Virtual Musings

With the log4j vulnerability going around, making sure your systems are up to date with patches has never been more critical. While IBM Cloud offers an incredible service with its VMware Solutions, one of the key client responsibilities is to ensure that all systems and applications remain up to date.

This post will describe how you update a vRealize Log Insights instance that has been deployed through IBM Cloud automation. This is the first in a series of blog posts discussing updating the most relevant components of a VMware Solution.

Why vRealize Log Insights first? Based upon the VMware KB article, the correct sequence to update your solution is:

1. vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM)
2. vRealize Log Insight (vRLI)
3. vRealize Operations (vROPs)
4. vRealize Network Insight (vRNI)
5. vRealize Automation (vRA)
6. vSphere Replication (VR)
7. vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM)
8. NSX-T
9. vCenter Server
10. ESXi
11. VMware Tools
12. Virtual hardward
13. vSAN / VMFS

As IBM Cloud does not support vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager through automation (although it can be installed directly by a client) the first component that is installed through automation, and therefore needs to be upgraded is vRealize Log Insight.

Prerequisites

• Determine the current version of vRealize Log Insights you are running. To do so, log into the vRealize Log Insights console using the supplied credentials located in the IBM Cloud portal and from the Overview page click on your user (admin) in the upper-right corner of the webpage and choose About. In the example below we can see that the version installed is 8.4.1.

• Download the upgrade package from VMware. Note that you can upgrade a cluster to vRealize Log Insight 8.6 from 8.4, to 8.4 from 8.3 or 8.2, to 8.3 from 8.2, to 8.2 from 8.1, and to 8.1 from 4.8 or 8.0. This package should be downloaded to the computer that will perform the upgrade. In our example as the current version of vRealize Log Insights in 8.4.1 the upgrade will be to 8.6.2.
• Determine the IP address of the primary node. The IP address supplied in the IBM Cloud portal is for the virtual load balancer IP, and does not necessarily reflect the current primary node. To determine the current primary node:
  • Log into vRealize Log Insights using the virtual IP supplied in the IBM Cloud portal.
  • In the upper menu bar click on Administration.
  • In the left hand navigation click on Cluster.
  • One of the hosts will have (Primary) listed after its hostname / IP address. Click on that host.
• The node details window will appear as shown below. Note the IP address listed as it will be used during the upgrade.
• Ensure that this IP address is mapped in DNS to the FQDN of the primary node and is resolvable from the system performing the upgrade. The FQDN will be in the format of <name of instance>-vrlog-master<domain name>.

Upgrade Steps

1. Log into vRealize Log Insights using the FQDN of the primary node.
2. In the upper menu bar click on Administration.
3. In the left hand navigation click on Cluster.
4. In the cluster pane click on Upgrade Cluster.
5. Using the file browser navigate to the download .pak file and click Open.
6. You will receive a warning that once upgrading vRealize Log Insights cannot be downgraded. Click on to continue with the upgrade.
7. When prompted click on Accept to accept the license agreement.

The upgrade process will begin. This process can take several minutes to complete for the primary. Once complete the browser will refresh letting you know the upgrade is complete.

The remaining nodes will be upgraded one at a time. Once complete you will see all nodes at the new level.