Patch upgrade procedures to 6.7 U3L with VCHA

[GStubbs]

Reviewing process in https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-Upgrade-Install/Addressing-VMSA-2021-0002-for-vCenter-6-7/... it indicates VCHA should be set to maintenance mode before beginning, which is understandable, but then never addresses updating the witness or peer nodes.

Should not https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vcenter.upgrade.doc/GUID-C27CD7DF-AB52-4A77... be followed to do this?

If it is required that all linked vCenter appliances are shutdown anyway (meaning there is a full management outage) is there any issue with just patching the active VC first and then following this document to patch the witness and peer nodes before re-enabling VCHA?

[Ferozrah · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Greetings for the day.

To patch vCenter where VCHA is configured we need to follow procedure mentioned is document: 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vcenter.upgrade.doc/GUID-C27CD7DF-AB52-4A77...

Also please be informed that taking snapshot of VCHA nodes is not supported, please see KB https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2148003 for more details.

Best

Feroz Rah

Install Upgrade Specialist

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[GStubbs]

Thank you for your answer Feroz.

So, in my situation I have multiple vCenter servers linked and the patching document https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-Upgrade-Install/Addressing-VMSA-2021-0002-for-vCenter-6-7/... (and most VMware update procedures) state to take powered down snapshots of all VCSA systems involved.

Given the the support statement regarding VCHA nodes, it would seem that the only way to patch my environment is to destroy VCHA first, take the snapshots, implement the patch following the patching document procedures, remove the snapshots after verifying everything OK and then recreating VCHA, correct?  Meaning that since we have multiple vCenter servers linked we will never be able to follow procedures outlined in https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vcenter.upgrade.doc/GUID-C27CD7DF-AB52-4A77... for patching VCHA because we need to take the snapshots first.