Upgrading NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.4 from 6.3.3

VMware released their new versions vSphere 6.7 update1 and Horizon 7.7   on 2018  and supported NSX version is the latest NSX Manager version 6.4.4  .I was planning to upgrade my setup to latest version and the new version of  NSX required there so  i did upgrade from version 6.3.3 to 6.4.4. In this post i will cover how can we upgrade the NSX manager and what’s new with this version .

What’s New in NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.4

First I want to notify a change on the naming of  NSX for vSphere , now it is known as NSX Data Center for vSphere .

NSX User Interface

• VMware NSX – Functionality Updates for vSphere Client (HTML): VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.4 contains new functionality updates in this release for the HTML 5 vSphere client . VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere features like Logical Switches, Edge Appliance Management, Edge Services (DHCP, NAT), Edge Certificates, Edge Grouping Objects. are now available through the vSphere Client  . Below are the  list of the functionality that still needs to be managed in the web client .

Service Definitions

All functionality, including:
Guest Introspection Services
Network Introspection Services
Hardware Devices

NSX Edges

Edge – Routing
Edge – Bridging
Edge – Firewall
Edge – Load Balancer
Edge – VPN

Service Composer

Service Composer Canvas

Tools: Endpoint Monitoring

All functionality

Tools: Flow Monitoring

Flow Monitoring Dashboard
Details by Service
Configuration

System: Users and Domains

Users

System: Events

SNMP Events
NSX Ticket Logger

Cross-VC NSX

Universal Logical Router

NSX Home

Getting Started
License Information
Customer Experience Improvement Program

Reference :- VMware NSX for vSphere UI Plug-in Functionality in vSphere Client.

Networking and Edge Services

• Static Routes per Edge Service Gateway: increases from 2048 to 10,240 static routes for Quad Large and X-Large Edge Service Gateways.

Upgrading NSX Data Center for vSphere Manager to 6.4.4

The upgrade of NSX components involve upgrading the NSX Manager first then the controllers  after that  upgrading the NSX Host cluster. It is recommended to verify the upgrade Path of the version and take a backup of the NSX Manager before proceeding the upgrade To upgrad ethe NSX Manager follow the below procedure .

Click on  the Upgrade button in the NSX Manager Virtual Appliance Management interface to upgrade the NSX Manager appliance.

On the upgrade area of the NSX Manager appliance, you can view the current version of the NSX Manager and click the Upload Bundle button to upload the upgrade bundle  which is in the format of a tar.gz file.

Form Upgrade dialog box  click the Choose File button to select upgrade bundle file from your local machine  and click Continue

Upload  of the upgrade file will start , it will take few minutes

Once the  NSX Manager 6.4.4 upgrade bundle upload completed , new  Upgrade dialog box will appear which give you warning to backing up the NSX Manager before performing the upgrade. If  you need to enable the SSH connectivity  select yes on “Enable SSH option” and click the Upgrade button which will begin the upgrade process.

Note:- Take a backup of the NSX Manager appliance before starting the upgrade.

Overall upgrade status screen will appear which shows the status of the upgrade

Once the upgrade  completed status will display Complete , also you have option to perform another upgrade by uploading another file.

From the  Summary tab of the NSX Manager appliance you can verify the  Version showing 6.4.4

Reference 

NSX Upgrade Guide

NSX Upgrade  Path

VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.4 Release Notes

Conclusion

We have shared the step of upgrading procedure for NSX Data Center for vSphere Manager to 6.4.4 , this process is straightforward and simple from the NSX Manager web interface. Also it is important  to check the upgrade path , know issues and resolved issues in the new version before planning upgrade and take proper backup of NSX manager before starting the upgrade .