Upgrading VCF Salt Master to 9.1.1 Step by Step

Cosmin Trif — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000

With VCF 9.1.1 released on September 3, 2026, I continued patching the management services in my lab. In this post I will go over upgrading the VCF Salt Master from 9.1.0.0400 to 9.1.1 through VCF Operations.

The VCF 9.1.1 release notes are the source for the release scope and patch dependencies. The VCF Operations 9.1.1 release notes list Salt Master and Salt RaaS at target build 25679895.

This walkthrough covers a 9.1.0.x to 9.1.1 maintenance upgrade of one Salt Master instance. If you are starting from an older VCF or VMware Aria release, follow the applicable VCF upgrade or migration procedure first.

Versions in This Upgrade

These are the versions reported by the VCF Operations UI in my lab:

Component	Before	After
Salt Master	9.1.0.0400.25544946	9.1.1.0.25679895

Before You Begin

For an existing 9.1.0.x environment, patch Fleet Lifecycle to 9.1.1.0 before any other VCF component. Before patching Salt RaaS, Broadcom requires the respective VCF management services runtime that hosts it to be on 9.1.1. In my lab, Fleet Lifecycle and the services runtime were already upgraded before I started this Salt Master operation.

Before starting:

Verify that the VCF management-services backup configuration is present and reachable under Build -> Lifecycle -> VCF Management -> Backup & Restore. Take an on-demand component backup and verify that it completed successfully. Keep the backup encryption passphrase available for a restore. The VCF management backup and restore documentation describes the supported workflow.
Check the VCF services runtime and hosted-service health, including CPU, memory, and disk utilization. Salt Master is hosted by that runtime.
Confirm that lifecycle metadata is current and that the 9.1.1 binaries are available in the assigned software depot. For a disconnected environment, prepare the binaries with the VCF Download Tool.
Make sure no other management-component operation is running. The software depot must also be usable because patching it makes the binaries unavailable to other component operations until it finishes.
Plan a maintenance window. Salt services can restart while the workflow is running.

The VCF Operations page may also display a warning that VCF Operations must be patched independently. If that warning is present, wait for that patch to complete before starting Salt Master.

Selecting Salt Master

Set the target VCF version to 9.1.1.*. If the release is not listed, click Sync, wait for the lifecycle metadata task to complete, and check again.

Filter the component list for master and select the Salt master row for the VCF instance you want to patch. In my lab the instance was instance-a. Make sure only the intended component is selected. Expand Check Required Binaries and resolve any missing binary before continuing.

The upgrade path should read 9.1.0.0400.25544946 -> 9.1.1.0.25679895.

Running the Prechecks

With only Salt Master selected, click Run Prechecks (1). Open Precheck details and wait for the Salt master Precheck Workflow to finish.

When the precheck completes, review the Prechecks tab and confirm that the overall result is Passed. In my run, the checks included component package staging, package staging, the vCenter connection, the database upgrade, and the single-component backup requirement.

Return to the component list and confirm that Salt Master is Ready for upgrade. Do not start the upgrade while the precheck is still running. If a check fails, open its details, fix the reported issue, and run the precheck again.

Starting the Upgrade

Click Upgrade on the Salt Master row. The status changes to Upgrade in progress. Open Upgrade details to follow the workflow.

The workflow in my lab moved through these subtasks:

Set Salt master upgrade context for the workflow.
Stage the Salt master plugin in the VCF services runtime.
Run Salt master prechecks.
Stage the Salt master package in the VCF services runtime.
Prepare Salt master for upgrade.
Perform the Salt master upgrade.
Run the inventory sync after the Salt master upgrade.

The workflow then advances through the Salt master prechecks, package staging, and preparation steps.

The task details show the package staging, prechecks, preparation, and upgrade subtasks. Wait for the final inventory sync and confirm that the overall task is Completed.

In my lab the workflow started at 6:51 AM and completed at 7:42 AM on September 9, for a total workflow time of about 51 minutes. That is the duration shown by my task, not a promise about service downtime in another environment.

Verifying the New Version

Go to Build -> Lifecycle -> VCF Management -> Components and open Salt Master for the instance you upgraded.

Under Summary, verify that the status is Running and the version is 9.1.1.0.25679895. In my lab the deployment size was Small and it was managed by the VCF services runtime.

Before moving on, review VCF Management -> Tasks for failed or partially completed tasks, check the VCF services runtime and Salt health, and confirm that the management-services backup still works. If Salt RaaS is also present, verify its version and patch it only after its hosting runtime meets the 9.1.1 dependency.

The Salt Master in my lab is now on 9.1.1.0.25679895. We can continue with the remaining management components by following the dependencies in the VCF 9.1.1 release notes.