Remote Proactive Support General Procedure: VxRail-Upgrade - Customer-Preparation-Guide

Important: If you are looking for support assistance performing a VxRail upgrade yourself, please choose the Product Problem option from the dropdown on online support.

Only select Operating Environment Upgrade when requesting to schedule the upgrade with the RPS team.

Introduction:
As your IT partner, the Dell Remote Proactive Services (RPS) team has created this Upgrade Preparation Guide to help customers through successful equipment upgrades. This guide is not intended as a replacement for any other procedures or release notes. It describes known concerns that have the potential to disrupt your environment.

You have two options with this guide as mentioned during the exchange with the Dell Scheduler:

1. Review this guide ahead of your scheduled Upgrade Pre-Check (Technical Consultation) and prepare any questions that you may have. Discuss these with the Upgrade Engineer when they contact you for the precheck. Your Upgrade Engineer then reviews the precheck results and determines the upgrade plan.
2. Review this guide independently and ensure that your environment is protected against these known concerns.

VxRail Engineering recommends the latest code in each family when considering a code upgrade. These code levels contain the latest fixes and security patches. 


End Of Software Support (EOSS):
Support for VxRail 4.5 and VxRail 4.7 Families ended on September 30, 2022. Customers are encouraged to upgrade to VxRail 8.0.x code for continued support.

Broadcom has announced the End of Life for vSphere/vCenter 7.0 on October 02 2025, Dell will align VxRail 7.x with this date. Customers are encouraged to upgrade to VxRail 8.0.x code before the End of Life date.


Security Advisories: 

VMSA-2025-0004
On March 04, 2025 Broadcom released a critical VMware Security Advisory (VMSA), VMSA-2025-0004, addressing security vulnerabilities found and resolved in VMware ESXi which impacts VxRail product. These security vulnerabilities are resolved in the following VxRail releases:

• 8.0.322 (contains vSphere 8.0 U3d)
• 7.0.541 (contains vSphere 7.0 U3s)

You must review the latest Security Advisories when planning your upgrade. Use the below link to view the latest security advisories: Support for VxRail Appliance Series | Advisories 

Advisories should be read and used to help avoid situations that may arise from the problems they outline. If an advisory applies, it may determine the destination code for the upgrade and additional steps to fully address the advisory.

Latest Codes:
8.0.x Family: 8.0.370 (Released January 7, 2026)
7.0.x Family: 7.0.550 (Released May 28, 2025)

Latest Issues:
Broadcom recently introduced new requirements for third-party VIBs and services network ports. Therefore, a one-time additional reboot per node is required to upgrade to VxRail 8.0.300 to implement these new requirements. Because of the extra reboot, each node may require an additional 20 minutes of update time.
To support these new services, the following network ports must be open between VxRail, vCenter and ESXi nodes:

• 39090
• 35252
• 35353
• 38008

License Keys:
For customers performing a major version upgrade an upgrade to the license keys is required. See Broadcom KB 282428  for information about upgrading your license keys after a VxRail upgrade.

See Broadcom KB 281797 for assistance in applying licenses keys.
Customers are responsible for obtaining and updating license keys.

Pre-Upgrade:
In preparation for your upcoming upgrade event, note the below-known items:

• As part of the pre-upgrade checks, the RPS upgrade engineer checks the cluster health before starting the cluster upgrade. Extra time is allocated for Pre and Post-Checks of the cluster.
• Schedule the upgrade for a time outside of your peak I/O load, as performance degradation may occur during the migration of VMs while individual nodes or hosts are being upgraded.
• Since VMs are vMotioned as part of the upgrade, ensure that VMs are available to be vMotioned in advance. Examples of issues that may prevent vMotion:
  • VM with an ISO mounted
  • VM with external storage locally mounted
  • VM pinned to a host (Affinity rules)
• If this VxRail Cluster is joining a customer-managed vCenter, ensure that your vCenter build is already at the minimum required version, as per KB article: VxRail: VxRail and External vCenter Interoperability Matrix
• RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines is a customer upgradable product and is not in the scope of the RPS team. See the VxRail Simple Support Matrix for supported RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines versions.
• Verify that all third-party software is compatible with the VxRail version you are upgrading to by checking the VxRail Simple Support Matrix.
• Check the compatibility with the third-party vendor if any software is not covered by the previous document.
• If a customer is using the Center with Active Directory authentication and planning an Out Of Family (OOF) upgrade, they must reconfigure the identity source post-upgrade. This behavior is expected when upgrading between major vCenter versions. See KB article: Dell VxRail: vCenter Identity Source (IWA) must be reconfigured after VxRail major version Upgrades 4.5.x to 4.7.x/4.7.x to 7.0.x.
• Starting with VxRail 7.0.350, VxRail clusters use the (Secure Connect Gateway) Dell Technologies next-generation consolidated connectivity solution which connects to the Dell Technologies cloud.
  
