Performing nondisruptive update using hypervisor cluster profile

How to perform nondisruptive update

To achieve best results, you can combine the configuration changes. For example, you can modify the server profile template to use a new firmware baseline and OS deployment plan. Remedy the resulting inconsistencies in the hypervisor cluster profile to update both the firmware and operating system.

Updating the configurations of the cluster members can be categorized in to the following two steps.

Step 1 — Modify the template configurations

Modify the template configurations of the cluster by editing the server profile template, network set, or the hypervisor cluster profile. The following changes in the server profile template or network set results in an inconsistency in the corresponding hypervisor cluster profile. To resolve the inconsistency, you must edit the hypervisor cluster profile and regenerate the hypervisor networking or hypervisor storage configurations based on the configurations in the server profile template. This action ensures that the template configurations for the server node and the hypervisor are consistent with each other.

  • Modify the network set to add a network or remove a network.

  • Modify the server profile template to add, update, or remove an Ethernet network connection.

  • Modify the server profile template to add or update a SAN storage volume.

Scenarios

Here are a few scenarios to understand configuration changes:

  • To update firmware on all the servers in the cluster using the packages from the new firmware bundle, modify the server profile template to use the newly uploaded firmware baseline.

  • To move the networking defined using VMware vSphere Standard Switch to VMware vSphere Distributed Switch, modify the hypervisor cluster profile and change the virtual switch type from Standard to Distributed.

  • To configure additional networks on one of the available server network ports that is not in use:

    1. Modify the server profile template to define a new connection to the required network on network set.

    2. Edit the hypervisor cluster profile to regenerate the hypervisor network configuration.

  • To configure additional networks on one of the existing server network ports that is already in use:

    1. Modify the network set associated with the existing connection and add the required additional networks to it.

    2. Edit the hypervisor cluster profile to regenerate the hypervisor network configuration.

  • To increase the storage in the cluster:

    1. Modify the server profile template to add a storage volume.

    2. Edit the hypervisor cluster profile to regenerate the hypervisor storage configuration.

Step 2 — Remediate the inconsistencies

The modifications in the template configurations result in inconsistencies in the cluster members. Remediate the inconsistencies using the hypervisor cluster profile to resolve the inconsistencies in all the member server profiles and hypervisor profiles in a sequential manner. This remediation applies the configuration changes in the template configurations on all the cluster members.

Alternatively, you can remediate the inconsistencies in each of the cluster members individually by using the remediate option on the hypervisor profile.