NSX Manager Help with Older Version...

[umms]

I have NSX Manager version 6.1.2-2318232. We can't access the manager anymore which means we can't see what rules were put in (past person who had implemented this has left). This is probably an unsupported version at this point but we want to know if there is an upgrade path or a way to upgrade this to see if we can fix the GUI issues so we can see what is being blocked, etc.

Does anyone know if:

A. Can we upgrade this to another version - if so what would be the version?

B. If we do upgrade will this be a non disruptive endeavor (like updating vCenter where VMs will all be fine and up and running).

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated as it has become critical we figure out what is causing our issues with these VMs running under NSX.

Thanks.

[bayupw]

You can open a case to VMware Support if you don't know the NSX Manager's password and get support to reset the password for you.

The support should be able to help you.

On the upgrade, you can check the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices and select the 'Upgrade Path' tab

For update sequence across multiple VMware solutions, you would want to check the Update Sequence KB

Update sequence for vSphere 6.7 and its compatible VMware products (53710)

Update sequence for vSphere 6.5 and its compatible VMware products (2147289)

Update sequence for vSphere 6.0 and its compatible VMware products (2109760)

[umms]

Unfortunately the password is not the issue. We just can't get the GUI to come up. We have rebooted the manager and everything. I just want to know if i can update the manager without any disruption to the NSX environment really.

[bayupw]

Which NSX GUI are you referring to?
The NSX Manager web interface:

Or the NSX Networking & Security Plugin in vSphere Web Client:

To upgrade NSX Manager, you would need to have access to both NSX Manager web interface (first screenshot) and the Networking & Security plugin (second screenshot).

I would engage VMware Support if you cannot access any of them.

If your issue is that you can't see the Networking & Security plugin, you can go to the NSX Manager web interface > Manage vCenter Registration (default user is admin)

then check which user is being used to connect NSX Manager to vCenter (bottom part)

Login to vCenter/vSphere Web Client using that user and you should be able to see your Networking & Security plugin > Firewall now

For upgrade whether it is disruptive or not, it depends on what NSX features are you using currently.

If it is DFW only, it would be minimal downtime as you only need NSX to update the VIBs into the ESXi hosts, have them in maintenance mode (requires vMotion and host evacuation) and reboot each ESXi hosts (done per cluster can be done per ESXi host).

If you have more than DFW such as VXLAN, Edge Services Gateway, Distributed Logical Router, then there would be data plane/network connectivity impact.

For upgrade from 6.1.2, the highest you can go based on the matrix that I posted in previous reply is 6.3.2

The high level procedure would be

1. Download NSX Manager 6.3.2 from My VMware portal https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/home

2. Login to NSX Manager web interface > upgrade > upload NSX Manager and reboot > verify NSX Manager version is updated

3. Login to vSphere Web Client > Networking & Security > Installation > Host Preparation > Upgrade NSX VIBs per cluster

That's done for DFW only, for other features there would be additional steps

As you can see, you would need access to both NSX Manager web interface and Networking & Security so you would want to resolve your access first

[umms]

Thank you for the detailed response. Unfortunately we cannot get to either GUI.

So upgrading just the NSX Manager is not like upgrading vCenter - meaning when you update vCenter it does not affect the hosts or running VMs in any way usually. We were hoping the manager was the same way.

Do you know if just rebooting the Manager is disruptive to the data plane at all?

Thanks.