vSphere 6.0 Release Notes - Part 2

Posted on 8 mins read

This is the second half of my thoughts on the vSphere 6.0 release notes. Part 1 can be found here

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 in the original document.

NFS_1

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.

NFS_2

Takeaways:

  • Same As Above
  • It seems this is an all or nothing so no mixing between NFS versions – because this will cause problems.

NFS_3

Takeaways:

  • Same As Above

Upload

Takeaways:

This is not really an error – but by design. It seems that people will have learn how to interact with vVOLs – as opposed to the way they are used to working.

Thin

Questions:

  • Why is the default thick?
  • If there are certain Storage solutions that do not support thick – then why not make the default thin?

Different Datastores

Questions:

  • If it might fail – why even give the option?
  • Will it always fail? Ad if not –is there a common denominator that causes the failure?

Dell

Takeaways:

Dell and QLogic specific. Learn the implications if this is relevant to your environment.

Emulex

Takeaways:

It is always good to wait a while until the worms come out of the cracks.

Questions:

Does Emulex have a solution?

tags1

Questions:

  • If the features does not work – why enable it?
  • Is it possible to automate this? If so how?

Flash Cache

Takeaways:

Another whopper. If you suffer an APD (which can happen) and you are using Flash Cache. the I/O acceleration will not work properly until the VM undergoes a power cycle to re-enable functionality.

Questions:

  • Is it possible to create some kind of report to find which machines can / have been affected?
  • If a full power off/on required – or is a restart of the VM sufficient?

Storage policy

Takeaways:

This is strange – because the storage policy is based on the disk itself and should have no dependency on the VM itself.

Questions:

  • What are the implications of having different storage policies for different machines?
  • When will this be fixed?
  • Is there a way to automate this?

SCSI aborts

Takeaways:

If you have a problem with your local RAID controller – this can cause your host to crash.

Questions:

  • Is this a bug?
  • With ESXi?
  • The MegaRaid driver?
  • When will this be fixed?

add LUN

Questions:

Is it not possible to put in a check to or a delay to alleviate this problem?

plugin

Takeaways:

Again an all or nothing. Make sure that your plugins support 6.0 before the upgrade – otherwise you will not be able to use them.

LUN2

Takeaways:

  • There will be certain cases that adding a new LUN will require a full reboot of the host.
  • Check to see if this is relevant to your environment

Questions:

If the LUN is added – not by the storage array tool – will this also happen?

missing

Takeaways:

  • Seems to be another LSI issue.
  • Will not display in any event – and can only be obtained from the CLI.

Questions:

If the the information is there – why is it not displayed?

missing info

Takeaways:

Evidently a bug

Questions:

When will it be fixed?

static IP

Takeaways:

Wasn’t the purpose of having Host Profiles being able to take a current host and make a profile from it?

Questions:

  • Won’t changing the IP address of the Host (to a static one) cause a disconnect of the host?
  • Will this effect VM’s?
  • Can this be done live?

service restart

Questions:

  • Why done they restart?
  • Windows Only?
  • is service-control for both the Windows vCenter and the appliance?

different locations

Takeaways:

Good to know this information.

alarms1

Takeaways:

If I remember correctly the service console was retired with ESXi 5.0 – Quite a while back? Was that not enough time to remove this?

charts

Takeaways:

This is really a case of WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)

Questions:

  • Can or will this be fixed?
  • Was this also an issue in previous versions?

support bundle

Takeaways:

Using the Web client doesn’t always seem to work. It seems that it would be a good idea to use one or the other client but not mix and match.

permissions1

Takeaways:

I guess permissions are not always what they seem – you might need a little something extra.

bitfrost

Takeaways:

Who was the genius who chose this name

Questions:

  • Is this being worked on with the Anti-virus vendors to solve this?
  • Who says that if I copy it back to the location – that the AV will not quarantine it again (whack-a-mole anyone)?

tag

Takeaways:

[email protected] is the all powerful being!!

Questions:

  • Evidently this is a bug – when will it be fixed?
  • Why does only the administrator user have the rights to do this – I assumed that the roles should have solved this?

linked mode

Questions:

  • Then why is the options there?
  • And happens if I really need to isolate a vCenter server?

hw sensor

Takeaways:

That must also effect hardware alarms as well then

Questions:

  • When will this be fixed?
  • Will this affect my current environment?

sysprep

Takeaways:

Have to look at the documentation

Questions:

  • Isn’t the bash console enable by default?
  • Where do they have to be uploaded to?

protected vCenter

Takeaways:

But VMware wants us to stop using the “legacy Windows client” – don’t they? This is another reason to keep it.

