Upgrade VMware vSphere Replication 9.0.1 to 9.1.1

Upgrading VMware vSphere Replication (vR) from 9.0.1 to 9.1.1 is basically a 2-step process. Existing replication schedules can be preserved. The first step is an upgrade in place of the existing vR appliance to a version that can be converged to 9.1.1. The second step is deployment of a new 9.1.1 appliance and converging/migrating the configurations, replication schedules, etc. from the original appliance to the new appliance. This blog article outlines the process.

The process might be the same for other older versions of vR, but these are the specific versions I tested while working with a customer. You should verify the upgrade path for your specific source and destination versions.

Recommendation: Verify your upgrade path and compatibility between vR and the other components (vCenter, ESXi, etc.) in your environment using the Broadcom VMware Product Interoperability Matrix.

To start, I have a vSphere 8 Update 3 environment that includes vR 9.0.1. I am preparing to upgrade to vSphere 9.1.1. According to the VCF Upgrade Planner, vR should be upgraded first.

Upgrade the Current Appliance

Recommendation: Ensure DNS and NTP are configured properly and consistently across your environment before making changes, performing upgrades, applying patches, deploying new appliances, and so on.

The first step is downloading a version of vR that can be converged to 9.1.1. In this case, I downloaded VMware-vSphere_Replication-9.0.2-25068554.iso and attached it to my existing vR appliance.

I logged into the VMware Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) using https://<vr-appliance-fqdn-or-ip>:5480. Click Update and edit the update source to Use CD-ROM.

You should see the updated version under Available Updates after the UI refreshes.

Installing the update will cause the appliance to reboot, which will briefly interrupt existing replication jobs. Click Install to start the upgrade. You will see a warning about "Any currently running operations involving storage arrays controlled by this adapter..." This refers to Site Recovery Manager. It is a bit misleading as there will be no impact to storage arrays you are using.

You must agree to the terms and conditions. Then, click the Install button. The upgrade will take a few minutes. The appliance will automatically reboot when the upgrade is complete.

You must reconfigure the appliance when the reboot has finished. It is more of a confirmation of the configuration you had before the upgrade. Log into the VAMI of your vR appliance and click the Reconfigure button in the top right corner of the UI.

Complete the steps in the wizard. The configuration process will start and the vR appliance will re-register with vCenter. This includes installing the vCenter plug-in. If you do not see "Site Recovery" in the vSphere Client, refresh the web browser page.

While you are in the VAMI, enable SSH on the Access page. This is required to converge the current appliance configurations, replication schedules, and so on to the new appliance.

Open Site Recovery (vSphere Replication) in the vSphere Client. Verify the replication schedules are correct and the status is ok.

Version 9.1.1 only supports the enhanced replication mode. Therefore, we must upgrade legacy replication to enhanced replication. Select a VM in the list and click Reconfigure. Change the mode to enhanced replication.

Note that Enhanced Replication requires network encryption. You will have to enable network encryption if it is not already enabled. You can select multiple VMs and switch them all to enhanced replication while preserving other settings such as RPO, guest quiescing, and multiple point-in-time instances.

Recommendation: Configure replication based on requirements. Just because you can select certain settings doesn't mean you should. Examples:

• If you don't need multiple restore points, don't enable point-in-time instances. It consumes more destination storage space.
• If an RPO of four hours is the requirement, don't set the RPO to five minutes just because you can. This consumes more CPU cycles and network bandwidth.

Converge the Current Appliance to a New 9.1.1 Appliance

Recommendation: I said this earlier, but here it is again... Ensure DNS and NTP are configured properly and consistently across your environment before making changes, performing upgrades, applying patches, deploying new appliances, and so on.

vSphere Replication, Site Recovery Manager, Live Recovery, etc. have been consolidated to a single appliance and renamed to "Protection and Recovery." I downloaded the Protection-and-recovery-9.1.1.0.25691510 ISO image and deployed a new 9.1.1 appliance. The deployment documentation is here, if needed. Note that the resource requirements have grown since multiple services have been consolidated into a single appliance. The 9.1.1 appliance is configured by default with 8 vCPUs and 24GB of memory.

Power on the appliance and give it some time to complete configuration. Log into the VAMI of the new appliance to begin convergence. Click on the Converge Legacy Appliances button.

Complete the Converge Protection and Recovery Appliances wizard. You should see your current vR appliance in the list. The final step in the wizard prompts you for your current vR appliance credentials--the "admin" user account. If the convergence fails, make sure you have SSH enabled on the current vR appliance.

Similar to previous steps, you will need to run the Configure Appliance wizard on the new appliance to confirm settings.

This will take a few minutes. When that process is complete, refresh the vSphere Client browser window so the new plug-in takes effect. Note that the old vR appliance was powered off as part of the convergence process. You should now see "Protection and Recovery" in the vSphere Client. Select it to verify your replication schedules are intact. This completes the upgrade.