMware NSX to 6.3.2 NSX Manager and see how we can accomplish this part of the process.

Upgrading VMware NSX to version 6.3.2

As mentioned at the core of our NSX infrastructure we have the NSX Manager, controllers, and host VIB files that we need to upgrade to carry out the process.  First we upgrade our NSX Manager.  Let’s look at that process.

To get started, we need to first backup our NSX Manager appliance.  To do that, we login to the web interface of our NSX Manager and click the Backup & Restore link that is listed in the left hand Settings menu.  We want to backup our configuration first.  We will need an FTP server to target for the backup of our configuration.  If you don’t already have an FTP server setup for this, click the Change button to setup the FTP connection.  Once that is finished, click the Backup button to begin the backup.  We can schedule backups as well in the interface of the NSX manager.nsxmanup01

Once we click Backup, we have the backup dialog box to confirm the location, user credentials, pass phrase for the backup, etc.

nsxmanup02

Once we click OK, the dialog for confirming appears.

nsxmanup04

The backups are usually very small.  Below you can see the backup that was just created.

nsxmanup05

Now that we have backed up our NSX Manager appliance, we can begin the upgrade process.  Click the Upload Bundle button.

nsxmanup06

We browse to the upgrade file we downloaded from VMware.

nsxmanup07

Click Continue to begin the upgrade process.

nsxmanup08

The file is uploaded first.

nsxmanup09

The statistics for the upload are a bit elusive as you would think it would be in the above show upgrade window.  However, if you look in the bottom left hand corner of the web page you will see the upload statistics so you know how far along the upload actually is.

nsxmanup10

We get the Upgrade prompt.  Here we can select our SSH options as well as opting in or out of the CEIP program.

nsxmanup11

The process begins.

nsxmanup12

If we close out of the above window, we still see the progress in the manager interface.

nsxmanup13

Finally, you will be logged out of the interface.  Once you log back in and check the Upgrade link you will see the Upgrade State showing as Complete.

nsxmanup14

As we can see below, we are now running on 6.3.2 Build 5672532.

nsxmanup21

Thoughts

Upgrading the VMware NSX Manager is fairly uneventful in process and is straightforward.  Just make sure to run the backup operation before you begin the upgrade.  Next, we will loo at the process to upgrade our NSX controllers.

Subscribe to VirtualizationHowto via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee is the Senior Writer, Engineer and owner at Virtualizationhowto.com and has over two decades of experience in Information Technology. Having worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies as well as in various industries, Brandon has extensive experience in various IT segments and is a strong advocate for open source technologies. Brandon holds many industry certifications, loves the outdoors and spending time with family.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.