vSphere 6.0 is here. Read the Release Notes!!

I make the time whenever a product is released to go over the release notes – because there are always tidbits of information there that you should know about and usually it will save you time in the long run – understanding what you are getting into and staying out of trouble.

I have traditionally done this for vSphere 5.1, 5.1.0a and 5.5.

So as always, the first things I do when a new version is released is:

  • Download the bits - of everything..
  • Download the documentation
  • Go over the Release Notes

There is of course a KB article that states a number of caveats as well - Important Information before upgrading to vSphere 6.0 (2110293)

So here are my takeaways and some questions regarding the 6.0 Release from yesterday (and forgive the humoristic remarks – because live like a box of chocolate – so you should have some fun – if you can)

Disclaimer:
These are my own thought and ramblings. I think they should be questions you should be asking VMware, your TAM and the support people. These are not the only items in the Release Notes - just those that got my attention. Your mileage may differ and there may be other things that are of importance to in the original document.

3rd party switch

Takeaways:

If you are a Cisco customer and using the 1000V – then I would test this very well, contact VMware and Cisco support and clarify what exactly this means for me as the end user.

Questions:

Does this broaden the rift between Cisco (ACI) and VMware (NSX)?

Database

Takeaways:

It took me a while to understand this. So a remote Oracle DB is not supported for the appliance – but will be supported for the Windows version.

So it seems that VMware is all in for a integrated database for vCenter – I just hope that until vSphere 7.0 they get all the supporting tools and availability right.

Spell Checking always helps…

PostgresSQL

Takeaways:

It seems it is an all or nothing here. Of course it is a very good idea to backup up the database before making any changes to vCenter.

Questions:

Exactly how am I supposed to backup the database? Where is it stored? It would be nice to have a KB describing the steps.

IPv4

Takeaways:

Long live IPv4!! There are still pieces there that need IPv4 – probably code that will take time to rip and replace – but hey – who has a pure IPv6 environment – raise your hand..

Patch

Questions:

Why not run a check beforehand to see if the patch has been installed? And if not – through an error?

Cryptic?

Takeaways:

Don’t you love cryptic messages?? It does make sense though..

NTP1

Takeaways:

BRAVO!!! Time sync is critical

Hostname

Questions:

Why not pass the parameter from one part of the installation to the other??

IPv6

Takeaways:

Who said reverse lookup zones are dead? When using IPv6 – always use a FQDN!!!

Uninstall

Takeaways:

Are you kidding me?

Questions:

VMware have been building windows installers for how many years now? What the hell happened here?

Temp files

Questions:

  • Why not do the basic cleanup after installing? This should have been perfected by now.
  • And exactly would a reboot solve this?

Service Account

Questions:

Most domain service accounts I know of are described as [email protected] or Domain\Username – both of those options have a @ or a \ in them – so how am I supposed to use a domain service account??

PSC1

Takeaways:

What is the difference between a hostname and a system network name?

External Oracle

Takeaways:

This is a great one. If your VCSA installation craps out on you somehow, the only way to point it to an external Oracle instance – is to either install a new one – or manually delete the database that was created.

Questions:

Why not allow the option to re-use or delete the database?

NTP2

Takeaways:

  • The teams doing the Windows and Appliance installers are not the same – because this is covered in the Windows version
  • NTP! NTP! NTP!!!!

Time Sync

Takeaways:

Another whopper. VMware tools trumps NTP! And you do not have the option of turning off VMware tools time synchronization. This means that everything has to point to the same NTP server.

Questions:

Why not give the user the option to turn off time synchronization like any other VM with VMware tools?

FQDN

Takeaways:

IPv6 – always use an FQDN

Multiple DNS

Questions:

  • If it will fail – then why give me the option to enter more than one DNS server?
  • How am I supposed to add these in after installation?

pre-check

Questions:

Why not run these pre-checks in the installer – if you know that the installation will fail if they do not pass?

15GB

Takeaways:

Are you kidding me?

Questions:

If there is a minimum – then why not check for the minimum -

help file

Takeaways:

This will need to be fixed every time that vCenter is restarted!

updates2

Takeaways:

More vague than that – you cannot be…

Questions:

  • Which updates? I do not want to install every single update available from Windows – being specific would be much better.

checksum

Takeaways:

If the option does not work – then don’t provide it – or fix it.

