In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x SSC appliance to 8.12.1. As a pre requirement we do need to have VMware Aria Suite Lifecycle upgraded to 8.12. Instructions can be found here. The upgrade does not include the latest PSPACK that contains the 8.12.1 SaltStack Config release. Instructions to get the PSPACK can be found on my other blog post here.

To get started we can go to vRealize Lifecycle Manager -> 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)

The image shows a settings page with options for system administration and servers/accounts, including System Details, Logs, and NTP Servers.

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Binary Mapping page in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager showing options to add and delete unsupported binaries.

Select My VMware and click on Discover

Adding a product binary for VMware in a wizard step.

We can see a list of binaries that have been discovered. We can select what we need and click on Add

Upgrading to 8.12.1 of VMware Aria Automation Config via a binary selection interface.

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

Binary Mapping screen shows successful mapping request and options to add or delete binaries.

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

Requests page showing a type upgrade in progress for VMware product binary.

We now have to wait for the download to complete

Request details show download in progress, stage 1, 312ms.

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

The image shows a completed environment labeled “Corp Local” with a green health status and details link.

Click on Upgrade

The Automation Config screen shows vRASSC version 8.12.0 with an Upgrade button.

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. Sync recommended if environment changed.

Select product Version 8.12.1 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Selecting version 8.12.1 for VMware Aria Automation Config upgrade.

We can automatically create and delete a snapshot part of the upgrade process

Wizard step: Snapshot. Takes product snapshot before upgrade.

Run the Precheck to make sure there are no errors

Precheck button for data validation; errors follow recommended actions.

Once the check is complete, click on Next. Review the upgrade details and click on Next. We are taken to the progress screen where we can follow the progress.

Progress screen shows Stage 1: Shutting down Guest OS, Stage 2: Creating Node Snapshot, and Stage 3: Power On VM.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.12.1

Here are a few additional blogs that might be useful post upgrade:

Error Code: LCMVSSC10018

SSC 8.8 sseapi_rpc_queue: could not connect to SSE server

SSC 8.8 urllib3 (1.25.11) or chardet (4.0.0) doesn’t match a supported version

Authentication failed: no Authorization header