Questions:

  • How does the Web client know that I am running vCenter inside a Windows machine?
  • Does that mean that VMware Tools is reporting also back on the applications inside?

configure

Takeaways:

Don’t change the SSO domain.

Questions:

  • What happens if I really have to change the SSO domain?
  • Is there is a workaround?

mixed

Takeaways:

Yep another reason to keep the Windows Client :)

datastores1

Takeaways:

  • Test in the lab
  • Will I need to remove a host every time I make a change to my storage?

Questions:

  • So does this mean that I need to remove the host from the inventory every time I want to add / remove a datastore?
  • Should the host be vacated before I make changes to storage?
  • What happens to all the statistics that I had on the host before hand?

health status

Questions:

  • Which services?
  • When will this be fixed?

full screen

Takeaways:

  • Don’t go full screen!
  • Better get learning those keyboard shortcuts

nonreadable

Questions:

Then who is it readable by?

new privilege

Takeaways:

It seems that I will need to allow System.Read on the vCenter for all user that need access to performance charts.

Questions:

Why was this privilege added to 6.0 ?

don’t change the password

Takeaways:

  • There are some things that will break if you change passwords
  • Don’t tell OPSEC (shhhhhh……)

Questions:

What do you think auditors will do when they find that there is a password that can do anything they wan tin the whole environment that has never been changed?

pRDM

Questions:

Why am I allowed to choose the option if it is not supported?

timeout

Takeaways:

vSphere Web client will time out after an hour.

Questions:

Can the timeout be extended with a configuration changed?

tags2

Questions:

When will this be fixed?

permission

Takeaways:

Nested Groups do not work, even though they should.

Questions:

When will this be fixed?

refresh

Takeaways:

Don’t refresh your browser when working with the web client.

vCloud Air

Takeaways:

Multiple management interfaces to manage something that was integrated before sucks.

NIOC

Takeaways:

Good to know.

Questions:

If it is disabled why is vMotion still taking this into account?

vApp

Questions:

Evidently a bug. When will it be fixed?

refresh2

Takeaways:

But did you just not say a few minutes ago that you should never refresh the web browser??

Questions:

  • How will it impact performance?
  • What other options are there?

OVF

Takeaways:

When is an error not an error??

Questions:

When will this be fixed?

OVF2

Takeaways:

  • Again mix and max problems with versions.
  • And yes the Windows client is still in use.

Export

Takeaways:

This is ridiculous. I am exporting a VM and I need to configure it manually as well? What is the use of the export then?

JVM

Takeaways:

vMotion problems sometimes have nothing at all to do with what you think.

Questions:

Why should an external process like profile storage have an effect on vMotion? DRS as well I assume?

300VMs

Takeaways:

Consolidation ratios!! If you are anywhere near that – then beware!

Delete1

Questions:

Why allow the delete – if the datastore is not accessible?

Delete2

Takeaways:

Got to love generic error messages.

Questions:

When will the non-informative error be fixed?

Content Library

Takeaways:

Then who can read it?

Questions:

  • Which tasks?
  • How do Upload or export items then?

Content Library2

Takeaways:

If using a UNC – the vCenter has to be in the same domain as the storage.

Questions:

  • Subdomains?
  • Forest Trusts?

FT

Questions:

If it is irrelevant – then why is it still there?

FT2

Takeaways:

Storage vMotion between different datastores – could have unexpected consequences.

Questions:

Is it not possible to raise an alert?

FT3

Takeaways:

Don’t use the vSphere client – unless you need to.

Questions:

Would it be more correct to raise a proper error?

FT4

Questions:

Evidently a bug – when will it be fixed?

FT5

Questions:

Does this mean that I need to cancel out of the wizard and start over?

hw2

Questions:

Evidently a bug – when will it be fixed?

Nested

Takeaways:

Damn! Just when I thought ESXi was a supported OS…

hw3

Questions:

  • Does it work on the appliance?
  • What happens with alarms?

Auto Deploy

Questions:

So does Autodeploy work or not?

That concludes my thoughts and questions on the new release.

I hope that this was useful, and will help you adopt the new versions, safely and properly in your environment.