6.7

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Verify that port 443 is open on the source ESXi host on which the appliance that you want to upgrade
resides. The upgrade process establishes an HTTPS connection to the source ESXi host to verify
that the source appliance is ready for upgrade and to set up an SSH connection between the new
and the existing appliance.
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Verify that you have sufficient free disk space on the appliance that you want to upgrade so that you
can accommodate the data for the upgrade.
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Create a snapshot of the appliance you want to upgrade as a precaution in case of failure during the
upgrade process. If you are upgrading a vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services
Controller, take a snapshot of the Platform Services Controller appliance as well.
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If you use an external database, determine the database size and the minimum storage size for the
new appliance. See Determine the Oracle Database Size and the Storage Size for the New
Appliance.
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If you use an external database, back up the vCenter Server Appliance database.
Network Prerequisites
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Verify that the new appliance can connect to the source ESXi host or vCenter Server instance on
which resides the appliance that you want to upgrade.
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If you plan to assign a static IP address and an FQDN as a system name in the temporary network
settings of the appliance, verify that you have configured the forward and reverse DNS records for the
IP address.
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If you plan to assign a DHCP IP address in the temporary network settings of the new appliance,
verify that the ESXi host on which you want to deploy the new appliance is in the same network as
the ESXi host on which the existing vCenter Server Appliance runs.
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If you plan to assign a DHCP IPv4 address in the temporary network settings of the new appliance,
verify that the ESXi host on which you want to deploy the new appliance is connected to at least one
network that is associated with a port group which accepts MAC address changes. Consider the
default security policy of a distributed virtual switch, which is to reject MAC address changes. For
information about how to configure the security policy for a switch or port group, see vSphere
Networking.
GUI Upgrade of the vCenter Server Appliance and
Platform Services Controller Appliance
You can use the GUI installer to perform an interactive upgrade of a vCenter Server Appliance or
Platform Services Controller appliance.
vCenter Server Upgrade
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