  If your upgrade is to VxRail 7.0.350 or later, extra steps may be required based on your current remote configuration. See KB article: Dell VxRail: Next-generation connectivity with VxRail 7.0.350 and later for more information
• If VxRail is Deployed and Managed over Secure Remote Services Gateway, ensure that the network requirements are followed so that the VxRail 7.0.350+ upgrade can automatically update the remote connection.
• For deployments using an external Secure Remote Services or SAE gateway, upgrade to Secure Connect Gateway 5.x before the VxRail upgrade.
    If these requirements are not met, dial-home functionality is impacted until the gateway is upgraded to Secure Connect Gateway 5.x or later.
• For VxRail Cluster which has STIG hardening (Security Technical Implementation Guidelines) applied, STIG hardening version 2.0.001 resolves the VMware issue described in VMware article KB 88055 which blocked STIG hardening of VxRail 7.0.370 and later. Also, if STIG hardening version 2.0.000 or earlier was applied to a VxRail cluster version 7.0.350 or earlier, STIG hardening version 2.0.001 must be applied before upgrading to VxRail 7.0.370 and later. See KB article: Dell VxRail: Security Technical Implementation Guide on VxRail for more details. 
• During a VxRail upgrade from VxRail v4.x or 7.0.x to a later 7.0.x release, VMware VDS upgrade resets multicast filtering mode to the default, enabling IGMP/MLD snooping on the VDS. IGMP/MLD snooping can potentially affect Microsoft Network Load Balancer (NLB) applications. If your environment is configured with Microsoft NLB for VxRail-hosted applications, the virtual IP is not reachable until you manually disable IGMP/MLD snooping.

See KB article: Dell EMC VxRail: LCM Upgrade from 4.x or 7.0.x to later 7.0.x or 8.0.x VMWare VDS upgrade will reset "multicast filtering mode" to default "IGMP/MLD snooping" on the VDS potentially affecting Microsoft NLB applications for more detailed information.
Reboot Recommendation:

VxRail Quality Engineering performed a data analysis, which has shown a high percentage of successful upgrades when the ESXi nodes are proactively rebooted. Additionally, it can also identify VMs with vMotion issues, ESXi maintenance mode issues, or any reboot issues and refreshes all ESXi services.

The RPS Team recommends that customers perform a rolling reboot on the ESXi nodes several days before the VxRail upgrade (Customer Task).

If a customer encounters any issues during the reboots, they can refer to Troubleshooting guide or open an SR with the VxRail Support team.

Also, your RPS Upgrade Engineer reboots all Service VMs (VxRail Manager, vCenter, and PSC) and resets iDRAC on all nodes before starting the upgrade script.

vCenter and PSC Service VMs are rebooted only if these are VxRail managed.

Node Reboot Steps:
The following steps outline how to reboot ESXi nodes in a rolling manner, to avoid any disruptions or downtime:

1. Log in to vCenter UI, check vSAN Health is good and no errors are displayed.
2. Select the first node. Right click > Enter Maintenance Mode (ensure to select "Ensure Accessibility" on the window).
3. Obtain the iDRAC IP:

➢ Select the Node > Configure > VxRail > iDRAC Configuration

1. Once the node enters Maintenance Mode, right click the Node > Power > Reboot
2. Monitor the reboot through the iDRAC interface by opening a browser window to the iDRAC IP.
3. Once the node is back online, take it out of Maintenance Mode and clear any alarms.
4. Go to vSAN Health and check for a resync:

➢ Cluster > Monitor > vSAN > Resyncing Objects
➢ If there is a resync wait until it completes before continuing.

1. Run the vSAN Health Tests. Ensure that everything is clean before moving to the next node.
2. Repeat the above process for all the remaining nodes.

