Upgrading your VMware Cloud

Upgrading your VMware Cloud environment may be required as new versions of MacOS come out. You can check the compatibility guide we have to see what minimum version you would require to run all the current OS versions. Upgrading the environment is usually broken out into three steps based upon the three main objects in your Cloud. Those are the vCenter Server, the ESXi hosts and the VMs.

vCenter Upgrade

The first step is upgrading the vCenter Server itself. Upgrading between major versions, ie 6.5 to 6.7 or 6.7 to 7.0, requires MacStadium Support to perform the upgrade. However, applying smaller patches or updates, ie 6.7 to 6.7 Update 3, can be handled entirely by the customer at their leisure.

Your VMs will stay online during the upgrade of your vCenter Server; however, access to the Web Client and vCenter API Endpoint will be unavailable during the maintenance window.

It is recommended that you schedule the upgrades during an approved maintenance window for your organization. A typical vCenter Server upgrade can take anywhere from 1-2 hours. It is also recommended to backup your vCenter Server prior to performing the upgrade.

ESXi Upgrade

After a vCenter Server has been upgraded, MacStadium will provide you with the install media for the appropriate ESXi upgrades. Documentation has been written on how to perform the host upgrades. Note that most environments will be able to perform the ESXi host upgrades without needing MacStadium Support and without downtime for your VMs.

However it is still recommended to perform the maintenance in an approved maintenance window for your organization. Depending on the size of your environment and the length of your maintenance windows, this could take minutes to days to complete the upgrade of all the ESXi hosts.

VMTools and VMHardware

Once all the ESXi hosts are upgraded to the new version, you may need to update your VMTools and VM Hardware to have access to all of the appropriate functions and MacOS versions for your running VMs.

You can perform these steps without MacStadium Support. VMware has provided clear documentation on the process. You should always update your VMTools before upgrading the VM Hardware and both will typically require a reboot of your VM to complete. Please plan your downtime accordingly.