VMware released an Upgrade Planning Tool for its VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1 designed to help customers map out and prepare complex VCF upgrades.

The tool generates customized upgrade plans based on a customer's existing environment, including the VMware products and versions currently deployed. VMware said the offering is intended to simplify upgrade planning for organizations running different combinations of vSphere, vSAN, NSX, Aria Automation, and other VMware technologies.

Historically, customers have had to gather information from multiple sources, including product documentation, knowledge base articles, and interoperability matrices before creating an upgrade plan. Upgrade requirements can vary depending on which components and features a customer has installed.

Different environments may require specific upgrade sequences, operational workflows, and infrastructure resources, making it difficult for administrators to determine the correct process. The new tool aims to automate that process.

Users begin by specifying their current environment, which can be either a standalone vSphere deployment or an existing VCF deployment, along with the software versions they are running. The tool then presents available upgrade destinations and generates a tailored upgrade workflow.

VMware said the resulting plan includes a phased upgrade roadmap, resource and networking requirements, key considerations, and potential issues to watch for during the upgrade process. The workflow is broken into phases to help organizations plan maintenance windows and operational activities.

The tool also provides links to relevant VCF documentation and guidance associated with each step of the upgrade process. Users can export the complete upgrade plan or individual upgrade phases as PDF documents for offline use and operational planning.

The upgrade tool comes after Broadcom's recent VCF 9.1 update, which added capabilities focused on AI workloads, infrastructure resiliency, and hardware efficiency. The broader scope and deployment flexibility introduced in VCF 9.1 have also increased the number of potential upgrade paths customers may need to navigate.

Broadcom continues to push VMware customers toward VCF as its flagship private cloud platform. Broadcom executives have said more than 90% of VMware's largest customers have purchased VCF licenses, though the company has not disclosed deployment figures.