Last week VMware released vSphere 6.7 Update 1. While the buzz around this release was less than the previous release it still contains a ton of enhancements for vCenter, ESXi and vSAN. Like 6.7 before it, this is a lot more than a point release and represents a significant upgrade from vSphere 6.7.

Looking through the release notes, there appears to be less for service providers in this release though I still feel like it’s important to highlight the base hypervisor (ESXi) as well as the management platform (vCenter). vSAN has had another significant update and that will warrant a post on it’s on. I’ll also talk about current interoperability with vCloud Director and NSX as well as current Veeam supportability for vSphere 6.7 Update 1 as well as touch on Veeam’s current supportability.

New (almost 100%) Fully functional HTML5 client

Upgrade path from vSphere 6.5 U2 to vSphere 6.7 Update 1

Enhanced support for NVIDIA Quadro vDWS VMs and support for Intel FPGA

New vCenter Convergence Tool

Updated vSAN

Enhanced vSphere Content Library

Most functions have now been ported across to the HTML5 vSphere Client. This results in administrators not having to switch back and forth between the FLEX Web Client and the HTML5 client. Update 1 features:

vCenter High Availability (VCHA)

Auto Deploy

Host Profiles

vSphere Update Manager

Network Topology Diagrams

Performance Charts

Improved Searching

Dark Theme

Emad Younis has a detailed post here that goes through the new features.

Upgrade Path from vSphere 6.5 Update 2 to vSphere 6.7 Update 1

One of the issues with vSphere 6.7 was the fact that the vSphere 6.5 Update 2 release would not be able to be upgraded to vSphere 6.7. With the release of vSphere 6.7 Update 1. vSphere 6.5 Update 2 to vSphere 6.7 Update 1 is now a fully supported.

Enhanced Content Library

New improvements to the content library in vSphere 6.7 Update 1 enables the importing of OVA templates from a HTTPS endpoint and also local storage. Importing now verifies the certificate of the OVA bundle and also now natively supports VM templates (VMTX) and associated operations such as deploying a VM directly from Content Library.

vCenter Specific Enhancements

With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 1, you can move a vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Services Controller from one vSphere domain to another vSphere domain. Services such as tagging and licensing are retained and migrated to the new domain.

There is a new Burst Filter to manage event bursts and prevent the database of vCenter Server from flooding with identical events over a short period of time.

vCenter Server 6.7 Update 1 supports VMware vSphere vMotion between on-premises vCenter’s and VMware Cloud on AWS. You can use either the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client, or the API. Both sides need to be at 6.7 Update 1.

you can import Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) files in a Content Library. The OVA files are unzipped during the import, providing manifest and certificate validations, and create an OVF library item that enables deployment of virtual machines from a Content Library.

With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 1, you can use the Appliance Management User Interface to configure and edit the firewall settings of the vCenter Server Appliance.

ESXi Specific Enhancements

There are a few vendor/hardware related features and enhancements in Update 1 for ESXi 6.7. The release notes cover them in detail here. But as mentioned above, probably the biggest addition here is the ability to upgrade from ESXi 6.5 Update 2 which I know a few service providers where stuck on. In terms of known issues the release notes also contain a good list. There are some here that impact Service Providers so it’s worth reading through them.

vCD and NSX Supportability:

Shifting from new features and enhancements to an important subject to talk about when talking service provider platform…VMware product compatibility. For those VCPP Service Providers running a Hybrid Cloud you should be running a combination of vCloud Director SP or/and NSX-v of which the 6.4.3 and 6.4.2 versions are supported at release. Most providers should be on these releases so that’s good news.

Looking at vCloud Director, it looks like 9.5 is the only supported version at the moment

Veeam Backup & Replication Supportability:

Veeam commits to supporting major version releases within 90 days or sooner of GA. There has been many discussions going round whether an Update is a major release these days…and general consensus now is that VMware is releasing these updates with enough changes to potentially impact backup supportability.

So with that, those Service Provider that are also VCSPs using Veeam to backup their infrastructure should not upgrade to vSphere 6.7 until Backup & Replication Update 4 is released. For those that are bleeding edge and have updated your only is to go with the workaround that is detailed here. It works…but again, it’s a work around.

Wrapping Up:

Rounding off this post, in the Known Issues section there is a fair bit to be aware of for 6.7 Update 1. it’s worth reading through all the known issues just in case there are any specific issues that might impact you.

Happy upgrading!

References:

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-671-release-notes.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/rn/vsphere-esxi-671-release-notes.html

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