The OpenStack distribution upgrade is a marquee feature in VMware Integrated OpenStack version 2.0, as we discussed in a previous blog post. Juan Manuel Rey wrote-up a detailed walkthrough for this great feature and shared his insights with the post that follows:

In a previous article I showed the process to patch an existing VIO 1.0 installation, which, as you were able to see, is a clean and easy process. VMware announced VMware Integrated OpenStack 2.0 during VMworld US and it became GA shortly after the show.

This new version of VIO has all OpenStack code updated to the latest Kilo release and comes packaged with many interesting features like Load-Balancing-as-a-Service (LBaaS) and auto-scaling capabilities based on Heat and Ceilometer.

With a new VIO version hot of the press, you can upgrade your VIO 1.0.x environment to 2.0 and take advantage of all those new great goodies. The upgrade process is pretty straightforward and consists of three main stages.

• Upgrade the VIO Management Server
• Deploy a new VIO 2.0 environment
• Perform the data migration

Keep in mind that you will need to have enough hardware resources in your management cluster to be able to temporarily host two full-fledged VIO installations at the same time during the migration process. Just for the sake of transparency, the lab environment where I test the upgrade is based on vSphere 5.5 Update 2, NSX for vSphere 6.1.4 and VIO 1.0.2.

Step 1 – Upgrade VIO Management Server

From the VMware website, download the .deb upgrade package and upload it to the VIO Management Server using SCP.

VIO 2.0 Download

Stage the upgrade package.

viouser@vio-oms:~$ sudo viopatch add -l vio-1.0-upgrade_2.0.0.3037964_all.deb
[sudo] password for viouser:
vio-1.0-upgrade_2.0.0.3037964_all.deb patch has been added.
viouser@vio-oms:~$ viopatch list
Name            Version       Type   Installed
--------------- ------------- ------ -----------
vio-1.0-upgrade 2.0.0.3037964 infra  No
vio-patch-2     1.0.2.2813500 infra  Yes
viouser@vio-oms:~$

Upgrade the management server.

viouser@vio-oms:~$ sudo viopatch install -p vio-1.0-upgrade -v 2.0.0.3037964
Installing patch vio-1.0-upgrade version 2.0.0.3037964
done
Installation complete for patch vio-1.0-upgrade version 2.0.0.3037964
viouser@vio-oms:~$

Go to the vSphere Web Client, logout and log back in to verify that the new version is correct.

VIO Management Server upgrade is complete

Step 2 – Deploy a new VIO 2.0 environment

With the VIO Management Server upgraded, it is now time to deploy a fresh 2.0 environment. In the VIO plugin, go to the Manage section in the right pane, and a new Upgrades tab will be available there.

VMware vSphere Web Client VIO Plugin Upgrades Tab

Before starting with the deployment, check in the Networks tab that there are enough free IP addresses (18) for the new deployment. If there aren’t, then add a new IP address range in the same subnet.

VIO management network IP range extension

Click on the Upgrade icon (). Indicate if you want to participate in the customer experience improvement program. My recommendation here is to say yes to help our engineering team to improve the VIO upgrade experience even more, and enter the name for the new deployment.

Updated VIO Deployment Name

Enter the IP addresses for the public and private load balanced IP addresses. Keep in mind that these IP addresses must belong to the existing VIO 1.0 installation’s API and Management subnets, respectively.

Temporary Load Balancer Virtual IP Address

In the next and final screen, review the configured values and click Finish. The new environment will be deployed and you will be able to monitor the progress from the Upgrades tab.

New Deployment Based On Kilo Launches

Step 3 – Migrate the data

With the new environment up and ready, we can start the OpenStack database migration process. From the Upgrades tab right-click on your existing VIO 1.0 installation and select Migrate Data.

Migrate existing OpenStack data to the database in the new deployment

The migration wizard will ask for confirmation, click OK. During the data migration, all OpenStack services will be unavailable. This will allow the migration process to maintain database consistency during the data transfer.

VIO database migration proceeds

When the migration process is finished, the status of the new VIO 2.0 environment will appear as Migrated and the existing VIO 1.0 installation will appear as Stopped.

Database migration complete

Open a browser and enter the VIO 2.0 Public Virtual IP to access the OpenStack Horizon interface. Login and verify that all your workloads, networks, images, etc. have been properly migrated. Logout from Horizon and go back to the VMware vSphere Web Client. Now that the data has been migrated, we need to migrate the original Public Virtual IP to the new environment.

Right-click on the VIO 1.0 deployment and select Switch To New Deployment.

Production Virtual IP Address Configured on the New Deployment

A new pop-up will appear asking for confirmation since the OpenStack services will be unavailable during the IP reconfiguration.

After the reconfiguration, the new VIO 2.0 deployment will be in Running status and the Public Virtual IP will be the same as the former 1.0 deployment.

OpenStack Upgrade is Complete with a Functional Kilo Cloud!

The upgrade procedure is finished. You can now access Horizon using the existing DNS name for your cloud. Verify that everything is still working as expected, and enjoy your new OpenStack Kilo environment!

The Kilo Version of the Horizon Dashboard

With VIO, upgrading your OpenStack cloud does not have to be a painful experience, VIO provides the best OpenStack experience in a vSphere environment. Kudos to our Team OpenStack @ VMware.

Have fun and happy stacking!

Juanma.

Juan Manuel Rey is a Senior Consultant in the Professional Services Organization and a CTO Ambassador at VMware. He specializes in NSX and cloud architectures. Juan Manuel is highly experienced Unix and VMware professional and an OpenStack advocate internally and externally to VMware. In his spare time he is a Python developer, tries to contribute in some form to the broad OpenStack and VMware communities and blogs about Unix, NSX, OpenStack and VMware technical subjects.