In this post i will go over upgrading my 6.x vRNI appliance to 6.5.1 using vRSLCM (vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager). As a pre requirement we do need to have vRSLCM (vRealize Lifecycle Manager) upgraded to 8.7. 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 visible.

Click on Add Binaries under Product Binaries

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

Select My VMware and click on Discover

Select My VMware, click Discover to add product binary.

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

Adding vRealize Network Insight 6.5.1 upgrade binary for vRSLCM upgrade.

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 with options to add or delete unsupported binaries.

Click on the in Progress button to view the details

Requests page showing a type upgrade in progress for vRNI 6.5.1.

We now have to wait for the download to complete

VMware download in progress, showing Stage 1 at 425ms.

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

Dashboard, Create Environment, Datacenters, Environments, Requests, Settings. Environments: Corp Local, Corp, Products, Health: Environment health is unavailable in vRNI.

Click on Upgrade

The image shows the vRealize Network Insight upgrade page in vRSLCM.

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 needed.

Select product Version 6.5.1 and click Next. We can also review the compatibility matrix to make sure the environment is compatible.

Upgrade wizard step showing vRNI version selection with 6.5.1 and repository URL.

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: Snapshot. Check “Take product snapshot” and “Retain snapshot”.

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

Precheck step with instructions to run validations and follow recommended actions.

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

Upgrade vRealize Network Insight precheck shows all validations passed; 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 showing stages of vRNI upgrade, currently in Stage 1, “Shutting down Guest OS.

The system will get rebooted and once its back up we will be on 6.5

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