In this post i will go over upgrading my 8.x vRLI appliance to 8.6 using vRSLCM (vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager). As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.6. Instructions can be found here. The upgrade already includes the latest Product Support Pack so an update to the Product Support Pack is not required.

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)

Settings page with options like System Details, Logs, and Authentication Provider.

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

Binary Mapping screen shows options to add and delete unsupported binaries.

Select My VMware and click on Discover

Add Product Binary wizard step shows “My VMware” selected.

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 wizard step for selecting vRealize Log Insight 8.6.0 upgrade binary.

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 in vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager shows successful mapping request and options to add or delete unsupported binaries.

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

Upgrading vRLI 8.6.0 in progress; click In Progress to view details.

We now have to wait for the download to complete

Request details show download progress in Stage 1.

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

The image shows a vRSLCM environment page with Corp Local listed, showing products and health status.

Click on Upgrade

The image shows the vRealize Log Insight upgrade page with version 8.4.1, options to add components, upgrade, and sync inventory.

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 recommended if environment changed.

Select product Version 8.6.0 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Upgrade vRealize Log Insight wizard showing version selection with 8.6.0 selected.

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 showing snapshot options for vRA VA.

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

Precheck step for vRLI upgrade; click RUN PRECHECK to validate data.

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

Precheck results show TLS warning and other passed validations; click Next to continue.

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

Progress screen shows stages for upgrading vRLI, currently at “Shutting down Guest OS.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 8.6

Since we are doing a major upgrade i strongly recommend to clean the cache before using the new vRLI version.