This blog is about how I upgraded my homelab from NSX-T from version 2.3 to version 2.4.First downloaded the NSX-T 2.4.x upgrade bundle (the MUB-file) from the My VMware download portal.

Checking prerequisites

before starting the upgrade , check the compatibly and ensure that the vCenter and ESXi versions are supported.

Upgrade NSX Manager Resources

In my lab the NSX-Manager VM was running with 2vCPU and 8 GB memory, with this new version minimum requirements went up to 4 vCPUS and to 16 GB of RAM.So in my case I had to shut down the NSX-T Manager and upgrade the specs to 6 vCPUs and 16 GB of memory as i was seeing 4 vCPUs were 100% getting utilised.

The Upgrade Process

Upload the MUB file to the NSX Manager

After uploading the MUB file to the NSX Manager which takes some time, the file is validated and extracted which again takes little extra time. so in my Lab downloading, uploading, validating and extracting the upgrade bundle took around 40 – 50 minutes. so have patience.

Begin upgrade and accept EULA.

After you click on “Begin Upgrade” , accept EUPA, it will throw a message , upgrade “upgrade corrdinator” , click on “Yes” and wait for some time , post “upgrade coordinator” update session will logout , login again , you will see a new upgrade interface: NOTE – Do not initiate multiple simultaneous upgrade processes for the upgrade coordinator.

Host Upgrade

Select the hosts and click on Start to start the hosts upgrade process.

While upgrade is going on continue to check you vCenter , at times ESXi host goes not go in maintenance mode due to some rule/restriction created by you , so help your ESXi server to in to maintenance mode.

Continue to monitor the progress once done successfully , move to “Next”.

Edge Upgrade

Clicking on “NEXT” will take you to Edge section , click on “Start” and continue to monitor the progress..

very simple and straight forward process , once upgrade completed , click on “Next”

Controller Upgrade

In NSX2.4 onwards , controllers has been merged in to NSX Manager ,so no need to upgrade controller , move ahead and upgrade NSX Manager.

NSX Manager Upgrade

upgrade of NSX Manager gives to two options:

• Allow Transport Node connection after a single node cluster is formed.
• Allow Transport Node connections only after three node cluster is formed.

choose option which is configured in your environment.

Accept the upgrade notification. You can safely ignore any upgrade related errors such as, HTTP service disruption that appears at this time. These errors appear because the Management plane is rebooting during the upgrading. Wait until the reboot finishes and the services are reestablished.

You can get in to CLI, log in to the NSX Manager to verify that the services have started run: #get service When the services start, the Service state appears as running. Some of the services include, SSH, install-upgrade, and manager.

Finally after around one hour in my Lab , Manager is also get updated successfully.

so this completes the upgrade process, check the health of every NSX-T component and if everything is green , you can now go ahead and shutdown and delete the NSX controller.Hope this help you in your NSX-T upgrade planning.