VCFUpgradeGuide

ITQ. Source for docs.hollebollevsan.nl – ITQ's VMware Docs site. Its first (and so far only) section is VCF 9 / VVF 9 upgrade guidance, written to apply regardless of underlying hardware. Future sections need not be upgrade-specific or VCF-specific, just VMware.

The site's start page asks which track you're on and each track's landing page shows only the docs that apply to it:

• Full VCF (/vcf/) – SDDC Manager / VCF Management Services / Fleet Management drives the upgrade. Leads with the 9-phase upgrade sequence.
• Standalone VVF (/vvf/) – VMware vSphere Foundation without VCF Management Services; vCenter/ESXi upgraded via standard vSphere lifecycle mechanisms. Leads with the 6-step manual procedure.
• Standalone vSphere – no VCF or VVF entitlement at all. Broadcom documents the same procedure as standalone VVF for this case, so docs/12-vsphere-standard-upgrade.md points into that rather than inventing a separate one. Not on the live site yet (no picker card, landing page or nav entry) since there's nothing distinct to show for it.

Around those two sequences the site groups its guides into six bands:

• Planning & licensing – VVF vs. VCF features, Converge vs. Import, VCF Operations sizing, what licensing sends to Broadcom.
• Pre-upgrade prep – DR convergence, IWA to LDAPS, VSS to VDS, VUM to vLCM images, vCenter proxy / depot access.
• Phase guides – the two track sequences, then Operations modernization, manual vCenter upgrade, Avi + License Hub, HCX, NSX Edge and finalize, Log Management.
• Post-upgrade & Day 2 – VCF Identity Broker migration, patching an existing 9.1 fleet, VMware Tools ProductLocker.
• Troubleshooting & tools – field notes from real upgrades, VDT / lsdoctor, the VCF Inspector Fling.
• Hardware addenda – extra steps layered on top of the general flow rather than baked into it; currently Dell VxRail (full VCF only).

Related repo

VCF9-DeploymentPlanning (public) is the from-scratch deployment-planning field guide this repo's site scaffolding was seeded from. It also holds foundational VCF9 knowledge that's directly useful during an upgrade – check there rather than duplicating it here:

• Shutdown / Startup – the ordered fleet shutdown/startup runbook
• Firewall & Ports – firewall flows by zone
• Prerequisites – environment prerequisites, incl. certificate authority setup
• SSO Configuration – fleet SSO / Identity Broker
• Remove Components – cleanly removing/reinstalling optional Day-N components

Contents

The spine

01-overview.md is a shared, short router – confirming a supported path and target build applies to every track, so it stays common ground. The actual phase-by-phase procedure is track-specific and lives in its own doc, so that landing on either track's page leads straight into real content instead of a one-size-fits-all wall of text:

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/01-overview.md	Shared prerequisites, target-build guidance, and a pointer to the two sequences below (work in progress)	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere
docs/13-vcf-upgrade-sequence.md	The 9-phase spine, prerequisites, conditional phases, post-upgrade validation, cleanup	VCF only
docs/14-standalone-vvf-upgrade.md	The 6-step manual procedure, no VCF Management Services	VVF only
docs/12-vsphere-standard-upgrade.md	Standalone vSphere track landing doc – points at docs/14's procedure rather than duplicating it. In the repo only, not on the live site yet	Standalone vSphere only

Guides, grouped by where they slot into the flow

The docs/NN- file numbers are stable identifiers (linked from across the repo), not a reading order. The site sidebar mirrors these bands; the site's /vcf/ and /vvf/ landing pages filter by track instead. Applies to follows the three-track split described above – most guides work for more than one track, some are scoped to one.

Planning & licensing – decisions and sizing to settle before (or alongside) an upgrade:

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/19-vvf-vs-vcf-feature-comparison.md	Side-by-side VVF vs VCF tables from Broadcom's 9.1.1 comparison whitepaper – VCF Operations, Log Management, compute, storage, networking, VKS, add-ons, and upgrade paths from older SKUs	VCF or VVF (licensing decision)
docs/22-converge-and-import-existing-infrastructure.md	Converge (VCF Installer, brownfield vSphere into a new VCF/VVF instance) vs. Import (VCF Operations, an existing vCenter into a new workload domain on an already-running fleet) – prerequisites, version bars, and the shared NSX auto-selection back-in-time trap	VCF or VVF (Import is VCF only)
docs/24-vcf-operations-sizing-and-scaling.md	VCF Operations 9.1 node sizes and object / metric limits (Configuration Maximums), checking whether the current size still fits, scale up and scale out procedures	VCF or VVF
docs/25-licensing-what-is-sent-to-broadcom.md	What VCF 9 licensing sends to Broadcom: registration and usage file contents field by field, how to inspect them, connected vs. disconnected, the 180-day rule, and what stops when licenses lapse	VCF or VVF