Passwords Requirements:

• Ensure that you have the below passwords before the upgrade and technical consultation to prevent the activity from being postponed.

➢ VxRail Manager mystic
➢ VxRail Manager root
➢ vCenter administrator
➢ vCenter root (if VxRail Managed)
➢ PSC root (if VxRail Managed - not applicable to 7.x and later)
➢ ESXi Node root
➢ iDRAC

• See KB article: Dell VxRail: Account and password rules in VxRail for more information about the password’s instructions.
• Follow the How to "Procedure" in Solve online to reset any of the passwords.
• Open a Service Request with VxRail Support before the technical consultation activity if you were unable to reset any of the above passwords.

When upgrading out of family to 8.x/7.x/4.7.x/4.5.x, ensure the following:

• If the password of vCenter user administrator@vsphere.local contains special characters listed in the KB article referenced in the next bullet, the Linux shell cannot handle these characters properly and it causes the script to fail.
• Change the admin vCenter password if it contains any of the special characters listed in the KB article referenced here, before the upgrade. See KB article: VxRail: VxRM health-check fails for test 'vc_pw_char' for additional information.
• A temporary IP Address on the same subnet is required to upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and Platform Service Controller (PSC). Verify that the IP Address is free to use with the following command: /usr/sbin/arping -I eth0 -c 5 -D <temp IP address>

If upgrading from 4.0.x to 4.5.x or 4.7.x:

• VxRail Manager v4.5.x and higher no longer supports vCenter Server as a DNS. Prepare and supply your external DNS information before upgrading to v4.5.x or 4.7.x.
• A temporary IP Address on the same subnet is required to upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and Platform Service Controller (PSC). Verify that the IP Address is free to use with the following command: /usr/sbin/arping -I eth0 -c 5 -D <temp IP address>

If upgrading from 4.5.x to 4.7.x:

• A temporary IP address on the same subnet is required to upgrade VCSA and PSC. Verify that the IP is free to use with the following command: /usr/sbin/arping -I eth0 -c 5 -D <temp IP address>
• Before an upgrade to 4.7.x, RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines (RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines) clusters must be upgraded to the latest supported RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines version,
• Before upgrading to 4.7.x, check NSX version (if installed) compatibility with VxRail 4.7.x. (See KB article: VxRail: Upgrade cannot continue because the VMware NSX VIB is an incompatible version on the host.)

If upgrading from 4.0.x, 4.5.x, or 4.7.x to 7.0.x:

In some instances, a VxRail upgrade from 4.5.x or 4.7.x to 7.0 in a Stretched Cluster configuration may result in the vSAN Witness appliance losing its embedded license and reverting to a 60-day Evaluation license. See KB article: Dell VxRail: vSAN Witness OEM license is lost or expired after upgrade to 7.0.xxx from earlier release 4.5.xx or 4.7.xxx. 

• All customer-managed vCenter Servers (Customer Managed) must be upgraded before upgrading VxRail 7.x.
• Before the vCenter upgrade, users are required to follow manual steps to update a vCenter setting before upgrading the customer-supplied vCenter to 7.0.U1. Reference the following article for the detailed procedure: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2051311
• VxRail Manager v.7.0.000 and later supports RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines version 5.3. If your VxRail Cluster has installed RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines, see the VxRail Simple Support Matrix for the current supported RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines release.
• Internet upgrades: See the Release Notes for versions that support Internet upgrades.
• Quanta Appliance nodes are not supported in the vSphere 7.x Family.
• Before the upgrade see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix for supported NSX versions with target vCenter versions. 
• As of VxRail 7.0.x, the Platform Services Controller (PSC) must be embedded in the vCenter Server virtual machine. 
• For clusters deployed with an internal vCenter, the VxRail Life-Cycle Management (LCM) script for 7.0.x automatically converges the external PSC to an internal PSC, embedded within vCenter Server virtual machine.
• For clusters with a customer-managed vCenter deployment, the user is responsible for manually converging the external PSC into an embedded PSC within the vCenter Server virtual machine before upgrading to VxRail 7.x code.
• Users must follow a VMware-provided procedure for the conversion, and then run a VxRail provided script to update the PSC information in the VxRail database. See KB article: Dell VxRail: How to update VxRail Manager configuration using script after converging external vCenter and PSC. 
• A temporary IP Address on the same subnet is required to upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and Platform Service Controller (PSC). Verify that the IP Address is free to use with the following command: /usr/sbin/arping -I eth0 -c 5 -D <temp IP address>

If upgrading from 4.7.x, 7.x to 8.0.x
VMware deprecated TPM 1.2 modules in vSphere 8.0. Clusters with 14G nodes that have an active TPM 1.2 module fail the VxRail 8.0.x LCM precheck with an error message or warns. See KB 000204703 and VxRail 8.0.x Release Notes.

