What Version of NSX 4.x to upgrade to?

[tceravalo]

Was just curious what version of NSX 4.x people are upgrading to?  I see both 4.1.2.5 and 4.2.0 are out,  which one is best to upgrade to?

Thank you

[Sriram ChunchankatteMelukote]

Hello,

Its always best to upgrade to the next major release which is 4.2.0 which includes many new features. For all details you can go through the 4.2 release notes link : https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX/4.2.0/rn/vmware-nsx-420-release-notes/index.html

The 4.1.2.5 and such releases are patch releases which address particular bug fixes. Hope this will answer your query.

Regards

Sriram

[evil242]

But which is more stable?  Past experience dictates the 4.1.2.5 with patches that have addressed bug fixes in the 4.1.x line is more stable.  4.2.0 is the first in its line, a release without identified bugs or fixes.  

But, the Release Notes for 4.1.2.5 say 

NOTE: The upgrade path from NSX 4.1.2.5 to NSX 4.2.0 / VCF 5.2.0 is blocked and will be supported in upcoming NSX and VCF releases.

Upgrading from 3.2.3.

[Sriram ChunchankatteMelukote]

Considering the constraint mentioned in the release notes that the upgrade path for NSX 4.1.2.5 to NSX 4.2.0 being blocked, its better to upgrade to 4.2 which will offer many new features of a major release as always. But yes its always a choice the user has to make since its the first major release of 4.2.x, it would have its share of bugs.

[evil242]

I ended up upgrading to 4.2.1 to also fix the latest CVE that was released. 

Ran into a couple of hickups in dev prior to production and got some tips and help from BC Support.

Pro-Tips that ensured smooth production upgrade:

1. Perform a rolling reboot of each of the manager VMs (got this from BC support) prior to deployment of the mub.
2. Connect directly to single back end manager as local admin to upload and deploy mub from and run upgrade from. 
3. If using F5 load balancer, you need to update your monitor as NSX 4.x expects HTTP 1.1 and the monitor corresponds to HTTP 0.9
   1. https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K2167
   2. Update monitor to:
      1. GET /api/v1/reverse-proxy/node/health HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: F5-monitor-float-vip-hostname\r\ncontent-type: application/json\r\nAccept: application/json\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n
4. You can then use the VIP to monitor the upgrade.

The upgrade worked smoothly from here on out.

Thank you for your input and guidance on my question.