Short answer: There are three ways into VCF 9.x. A VCF 5.x instance is upgraded: management components first, then SDDC Manager, NSX, vCenter and ESX, with the management domain done before any workload domain. A standalone vSphere 8 environment (with or without Aria Operations 8) is converged with the VCF Installer. A greenfield site is deployed new. vSphere 7 must first go to 8.
This page is the broad overview of upgrade paths into VCF 9.x. For the exact version matrix into 9.1, including which source builds qualify for a direct upgrade, see VCF 9.1 Supported Upgrade Paths.
Which VCF 9 upgrade path applies to you
Broadcom’s Paths to Building 9.0.x Environments groups everything by your starting state. The guidance covers only the management domain, because that is the minimum building block of a VCF Instance.
| Starting point | Path | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing (greenfield) | Deploy | VCF Installer, then VCF Operations |
| vSphere 8 (vCenter + ESX), optionally vSAN, NSX, Aria Operations/Automation 8 | Converge to VCF 9 or to vSphere Foundation (VVF) 9 | VCF Installer |
| VCF 5.x | Upgrade | Management components first, then SDDC Manager |
| vSphere 7.x | Upgrade to vSphere 8 first | Standard vCenter/ESXi upgrade |
Upgrading from VCF 5.x to VCF 9.0
According to Upgrading Your VCF Management Domain to VCF 9.0, you can upgrade sequentially or skip-level to VCF 9.0 from VCF 5.0 or later. Anything older than 5.0 has to be brought to 5.0 or later first, for the management domain and all workload domains. The management domain upgrade is mandatory. Workload domains can be upgraded later as a Day-N task.
VCF 9 moves the Aria products into the platform. The order is:
- Management components: Aria Operations becomes VCF Operations, and a new VCF Operations fleet management appliance takes over from Aria Suite Lifecycle. Aria Suite Lifecycle has no upgrade path to 9.
- Core components through SDDC Manager: SDDC Manager, NSX, vCenter, ESX.
- Remaining components, such as VCF Operations collector and, optionally, VCF Automation.
Some products cannot be upgraded in place. VMware Identity Manager has no upgrade path, so you deploy VCF Identity Broker instead. Aria Operations for Logs has no upgrade path either, so you redeploy VCF Operations for logs 9.0. If you have Aria Automation 8.x, keep Aria Suite Lifecycle 8.x and VMware Identity Manager running, because Identity Manager is still an authentication source for VCF Automation 9.0.
vSphere 8 to VCF 9: converge instead of upgrade
A vSphere 8 environment that was never a VCF instance has no SDDC Manager to upgrade. Instead, the VCF Installer adopts the existing vCenter and hosts as the new management domain and deploys whatever is missing. Minimum versions for converging a vCenter instance and ESX hosts:
| Target | vCenter | ESX | Existing NSX |
|---|---|---|---|
| VCF 9.0.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | Not converged; a new NSX 9.0 is deployed |
| VCF 9.0.1 / 9.0.2 | 8.0 Update 3 (9.0 if no NSX is registered) | 8.0 Update 1 | 4.2.1 or later, without Enhanced Linked Mode |
Before converging, check the supported configurations. The cluster needs VDS 8.0 or later and shared storage accessible from all hosts. You need at least 3 hosts with vSAN, or 2 with external storage, for a simple deployment, and at least 4 hosts for high availability. Broadcom also lets you upgrade standalone vCenter, ESX and Aria Operations to 9.0 on their own first. That is enough to evaluate 9.0 for up to 90 days before licensing through VCF Operations.
VVF and vSphere 7: what changes
- VVF 5.x / vSphere 8: converge to vSphere Foundation 9 in the documented convergence order. KB 437250 covers vCenter 8.x, Aria Operations 8.x, VVF 5.x and VCF 5.x as sources for VVF/VCF 9.0 and 9.1.
- vSphere 7: vCenter 9.0 supports upgrades from vCenter 8.0 and later and cannot manage ESX 7.0 or earlier hosts. Plan a 7 → 8 → 9 sequence, and check VMFS5 datastores, which cannot be upgraded in place to VMFS6.
- Licensing: 9.x uses subscription license files managed in VCF Operations. KB 437250 states that 8.x license keys cannot be upgraded to 9.x.
Rules that break upgrade plans
- Forward-only: VCF only lets you upgrade to a target version released after your current version. A recently patched 5.2 or 8.0 U3 build may be newer than the 9.x release you are aiming for, so check release dates in the Interoperability Matrix.
- Management domain first: workload domains stay on 5.x until you upgrade them as Day-N.
- Prechecks on integrated products: an old Aria Operations for Networks (vRNI) registration can block the SDDC Manager upgrade. See VCF 9.x upgrade stuck on vRNI SSL thumbprint validation.
- SDDC Manager UI deprecation: 9.0 still upgrades core components from the SDDC Manager UI. After that, lifecycle management moves to VCF Operations.
If you are planning a greenfield lab alongside the upgrade, see Deploying a Minimal VCF 9.0 Lab.
Further reading
- Original video: Comprehensive VCF 9 Upgrade Paths Overview (video, embedded in Broadcom TechDocs)
- Broadcom TechDocs: Paths to Building 9.0.x Environments
- Broadcom TechDocs: Paths to Building 9.1.x Environments
- Broadcom KB 437250: Upgrade path from vSphere 8.x to VVF 9 or VCF 9
- vDan: VCF 9.1 Supported Upgrade Paths
