Update vCenter is fast and simple, you can do it in multiple ways but in this article, I’ll go through how to update vCenter in the web GUI.
At the time when I’m writing this vCenter version 8u3a have been released and it’s classified as priority high so you should update as soon as possible. You can read more about the changes in the release notes.
For this article you don’t need to download vCenter from Broadcom’s webpage but if you for some reason want to do that you can do it here.
Introduction
Prerequisite
- Administration permissions to vCenter
- Access to vCenter web GUI
Good to know
- During this guide you need to replace some of the text with your unique name etc
- VCENTERFQDN = FQDN to your vCenter
Access vCenter web GUI
We need to access vCenter’s web GUI, usually it’s your vCenter’s FQDN and port 5480.
So in your web browser write the address https://VCENTERFQDN:5480.
Then login with your administrator or root account.
Backup
You should always have backups on your vCenter. If you don’t have it, you can take a backup now.
Take Backup (Optional)
- If you don’t have a backup, it’s a good idea to take one before we update vCenter. Click on Backup Now (see picture above)
- If you check Use backup location and username from backup schedule it will autofill backup location and username for you. You need to enter the password for the backup credentials and then enter a backup encryption password. If you want, you can also enter a Description for this backup. Click Start to start the backup
Update
Pre-Update Check
It’s always good to run the pre-update check before you start the update and correct any eventual errors.
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Click on the arrow beside the radio button on the same line at the update you want to use. Then click on Run Pre-Update Checks
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When the pre-update checks have finished you can see information like estimated downtime and if you have any warnings a warning icon will appear. Click on view message to see more information about the warnings
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In my case the warning is telling me that I haven’t made a backup for 23 hours. I’ll ignore this warning and continue the backup process because this is my lab environment.
Start the update
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To start the update, click on stage and install at the top menu above the update list
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A pop-up window will appear where you need to accept the terms of license agreement
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Now it will start to run pre-update checks, this can take some time
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If pre-update check finds any issue you will see information about them, I’ll ignore this warning as it’s my lab environment. To ignore the warnings click ignore and continue
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We will see a window that stating that it’s a good idea to take a backup and we also need to click on the checkbox that we have done a backup of vCenter. Then click on the Finish button to continue
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Now the update installation process will start, the time it takes to finish the process will vary. The estimated time has been shown in the previous steps
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When the installation process has finished you will see the following window, the only thing that’s left is to click on Close
Conclusion
In this guide I have been showing you how to update vCenter. You can update vCenter in many ways and I’ll update this article with that later. I do hope this article will help someone during their update process.