1.5

Using a Load Balancer to Reduce Service Downtime
If you are using a load balancer or other tool that can force requests to go to specific servers, you can upgrade
a subset of the server group while keeping existing services available on the remaining subset. This approach
reduces vCloud Director service downtime to the length of time required to upgrade the vCloud Director
database.
1 Use the load balancer to redirect vCloud Director requests to a subset of the servers in the group. Follow
the procedures recommended by your load balancer.
2 Use the cell management tool to quiesce the cells that are no longer handling requests and shut down
vCloud Director services on those servers. See “Use the Cell Management Tool to Quiesce and Shut Down
A Server,” on page 36.
3 Upgrade vCloud Director software on the members of the server group on which you have stopped
vCloud Director, but do not restart those services. See “Upgrade vCloud Director Software on Any
Member of a Server Group,” on page 38.
4 Use the cell management tool to quiesce the cells that you have not yet upgraded and shut down
vCloud Director services on those servers.
5 Upgrade the vCloud Director database. See “Upgrade the vCloud Director Database,” on page 40.
6 Restart vCloud Director on the upgraded servers. See “Start or Stop vCloud Director Services,” on
page 31.
7 Use the load balancer to redirect vCloud Director requests to the upgraded servers.
8 Upgrade vCloud Director software on the remaining servers in the group, and restart vCloud Director on
those servers as the upgrades complete. See “Upgrade vCloud Director Software on Any Member of a
Server Group,” on page 38.
This chapter includes the following topics:
n
“Use the Cell Management Tool to Quiesce and Shut Down A Server,” on page 36
n
“Upgrade vCloud Director Software on Any Member of a Server Group,” on page 38
n
“Upgrade the vCloud Director Database,” on page 40
n
“Upgrade vCenter and ESX/ESXi Hosts,” on page 42
n
“Upgrade vShield Manager,” on page 42
n
“Reverting an Upgrade,” on page 43
Use the Cell Management Tool to Quiesce and Shut Down A Server
Before you upgrade a vCloud Director server, use the cell management tool to quiesce and shut down
vCloud Director services on the server's cell.
vCloud Director creates a task object to track and manage each asynchronous operation that a user requests.
Information about all running and recently completed tasks is stored in the vCloud Director database. Because
a database upgrade invalidates this task information, you must be sure that no tasks are running when you
begin the upgrade process.
With the cell management tool, you can suspend the task scheduler so that new tasks cannot be started, then
check the status of all active tasks. You can wait for running tasks to complete or log in to vCloud Director as
a system administrator and cancel them. See “Cell Management Tool Reference,” on page 37. When no tasks
are running, you can use the cell management tool to stop vCloud Director services.
vCloud Director Installation and Configuration Guide
36 VMware, Inc.