VMware ESXi en vCenter 6.7 Update 2

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VMware ESXi 6.7 Update 2 – What’s New

  • Solarflare native driver: ESXi 6.7 Update 2 adds Solarflare native driver (sfvmk) support for Solarflare 10G and 40G network adaptor devices, such as SFN8542 and SFN8522.
  • Virtual Hardware Version 15: ESXi 6.7 Update 2 introduces Virtual Hardware Version 15 which adds support for creating virtual machines with up to 256 virtual CPUs. For more information, see VMware knowledge base articles 1003746 and 2007240.
  • Standalone ESXCLI command package: ESXi 6.7 Update 2 provides a new Standalone ESXCLI package for Linux, separate from the vSphere Command Line Interface (vSphere CLI) installation package. The ESXCLI, which is a part of the vSphere CLI, is not updated for ESXi 6.7 Update 2. Although the vSphere CLI installation package is deprecated for this release and is still available for download, you must not install it together with the new Standalone ESXCLI for Linux package. For information about downloading and installing the Standalone ESXCLI package, see VMware {code}.
  • In ESXi 6.7 Update 2, the Side-Channel-Aware Scheduler is updated to enhance the compute performance for ESXi hosts that are mitigated for speculative execution hardware vulnerabilities. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 55806.
  • ESXi 6.7 update 2 adds support for VMFS6 automatic unmap processing on storage arrays and devices that report to ESXi hosts an unmap granularity value greater than 1 MB. On arrays that report granularity of 1 MB and less, the unmap operation is supported if the granularity is a factor of 1 MB.
  • ESXi 6.7 update 2 adds VMFS6 to the list of supported file systems by the vSphere On-disk Metadata Analyzer (VOMA) to allow you to check and fix issues with VMFS volumes metadata, LVM metadata, and partition table inconsistencies.

VMware vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 – What’s New

  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, you can configure the property config.vpxd.macAllocScheme.method in the vCenter Server configuration file, vpxd.cfg, to allow sequential selection of MAC addresses from MAC address pools. The default option for random selection does not change. Modifying the MAC address allocation policy does not affect MAC addresses for existing virtual machines.
  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds a REST API that you can run from the vSphere Client for converging instances of vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller instances into vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller connected in Embedded Linked Mode. For more information, see the vCenter Server Installation and Setup guide.
  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 integrates the VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) into the converge utility.
  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds a SOAP API to track the status of encryption keys. With the API, you can see if the Crypto Key is available in a vCenter Server system, or is used by virtual machines, as a host key or by third-party programs.
  • Precheck for upgrading vCenter Server systems: vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 enables a precheck when upgrading a vCenter Server system to ensure upgrade compatibility of the VMware vCenter Single Sign-On service registrations endpoints. This check notifies for possible mismatch with present machine vCenter Single Sign-On certificates before the start of an upgrade and prevents upgrade interruptions that require manual workaround and cause downtime.
  • vSphere Auditing Improvements: vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 improves VMware vCenter Single Sign-On auditing by adding events for the following operations: user management, login, group creation, identity source, and policy updates. The new feature is available only for vCenter Server Appliance with an embedded Platform Services Controller and not for vCenter Server for Windows or vCenter Server Appliance with an external Platform Services Controller. Supported identity sources are vsphere.local, Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA), and Active Directory over LDAP.
  • Virtual Hardware Version 15: vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 introduces Virtual Hardware Version 15 which adds support for creating virtual machines with up to 256 virtual CPUs. For more information, see VMware knowledge base articles 1003746 and 2007240.
  • Simplified restore of backup files: The vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface in vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds version details to the Enter backup details page that help you to pick the correct build to restore the backup file.
  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, you can use the Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols for file-based backup and restore operations on the vCenter Server Appliance. The use of NFS and SMB protocols for restore operations is supported only by using the vCenter Server Appliance CLI installer.
  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds events for changes of permissions on tags and categories, vCenter Server objects and global permissions. The events specify the user who initiates the changes.
  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, you can create alarm definitions to monitor the backup status of your system. By setting a Backup Status alarm, you can receive email notifications, send SNMP traps, and run scripts triggered by events such as Backup job failed and Backup job finished successfully. A Backup job failed event sets the alarm status to RED and Backup job finished successfully resets the alarm to GREEN.
  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, in clusters with the Enterprise edition of VMware vSphere Remote Office Branch Office, configured to support vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler in maintenance mode, when an ESXi host enters maintenance mode, all virtual machines running on the host are moved to other hosts in the cluster. Automatic VM-Host affinity rules ensure that the moved virtual machines return to the same ESXi hosts when it exits maintenance mode.
  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, events related to adding, removing, or modifying user roles display the user that initiates the changes.
  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, you can publish your .vmtx templates directly from a published library to multiple subscribers in a single action instead of performing a sync from each subscribed library individually. The published and subscribed libraries must be in the same linked vCenter Server system, regardless if on-prem, on cloud, or hybrid. Work with other templates in content libraries does not change.
  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds an alert to specify the installer version in the Enter backup details step of a restore operation. If the installer and backup versions are not identical, you see a prompt which matching build to download, such as Launch the installer that corresponds with version 6.8.2 GA.
  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds support for a Swedish keyboard in the vSphere Client and VMware Host Client. For known issues related to the keyboard mapping, see VMware knowledge base article 2149039.
  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2, the vSphere Client provides a check box Check host health after installation that allows you to opt-out vSAN health checks during the upgrade of an ESXi host by using the vSphere Update Manager. Before introducing this option, if vSAN issues were detected during an upgrade, an entire cluster remediation failed and the ESXi host that was upgraded stayed in maintenance mode.
  • vSphere Health ?larm and Categories: vCenter Server 6.7 Update 2 adds an alarm in the vSphere Client when vSphere Health detects a new issue in your environment and prompts you to resolve the issue. Health check results are now grouped in categories for better visibility.
  • With vCenter 6.7 Update 2, you can now publish your VM templates managed by Content Library from a published library to multiple subscribers. You can trigger this action from the published library, which gives you greater control over the distribution of VM templates. The published and subscribed libraries must be in the same linked vCenter Server system, regardless if on-prem, on cloud or hybrid. Work with other templates in content libraries does not change.