Patching for vRA stack appliance

[Chakresh_IBM]

Hello Guys,

What does VMware recommend for appliance patching . How to patch vRA,vRO,vROPS, loginsight appliance server patching .?

[nmshadey]

VMware only provide the patches/upgrades with documentation to support the process. When and which products you upgrade is ideally based on your business patching strategy.

If you are referring to cross product compatibility as a result of a patch/upgrade then you should consult the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices​ page. You should also upgrade vRA/vRO at the same time at the least.

Was there anything more specific that you needed to know?

Gavin

[Chakresh_IBM]

Thanks a lot Gavin for your inputs .

My specific question is for appliance patching ? VMware support provides information about application patch/upgrade but I am looking for specific information about appliance patching.

I would appreciate if you can guide me.

[daphnissov]

Any patches that need to be applied to these appliances are delivered packaged by VMware and are usually accompanied by a corresponding KB article outlining a use case and installation procedure. On no account (or none of which I'm aware) do they condone users installing their own patches or those from anyone else.

[Chakresh_IBM]

Thanks , This is the exact information I am looking for .. Thanks a lot

So in this case as an end user should I check for the updates from VMware on VMWARE official page for patches released ? or VMware will notify the users about these packages ?

[nmshadey · Accepted solution]

VMware will announce when a new release of their products is available. The easiest way to upgrade the vRA/vRO appliance is through the appliance VAMI interface itself. There is an update tab which will allow you to kick off the update. You can also download the ISO and mount this to the appliance and use this as the source for the updates (I do this to get around waiting for a firewall/proxy rule, etc).

So, updating the appliance is quite a simple process. Just make sure to follow the upgrade docs carefully as updates to the vRA components need to be carried out in a specific order (agents need to be shut down, etc).

Gavin

[nmshadey]

As daphnissov said, don't go installing patches as you normally would on a linux box. You'll end up breaking the dependencies that vRA has on specific package versions. You will almost certainly cripple the system. If an update isn't available from the updates tab in the VAMI, don't update