vCloud Director upgrade from 5.1 to 5.5

Current Version:

5.1.2 Build 1068441 vmware-vcloud-director-5.1.2-1968441.bin

New Version:

5.5.0 Build 1323688  vmware-vcloud-director-5.5.0-1323688.bin

I run a RHEL virtual machine with vcloud director installed, so before starting the upgrade I fully patch the RHEL environment.

PRE-CHECKLIST:



vCloud director 5.5 release notes:
https://www.vmware.com/support/vcd/doc/rel_notes_vcloud_director_55.html#sysreqs
Pre upgrade checklist for potential edge gateway problems:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2058977
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2060065

Upgrading vCloud director documentation from VMware which I recommend reading:
http://pubs.vmware.com/vcd-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vcloud.install.doc_55%2FGUID-CEF834DA-1FF5-4819-9D24-88DE6F005C78.html

1. As always, first off start with BACKUPS
• Create snapshot of vCloud Director virtual machine.
• Stop the vcloud services
• backup the vCloud database.  We have a SQL server were the database resides.
• Create another 3de party backup.  In my case i made use of Commvault to take a snapshot backup of the VM as well.
2. Copy the downloaded bin file to vcloud director server.  I place the file in /tmp folder.
3. Verify the MD5 checksum-value of file
4. chmod u+x <filename> to make it executable.
5. Stop the vcloud director services on server.
6. Run the file installation file by typing "./<filename>"
7. Respond to the upgrade prompts.
8. Once completed DO NO start the vcloud services, firstly upgrade the vcloud database.
9. Run /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/bin/upgrade
10. Respond to upgrade prompts.  I did receive an error here which i explain at bottom of this blog!
11. Once completed vCloud service should now be started.
12. Upgrade vShield.
13. From the vShield Manager Inventory panel, click Settings & Reports.
14. Click the Updates tab.
15. Click Upload Upgrade Bundle.
16. Click Browse and select the VMware-vShield-Manager-upgrade-bundle-maintenance-5.1.2-997359.tar.gz file.
17. Click Open.
18. Click Upload File.
19. Click Install to begin the upgrade process.
20. Click Confirm Install. The upgrade process reboots vShield Manager, so you might lose connectivity to the vShield Manager. None of the other vShield components are rebooted.
21. Verify the maintenance update has been applied

After you have upgraded vShield manager, you must upgrade all vCenter servers and hosts before you upgrade the vShield Edge appliances that the upgraded vShield Manager manages.


To upgrade ESXi host to 5.5 as well as upgrade the vCloud agent, perform the following steps in conjunction with vCloud director:

1. From vCloud Director right click host and select disable the host
2. Right click same host and select "Redeploy all VMs 
3. On vCenter Server put the ESXi host into maintenance mode
4. Attach host upgrade and patch baseline to ESXi server.
5. Remediate host
6. Once complete from vCloud director right click host and select "Upgrade host agent"
7. Take host out of maintenance mode and wait for vSphere HA agent install to complete
8. Within vCloud Director you can enable the host again.

To upgrade the vShield Edges:

1. Login to vshield
2. Select the datacenter for which you want to upgrade.
3. Select network virtualization tab
4. Select Edges
5. Select the edge and click on actions -> Upgrade.
6. I did find that after the edge upgrades the users was not able to get connection through the vCloud Edge gateway.  To resolve this i redeployed the Edge gateway with following steps:
• Login to vCloud
• Select organization
• Select VDC
• Select Edge Gateway tab
• Right click edge gateway and select Re-Deploy.  
• This will recreate the edge gateway but will not loose any settings configured on it.

Upgrade problems experienced:

During step 9 of database upgrade I received the following error message:
Error:   Unable to update database statistics. Database user has insufficient privileges to update database statistics. To complete this step manually, run 'EXEC sp_updatestats' as the DBO or a member of the sysadmin fixed server role.
Fix:   On the database server (SQL) provide the vCloud user account with sysadmin server role.  Run the command as provided in error against the database.

Error:  http error 500  after upgrade when opening the vCloud director login page
Fix:       Add the text“login.jsp” to the end of the vcloud page URL so you could use a local login.  Then disabled SSO under federation services within vCloud director if you are not using it.  I my case we make use of windows authentication and not SSO.