vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 – End of General Support
Why do I keep posting this?
I do not want anyone to be surprised….
Don’t forget that vSphere 6 is phasing out, and that most people should be moving to vSphere 7.
Customer buying new hardware, & asking for ESXi 6.5 installs are being met with surprises, as the hardware doesn’t support ESXi 6.5…..forcing the upgrade path.
So far, vSphere 7.0.3 Update 3e (May release) seems to be very stable.
Just did a class with 7.0 Update 3f (July release) and had no issues.
….and just upgraded to 7.0 Update 3g (still no issues yet).
vSphere 6.5 & 6.7 End Of General Support ends October 15, 2022
This only leaves just about 2 months to get to vSphere 7.
VMware End of Support pages are here.
Don’t forget that SD cards are no longer recommended by VMware!
That means you need SSD or NVMe for boot drives now!
VMware Explore
VMworld was rebranded as VMware Explore…
If you are registered, you now have access to the Schedule Builder, which went live on July 19.
Go the event portal, and click on Session Builder!
If you’ve ever been, you know that sessions fill up fast, so get to building your schedule! Many sessions are already full (at 10:09am July 19th).
vSphere 7.0 update 3f released
Already performed a few net new installs, a few upgrades of both vCenter & ESXi hosts.
So far so good, but only got my hands on it July 12….and upgrading from 3e.
Noticed that there are a few new/updated NIC drivers, so let’s see if that addresses any of the issues my customers have had recently….
vCenter 7.0 Update 3f release notes are here.
ESXi 7.0 Update 3f release notes are here.
vCenter 7.0 Update 3g released
Well, 11 days later, VMware released an update for vCenter server.
Apparently, an issue updating to vCenter 3f was identified in VMware KB 89027
I’ve already applied this upgrade 3 times.
Had an issue 1/2 the time, vCenter web page showed “no healthy upstreams”
I had a 2nd vCenter in linked-mode, and it had no issues.
I shut down & then powered on both vCenters.
That made it worse.
That being said, I was upgrading from 3f to 3g…..
Read the release notes if you have Intel NICs in your hosts….
(getting sick of Intel NICs causing issues in my infrastructure….)
vCenter 7.0 Update 3g release notes are here.
vSphere+ and vSAN+ are GA
The migration to subscription, made easy (so it says…still have to try it).
Still, lots of advantages here in the new subscriptions.
VMware Blog post is here.
VMware App Volumes 4 – 2203.1 released
To me, with the new naming convention should have been 2207…
But if you read the Release Notes, it is all bug fixes.
VMware Horizon 8 2206 released
Well, wouldn’t you know….just got current….another upgrade coming up…
Horizon View Release notes are here.
App Volumes 4 2206 Release notes are here.
DEM 2006 release notes are here.
VMware Workspace ONE Design Handbook
Feels a little light at 50 pages….
Direct link to the VMware Workspace ONE Design Handbook.
VMware Tanzu Edge Solution Reference Architecture
Version 1.0 of the reference architecture is out!
Link to the VMware Docs for Tanzu Edge Solution Reference Architecture.
Kubernetes for vSphere Administrators
A new book by Cormac Hogan!!
Just released, and already moved to the top of my reading list.
Here’s a link to the book on Amazon (paperback & Kindle).
VMware PowerCLI 12.7 released
Lots of little updates.
# Update-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI
Check out the notes at the bottom of the article if you are having issues updating PowerCLI, as VMware changed the certificates in use.
VMware Blog Post is here.
VMware Flings of note
ESXi-Arm Fling 1.10 – PhotonOS 3.0 now the core (& Intel NIC fixes)
#TIL – Today I Learned…
Had to reset the administrator@vsphere.local password.
(don’t ask why).
Looked it up, and then it was in my Twitter feed a few minutes later.
Angry Admin’s post covered it.
Heading to VMware Explore?
I always try to keep a list going from many people, and just got my first entry.
Duncan Epping Top 15 sessions.
Presenting at VMware Explore
Left my typo in the title for this. I’m still defaulting to calling it VMworld….after nearly 20 years, hard habit to break.
I’ll be presenting at the VMTN area.
Schedule & links to follow as they become available.
For now, all I have is the session in the Content Catalog.
Also doing a VMware TAM & 360 Customer Success Session 3000
“Meet The vExperts – Mark Gabryjelski”
Continuing Education – a list of resources that come with references
(of people who have used those sites & are happy with the results).
VMware Explore 2022 – August 28 – Sept 1 (San Francisco, CA)
VMware Explore 2022 Europe – November 7 – November 11
HashiCorp Learn
Kode Kloud
KubeAcademy
Nutanix University
PluralSight / A Cloud Guru (PluralSight purchased A Cloud Guru)
Udemy
vBrownBag
VMware Customer Connect Learning (old VMware Learning Zone)
VMware Hands On Labs
VMworld Sessions (2021, 2020, 2019)