A temporary IP Address on the same subnet is required to upgrade vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and Platform Service Controller (PSC). Verify that the IP Address is free to use with the following command:
/usr/sbin/arping -I eth0 -c 5 -D <temp IP address>

CloudLink
Before upgrading to VxRail 8.x customers must upgrade CloudLink to version 8.x, see Dell KB 000215933 for more information.

SFS Decoupling
Upgrades require SmartFabric Services (SFS) to be decoupled from VxRail Manager:

• Upgrades to 7.0.450 and later (including 8.x code)

See KB 000218470 for more information about decoupling SFS and SolVe documentation.

SolVe was updated with a VxRail procedure:
"How To" Procedure: Decouple integrated SmartFabric Services and migrate to non-integrated.

Selection path in Solve:

• VxRail Appliance
• VxRail Procedures
• Miscellaneous
• 'How To' Procedures
• Is the system running VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail? -> No
• Is your VxRail Software version 8.0 and above? No
• Change other VxRail Cluster settings
• Select the correct VxRail version installed
• Decouple integrated SmartFabric Services and migrate to non-integrated
  • If selection is missing, select version below 7.0.450

Customer-managed VMware vCenter Server plug-in:

• If you are using a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server environment, upgrade the VMware vCenter Server environment to VMware vSphere 8.0 before upgrading to VxRail 8.0.
• If you are using a customer-managed VMware vCenter Server environment, see KB article Dell VxRail: Fail to deploy VxRail plug-in after upgrading customer-supplied vCenter to vSphere 8.0 after updating your VMware vCenter environment to VMware vSphere 8.0 to resolve a known issue with the VxRail plug-in failing to deploy. 

VMware vSphere 8.0 license keys are required for a cluster to run on VMware vSphere 8.0.

• The LCM precheck does not stop a user from upgrading without VMware vSphere 8.0 license keys.

Without VMware vSphere 8.0 license keys, the nodes run on 60-day evaluation license keys. Go to Broadcom Support Portal to determine if vSphere 8.0 license keys are required for the clusters and to obtain them. Customers are responsible for obtaining and updating license keys.

Review the VxRail 8.0 Release Notes for a full list of restrictions before attempting an upgrade to VxRail 8.0.

Avamar and Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) Compatibility:
If using Avamar or IDPA with VxRail, check the target vCenter and vSphere ESXi versions for compatibility.

There is no way for the RPS team to determine if Avamar or IDPA are being used in the environment. The Upgrade Engineer asks customers if either of these are employed and then uses the VxRail Simple Support Matrix to find the compatible versions.

• VxRail Appliance SSM VxRail 7.0.x supports Avamar 19.3, 19.4 and 19.7.
  VxRail 8.0.x supports Avamar 19.7 and 19.8.

For more information regarding the upgrade preparation guides, go to Dell KB article: RPS General Procedure: Upgrade Preparation Guides.

Post Upgrade: 

• Ensure the VMware vSphere 7.0 & 8.0 license keys are not expired or are running as the 60-day trial version.
• Customers should go to Broadcom Support Portal to upgrade license keys.
• Also, see Broadcom KB 81665 for help with upgrading vSphere license keys.  

Note: Ensure that you are logged into the Dell Support site to access the below documents: 

VxRail Release Notes are available at the Dell Support Product Page:

• VxRail 8.0.x
• VxRail 7.0.x
• VxRail 4.7.x
• VxRail 4.5.x
• VxRail 4.0.x

VxRail Support Matrix Documents are available at the Dell Support Product Page:

• VxRail 8.0 Support Matrix
• VxRail 7.0 Support Matrix
• VxRail 4.7 Support Matrix
• VxRail 4.5 Support Matrix
• VxRail 4.0 Support Matrix

Other Upgrade Information:

• Dell VxRail Upgrade Information 
• VxRail Appliance Simple Support Matrix  
• VxRail Documentation Quick Reference List