In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x vRLI appliance to Aria Operations for Logs 8.14.1 using VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle. As a pre requirement we do need to have VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle upgraded to 8.14. Instructions can be found here. The upgrade does not include the latest PSPACK that contains the 8.14.1 Aria Automation Config release. Instructions to get the PSPACK can be found on my other blog post here.

To get started we can go to VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> Binary Mapping. (If you haven’t added your My VMware credentials you will need to do that first by going to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> Lifecycle Operations -> Settings -> My VMware)

Settings page with various options like System Details, Logs, System Patches, and more.

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Binary Mapping page in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle shows Add Binaries button.

Select My VMware and click on Discover

Add Product Binary step shows “My VMware” selected, “Discover” button, and no products found.

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. Make sure we select the upgrade package not the install package. We can select what we need and click on Add

The image shows a list of VMware Aria Operations for Logs binaries, with the 8.14.1 upgrade package selected.

This will create a request and start downloading the package. To view the progress we can click on the Click Here hyperlink

Binary Mapping page shows successful mapping request submission.

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

Requests page showing upgrade in progress for Aria Operations for Logs.

We now have to wait for the download to complete

Request in progress, downloading binaries from MyVMware. Stage 1: My VMware Download.

After the download is complete we can go to Environments -> View Details on the environment that includes Logs

The image shows the “Environments” section in VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle, highlighting “Corp Local” with completed status and products listed.

Click on Upgrade

UI shows “Corp Local” with options for Automation, Logs, Operations, and Automation. Upgrade option available for VMware Aria Operations for Logs 8.12.0.

An Inventory sync is recommended if the environment has changed since LCM performed the last sync. We trigger the sync from the UI or click on Proceed to continue

Upgrade wizard step: Proceed to Upgrade. Sync inventory if environment changed.

Select product Version 8.14.1 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Selecting product version 8.14.1 for VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle upgrade.

A new feature that was added was the capability to automatically create a snapshot prior to the upgrade and remove it after the upgrade. On this screen we also have the ability to chose if we want to keep the snapshots post upgrade for validation testing for example. Click next

Upgrade wizard step for taking a snapshot before upgrading Aria Operations for Logs to 8.14.1.

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors or issues.

Upgrade VMware Aria Operations for Logs Precheck step shows a button to run precheck for data validation.

Once the check is complete we can review the checks that were performed and we can continue by clicking Next.

The precheck step confirms all validations passed for upgrading VMware Aria Operations for Logs.

Review the upgrade details and click on Next then Finish. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

Progress screen showing upgrade stages: Shutting down Guest OS, Creating Node Snapshot, Power On VM.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.14.1

Since we are doing a major upgrade i strongly recommend to clean the cache before using the new Aria Operations for Logs version.