The rapid advancement of frontier AI capabilities, including recent developments from Anthropic Mythos, keeping software and infrastructure up to date has become a critical priority for many IT organizations.
VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 introduce a ton of powerful new private cloud capabilities, which has generated tremendous interest from both customers and partners, ranging from new deployments to modernizing existing environments, all with the goal of building a more secure and resilient private cloud platform while also helping address the rapidly evolving threat landscape.
One area that has significantly changed from earlier VCF releases prior to VCF 9.0 is around upgrades, which has been a major source of confusion, even for myself at times. I will not try to defend some of the confusion and misconceptions from the past, but I will say that VCF 9.1 introduces more flexible upgrade paths, allowing customers to take advantage of the latest capabilities while also meeting them where they are currently at in their Private Cloud journey.
With that said, I am hoping this quick blog post, along with some visuals, will help demystify the supported upgrade paths to VCF 9.1, including some of the common misconceptions around specific feature capabilities and future direction, especially as it relates to VCF Automation VM Apps (Traditional) and All Apps (Modern) or Networking using VLAN-backed, NSX Overlay/Segment and Modern NSX VPC.
The first and probably the most common starting point for many of our users is a vSphere (vCenter/ESX) 8.x and Aria Operations 8.x combination and below is a visual representation (green components represent net new in 9.1) on the three possible and supported upgrade paths:
The second combination includes the use of NSX 4.x along with vSphere (vCenter/ESX) 8.x and Aria Operations 8.x and below is a visual representation (green components represent net new in 9.1 and light blue represent optional) on the supported upgrade path:
The third combination includes the use of Aria Automation 8.x along with vSphere (vCenter/ESX) 8.x, Aria Operations 8.x and NSX 4.x and below is a visual representation (green components represent net new in 9.1 and light blue represent optional) on the supported upgrade path:
The fourth combination is VCF 5.x (may or may not include the use of Aria Automation) and below is a visual representation (green components represent net new in 9.1 and light blue represent optional) on the supported upgrade path:
Note 1: vSphere 8.x is EOS in Oct 2027, please plan accordingly.
Note 2: More details on these flexible VCF 9.1 upgrade paths are also described in a recent Broadcom KB 440630
Finally, to help with your VCF 9.1 upgrade, we have have just released an interactive VCF Upgrade Planner Tool, that includes all the supported 9.1 paths mentioned above, contrary to the name of the tool 😅
Hi.
After upgrading using Option #1, how is patching applied to the VCF License Server (for example, updating from 9.1.0.0 to 9.1.0.1)?
Since Option #1 does not deploy VCF Manager Services, there seems to be no component that takes on the role of SDDC Manager or Fleet Management. Therefore, I assume that it would not be possible to update the VCF License Server from VCF Operations.
Thank you.
Great question! The answer is VCF Management Services is not required for License Server update. In fact, the update is actually pushed from VCF Operations which includes the update as part of the PAK file. The License Server in Option 1 is no-op for users, as its automatically handled by VCF Operations which will update License Server.
EDIT: We've updated the VCF Ops RN to make it clear that Cloud Proxy / License Server is automatically patched https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-1/release-notes/patch-releases-9-1-0-x/vcf-operations/9-1-0-0100/vcfoperations-9-1-0-0100-release-notes.html#applying-the-patch
Thank you for your response. The automated patching of each product through VCF Ops updates is very convenient! I appreciate you incorporating this information into the documentation.
Hello,
I have a simple question that I was trying to get a simple answer,
Can I go from vCenter/ESXi 8.x to VVF 9.1, and finally to VCF 9.1?
Licensing apart, that upgrade path is possible? specially from VVF to VCF?
I have a question regarding Option 2.
As described in the following document, “SDDC lifecycle” is included as a component of VVF's VCF Management Services, so I expected that I would be able to update and patch vCenter and ESX from VCF Operations.
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-1/deployment/vcf-management-appliances.html
However, after building the Option 2 environment, the vCenter and ESX components did not appear under Build > Lifecycle in the VCF Operations UI, and I was unable to perform updates or patching.
On the other hand, under Manage > Fleet Management > Certificates and Passwords, I can see entries for and perform certificate and password management for both vCenter and ESX.
So, could you please clarify whether updating vCenter and ESX from VCF Operations is currently not supported with VVF, or if this functionality is planned for a future release?
Thank you very much for your support.
For VVF entitlement, this is expected behavior, which is also in VVF/VCF 9.1 comparison doc on page 13 https://www.vmware.com/docs/vmware-cloud-foundation-9-1-feature-comparison-and-upgrade-paths
While the documentation is accurate that both SDDC/Fleet LCM service is part of VVF deployment, its there to serve the purpose for Lifcycling the Log Management component which is part of VVF. Since Log Management is no longer a standalone appliance and its managed by VCFMS service, we need to ensure we have enough of the services to deploy and patch the solution if you decide to enable. It is not for general Fleet Management which is a feature of VCF entitlement. You will continue to update your vCenter Server using VAMI interface and update your ESX hosts using vLCM within vCenter Server just like you had done prior
Thanks for the reply! Oh, that's a shame. I was hoping VVF would also allow patching and upgrade activities to be managed from VCF Operations. Hopefully that's something VMware will add in the future—I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed 🙂