Questions:

How do I verify the checksum?

Authentication Proxy

Questions:

  • Does that mean I cannot use Authentication Proxy?
  • What are my other options?
  • Will this effect my ability to upgrade?

replicated vcenter

Questions:

  • If I have such a scenario – then what do I do?
  • Can I upgrade?

Linked Mode

Takeaways:

This might change the way you upgrade – should looked into with more attention

AD1

Takeaways:

  • That an upgrade from 5.0.x is possible
  • This should be tested thoroughly in the lab if used

Questions:

  • Why are the settings not retained?
  • What is the difference between 5.0.x and 5.1.x and above in this regard?

expired

Takeaways:

  • Remove them old bits
  • Upgrade an old vCenter  – is it worth the hassle? Rather provision a new one and point to the old database.

Questions:

Why does it not detect old products – it is after all VMware software is it not?

VLAN

Takeaways:

Same VLAN only!

/etc/hosts

Takeaways:

Are you kidding me?

Questions:

  • Why does it not preserve the /etc/hosts file?
  • Will anything happen if I change it after installation?
  • Any services that need to be restarted after the change?

SSL2

Takeaways:

  • SSL can cause problems

Questions:

  • What happens on the vCenter Appliance? Where are the logs there?
  • Why not run the check before hand?

SSO1

Takeaways:

If you have a multi-domain environment with trusts – and apply permissions – then don’t rely on vCenter to tell report that they have permissions – it should work though.

Questions:

How exactly is using standard AD tools supposed to help me here? I am trying to verify vCenter permissions..

hosts2

Questions:

  • How does adding this to the hosts file solve it?
  • What about the appliance?

stagerred

Takeaways:

Mix and matching different versions does not work

Questions:

Does this mean there is no staggered upgrade?

MOB

Takeaways:

There is another MOB – I should look into it

Questions:

Has the MOB url changed?

alarm1

Questions:

If the alarm is not relevant – then why is it there?

 AD2

Takeaways:

The whole Active directory thing does not seem to be the most stable thing for upgrades

Questions:

Does this require any host downtime?

legacy

Takeaways:

Evidently there are still people that use old versions otherwise they would have got ridden of the support for older versions a long time ago.

Questions:

  • Why not prevent/alert on this before even starting the migration?
  • When are we finally going to get rid of old VM versions?

alarm2

Questions:

If these alarms are not relevant – then why are they still there?

invalid1

Questions:

If you went to the effort to write a warning about deprecation – then why did VMware not verify that the replacement works properly?

permissions1

Questions:

When will this bug be fixed?

maintenance1

Takeaways:

Maintenance on Hosts should be done with no VM’s running – that is what we have vMotion and clusters for

IPv6_1

Takeaways:

  • Give this a good read
  • vvols works only with IPv4

Dump

Takeaways:

Understand how this effects your environment and what changes need to be made.

Questions:

  • What happens if I disable the dump collector on the host?
  • Can this be automated?
  • Is this supported in Host Profiles?

Traffic Direction

Takeaways:

This is a whopper as well.

Questions:

Why were the directions changed?

How do I automate the change needed to make the reversal with 6.0?

NIOC

Takeaways:

This could be a problem for specific cases.

Questions:

  • Is there no way to identify such a case and present an error to the user when they add a new NIC?
  • Or maybe even prevent it?

NFS4_1

Takeaways:

Test in the lab

Questions:

Does this behavior differ from NFS 3.0? If so how?

NFS4_2

Takeaways:

  • Another NFS 4.1 caveat.
  • Makes me think that as with all new technologies – maybe we should wait until it is more stable and not jump into it feet first.

Questions:

  • Is this a bug? By Design?
  • Will it be fixed?

NFS4_3

Takeaways:

Same as above.

Questions:

What happens to the VM’s that are currently running on the other datastores?

NFS4_4

Takeaways:

Same as above.

Questions:

  • Is it possible to alert that they are not?
  • Why would different hosts use different security types?

As I am only half way through and this is turning into a really long post – I have continued here with part two.