6.7

When you perform the GUI upgrade, you download the vCenter Server Appliance installer on a network
client machine, run the upgrade wizard from the client machine, and provide the inputs that are required
for the deployment and setup of the new upgraded appliance.
Important For topologies with external Platform Services Controller instances, you must upgrade the
replicating Platform Services Controller instances in a sequence. After the successful upgrade of all
Platform Services Controller instances in the domain, you can perform concurrent upgrades of multiple
vCenter Server appliances that point to a common external Platform Services Controller instance.
The GUI upgrade process includes a series of two stages.
Figure 3‑2. Stage 1 - OVA Deployment
The first stage walks you through the deployment wizard to get the deployment type of the source
appliance that you want to upgrade and configure the new appliance settings. During this stage, you
deploy the new appliance with temporary network settings. This stage completes the deployment of the
OVA file on the target server with the same deployment type as the source appliance and the appliance
settings that you provide.
As an alternative to performing the first stage of the upgrade with the GUI installer, you can deploy the
OVA file of the new vCenter Server Appliance or Platform Services Controller appliance by using the
vSphere Web Client or VMware Host Client. To deploy the OVA file on an ESXi host or vCenter Server
instance 6.0 or later, you can also use the vSphere Client. After the OVA deployment, you must log in to
the appliance management interface of the newly deployed appliance to proceed with the second stage of
the upgrade process.
Figure 3‑3. Stage 2 - Appliance Setup
The second stage walks you through the setup wizard to choose the data types to transfer from the old to
the new appliance. The new appliance uses the temporary network settings until the data transfer
finishes. After the data transfer finishes, the new appliance assumes the network settings of the old
appliance. This stage completes the data transfer, starts the services of the new upgraded appliance, and
powers off the old appliance.
As an alternative to performing the second stage of the upgrade with the GUI installer, you can log in to
the Appliance Management Interface of the newly deployed appliance, https://FQDN_or_IP_address:
5480.
vCenter Server Upgrade
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