Pre-upgrade prep – done before the core sequence, or before a specific phase:

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/02-disaster-recovery.md	SRM / vSphere Replication to VCF Protection and Recovery, before core Phase 3	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere
docs/06-iwa-ldaps-migration.md	IWA to AD-over-LDAPS migration, before Phase 6, with a permissions/roles backup	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere
docs/08-vss-to-vds-migration.md	VSS to VDS migration, before extending a standalone VVF fleet to full VCF	VVF only (extending to full VCF)
docs/15-vum-to-vlcm-migration.md	VUM to vLCM images migration, before the ESX host phase	VCF or VVF
docs/16-vcenter-proxy-configuration.md	vCenter appliance outbound proxy config, both the 7.0.x/8.0.x and 9.x methods; the 9.x local proxy service and its failure modes, excluding the License Server, Lifecycle Manager download sources, and the compatibility-data (VCG) known issue	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere

Phase guides – detail for a specific core-sequence phase (on the site, the two track sequences above also sit in this band):

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/05-operations-modernization.md	Aria Operations to VCF Operations (Phase 1): in-place vs. fresh install, re-IP, HA setup, vCenter integrations	VCF or VVF
docs/07-vcenter-manual-upgrade.md	Manual GUI upgrade of a standalone vCenter (Phase 6 alternate path, no Fleet Management), plus the vCenter-specific back-in-time compatibility check	VVF or standalone vSphere (no VCF Management Services)
docs/09-avi-license-hub-upgrade.md	Avi Load Balancer + License Hub upgrade, before SDDC Manager	VCF or VVF, if Avi is in use
docs/23-hcx-upgrade.md	VMware HCX upgrade: HCX Manager at every paired site, then the Service Mesh appliances, after VCF Automation; version and pairing rules, rollback, VCF Operations-driven lifecycle once on 9.1	VCF only, if HCX is in use
docs/10-nsx-edge-finalize.md	NSX Edge cluster upgrade and NSX finalize (replaces the plain Phase 8), after the host phase	VCF or VVF, if NSX is in use
docs/11-log-management-migration.md	VCF Operations for Logs migration to Log Management 9.1, after NSX finalize	VCF or VVF

Post-upgrade & Day 2:

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/03-identity-broker-migration.md	VIDM / Workspace ONE Access to VCF Identity Broker, after core (or before Phase 1 for the 9.0.x source case)	VCF only (needs VCF Management Services)
docs/20-patching-an-existing-vcf9-fleet.md	Patching a fleet already on VCF 9.1 to a later maintenance release (e.g. 9.1.0.x to 9.1.1) – Express Patches, depot prep, mandatory component order, UI walkthrough, gotchas	VCF or VVF
docs/18-vmware-tools-productlocker.md	Shared VMware Tools repository (ProductLocker) – setting it, and why it needs re-verifying after upgrades	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere

Troubleshooting & tools:

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/04-field-notes.md	Known issues and gotchas from real VCF 5.2 to 9.x upgrades, grouped by phase	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere
docs/17-vdt-and-lsdoctor-diagnostics.md	Self-service diagnostic tools – VDT for a general appliance health sweep, lsdoctor for VC Lookup Service / SSO / vmdir issues	VCF, VVF, or standalone vSphere
docs/21-vcf-inspector-fling.md	VCF Inspector – a standalone VMware Fling for fleet-level pre-upgrade validation, deployment monitoring with stuck-task detection, and health diagnostics	VCF only (needs a VCF control-plane node)

Hardware addenda:

Path	Purpose	Applies to
docs/vxrail-addendum.md	Dell VxRail-specific extra steps (work in progress)	VCF only (SDDC Manager ↔ VxRail Manager)

Other

Path	Purpose
reference/	Pinned reference material
tools/	Helper scripts, if any get added
web/	ITQ-branded Astro site rendering docs/ in place

Web version

Published at docs.hollebollevsan.nl via GitHub Pages (.github/workflows/pages.yml); also mirrored to an internal GitLab Pages instance (.gitlab-ci.yml) for ITQ-internal use. To run it locally:

cd web
npm install
npm run dev

Each doc page has a Print / Save as PDF button – it calls the browser's own print dialog against that doc, using the site's print styling, so choosing "Save as PDF" there gives a proper, correctly-paginated PDF of just that doc.

For a locally-generated file covering the whole guide instead (e.g. to email one without sending a link), build a combined PDF:

cd web
npm run pdf

Writes web/dist-pdf/vcf-upgrade-guide.pdf (not committed – generated on demand).

Author

Paul van Dieen

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.