How do I upgrade my virtual machine to 9.0.x firmware?

12/20/2019 15 7900

DESCRIPTION:

This article describes how to upgrade an Email Security virtual machine to 9.0.x firmware.

RESOLUTION:

If you are on any version prior to 9.0.x.

1. Before proceeding ensure that the Email Security virtual appliance is running 8.3.2 firmware.
2. Pause inbound /outbound email. Do a CLI or console based "stop appservices" and "restart tomcat".
3. Take a VMware snapshot and/or create a config backup (FTP) from 8.3.2.
4. Immediately perform an in-place upgrade to the ES 9.0.x using the 32-bit firmware. This will force a reboot and the system will then be online processing mail.
   
   

   TIP: Run on 32-bit until ready to migrate to new 64-bit ES OVA.

5. Do another ES Config backup to FTP (or to the vm and then download to a local system) to provide an import source for a new build of ES 9.0.
6. Build new ES 9.0 64-bit (have the trust relationship reset by technical support so the existing SN can be used) ESXI 6.5.x may be problematic for some due to certificate issues and VMware.
7. Configure ES.9.0 as per production but on different network. Hostname must be the same and will cause issues with DNS if on the same network as the production email security VM.
8. Import the config and build along with any spam, reporting, and archive to the new 64-bit ES 9.0.

For those using ESXi 6.5 there may be related issues when trying to load an OVA due to certificate issues. Please visit the following links to learn more about this issue:

• https://communities.vmware.com/thread/547077
• https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1032863 (this one had a potential resolution)
• http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vsphere/65/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-65-release-notes.html (this one also gives an idea for a work around)

The ESXi release notes give a number of manual workarounds to recreate the file into something usable.