vSphere 6.5 announced at VMworld 2016 Barcelona

vSphere 6.5 was announced at VMworld 2016 Barcelona.
As you may know, VCSA is the recommended deploy option since vSphere 6 was released in Feb`2015 and most of the new improvements are realted with that, for example, now we have native high availability for VCSA, the VUM (VMware Update Manager) is now integrated (remember that in vSphere 6.0 we need to install it only on Windows) and the new native backup and restore options which cover most of the complaints with the VCSA.

• ·      VMware vCenter Server® Appliance - will deliver a simplified building block for vSphere environments offering an easy to deploy and manage approach that reduces operational complexity by embedding key functionality into a single virtual appliance. The appliance will offer customers simplified patching, upgrading, backup and recovery, high availability and more, including a 2x increase in both scale and performance of their vCenter Server environments.
• ·      REST APIs - will improve both the IT and developer experience by enabling greater control and automation of virtual infrastructure for modern applications via new REST-based APIs.
• ·      VMware vSphere Client - based on HTML5, the new vSphere Client will simplify the administrative experience via a modern, native tool that meets the performance and usability needs and expectations of users for day-to-day operations.
• ·      VM Encryption - new virtual machine-level encryption will protect against unauthorized data access safeguarding data at rest as well as virtual machines that are moved with VMware vMotion®.
• ·      Secure Boot - new feature will prevent the tampering of images as well as the loading of unauthorized components into vSphere environments.
• ·      VMware vSphere Integrated Containers™ - will allow IT operations teams to provide a Docker-compatible interface to their app teams enabling vSphere customers to transform their businesses with containers without re-architecting their existing infrastructure.

Two great features for me right now is to have the option to backup and restore the VCSA removin the dependency with third party backup solutions in one hand, and to have the option  to secure and encriptyon the VMs in other hand, so security is now done with VCSA 6.5

In the next post i´ll cover one by one the new features, meanwhile you can check the official landing page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/10/introducing-vsphere-6-5.html

vSphere 6 upgrade: repoint replicated embedded SSO or PSC to external PSC

One of the keys of the new vSphere 6 topology is decided which scenario will fits better following the best practices. The main best practice is deploy external PSC as it will help us to get high availability SLA and an easier upgrade path for the future. keep in mind that VCSA is the recommended option to deploy vCenter right now.

First of all, review on this image the upgrade path from the two different platforms: Windows Server and VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance):

Go ahead with a specific and common scenario: SSO embedded replicated between at least 2 vCenters.

First step is to deploy an external SSO replicating with the embedded SSO, second step is repoint vCenters to the external SSO and third uninstall the embedded SSO:

The quid here is the process to "repoint" the SSO, follow this KB and you´ll see it´s a piece of cake:

How to repoint and re-register vCenter Server 5.1 / 5.5 and components (2033620)

If you have PSC embedded instead the SSO embedded just follow this kb:

How to repoint vCenter Server 6.0 between External PSC within a site (2113917)

Once you have the new external SSO working, just upgrade it to PSC:

And last but not least, upgrade the vCenter 5.x to vCenter 6.x

You can use the same steps to upgrade a single vCenter install with embedded (or not) SSO or PSC.

Finally, remember that VMware recomeends:

• Deploy VCSA
• Deploy external(s) PSC
• Select a VMware "recommended" topology