We would like to remind you that the End of General Support (EOGS) for vSphere 5.5 and vSAN 5.5 is September 19, 2018.

To maintain your full level of Support and Subscription Services, VMware recommends upgrading to vSphere 6.5 or 6.7. Note that by upgrading to vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 you not only get all the latest capabilities of vSphere but also the latest vSAN release and capabilities (with the separate vSAN license that is). You can learn more about vSphere 6.7 through a series of blog posts available here.

vCloud Suite 5 and vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM) customers running vSphere 5.5 are also recommended to upgrade to vSphere 6.5 or 6.7.

For more information on the benefits of upgrading and how to upgrade, visit the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center. For detailed technical guidance, visit vSphere Central and the vSphere 6.5 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool. VMware has extended general support for vSphere 6.5 to a full five years from date of release, which will end on November 15, 2021. This same date applies to vSphere 6.7 end of general support as well.

If you require assistance upgrading to a newer version of vSphere, VMware’s vSphere Upgrade Service is available. This service delivers a comprehensive guide to upgrading your virtual infrastructure including recommendations for planning and testing the upgrade, the actual upgrade itself, validation guidance, and rollback procedures. For more information, contact your VMware account team, VMware Partner, or visit VMware Professional Services.

If you are unable to upgrade from vSphere 5.5 before EOGS and are active on Support and Subscription Services, you may purchase Extended Support in one-year increments for up to two years beyond the EOGS date. Visit VMware Extended Support for more information.

Technical Guidance for vSphere 5.5 is available until September 19, 2020 primarily through the self-help portal. During the Technical Guidance phase, VMware will not offer new hardware support, server/client/guest OS updates, new security patches or bug fixes unless otherwise noted. For more information, visit VMware Lifecycle Support Phases.

Listed below are a number of additional actions which need to be taken, depending on your individual scenario:

vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM)

This bundle of vSphere and vRealize Operations allows you to upgrade the versions of individual components independent of each other. If you are using vSphere 5.5 as part of vSOM, you will need to upgrade your vSphere with Operations Management 5.5 license key, to be able to upgrade the vSphere component. You can reference the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix to check for the EOGS date for the version of vRealize Operations you are using and the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for the product version compatibility.

vCloud Suite 5

This bundle of vSphere and VMware’s management products will also require an upgrade of your license key to vCloud Suite 7 or later. Upgrading to vCloud Suite 2017 is encouraged to leverage the vRealize Suite 2017 multi-vendor hybrid cloud management platform. You can reference the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix to check the EOGS date for each version of the products in the bundle and the VMware Product Interoperability Matrices for the product version compatibility.

vSAN 5.5

This product is embedded in the vSphere 5.5 kernel and by upgrading vSphere you will also upgrade vSAN to a newer release. You will need to upgrade your vSAN 5.5 license key to a newer release license key. Please confirm hardware compatibility by referencing the vSAN Compatibility Guide and if necessary, make appropriate hardware upgrades as needed to maintain compatibility.

If you are using vSphere 5.5 or vCloud Suite 5, please contact your VMware account team or a VMware Partner with any questions and to begin an upgrade plan.

Thank you,

The VMware Team

Useful Links:

VMware vSphere Upgrade Center

vSphere Central

vSphere 6.5 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool

VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix

VMware Professional Services

VMware Extended Support

vSAN Compatibility Guide

VMware Support