VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 3 Released

VMware has released vCenter 7.0 Update 3, including vSphere for Tanzu, ESXi 7.0 Update vSAN 7.0 Update 3 and Replication 8.5.

Before updating/upgrading remember to check that VMware and 3. party product are supported.

vCenter 7.0 Update 3

What’s new:

• vSphere Memory Monitoring and Remediation, and support for snapshots of PMem VMs:
  • vSphere Memory Monitoring and Remediation collects data and provides visibility of performance statistics to help you determine if your application workload is regressed due to Memory Mode. vSphere 7.0 Update 3 also adds support for snapshots of PMem VMs. For more information, see vSphere Memory Monitoring and Remediation.
• Extended support for disk drives types:
  • Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vSphere Lifecycle Manager validates the following types of disk drives and storage device configurations:
    • HDD (SAS/SATA)
    • SSD (SAS/SATA)
    • SAS/SATA disk drives behind single-disk RAID-0 logical volumes
    • For more information, see Cluster-Level Hardware Compatibility Checks.
• Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to manage a vSAN stretched cluster and its witness host:
  • Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3, you can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to manage a vSAN stretched cluster and its witness host. For more information, see Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images to Remediate vSAN Stretched Clusters.
• vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) enhancements:
  • With vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vSphere admins can configure vCLS virtual machines to run on specific datastores by configuring the vCLS VM datastore preference per cluster. Admins can also define compute policies to specify how the vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) should place vCLS agent virtual machines (vCLS VMs) and other groups of workload VMs. Admins can also customize the names of vCLS VMs from the default name with the cluster UUID.
• Improved interoperability between vCenter Server and ESXi versions:
  • Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vCenter Server can manage ESXi hosts from the previous two major releases and any ESXi host from version 7.0 and 7.0 updates. For example, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3 can manage ESXi hosts of versions 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0, all 7.0 update releases, including later than Update 3, and a mixture of hosts between major and update versions.
• MTU size greater than 9000 bytes:
  • With vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3, you can set the size of the maximum transmission unit (MTU) on a vSphere Standard Switch to more than 9000 bytes to support switches with larger packet sizes.

See the full release notes here.

ESXi 7.0 Update

What’s new:

• vSphere Memory Monitoring and Remediation, and support for snapshots of PMem VMs:
  • vSphere Memory Monitoring and Remediation collects data and provides visibility of performance statistics to help you determine if your application workload is regressed due to Memory Mode. vSphere 7.0 Update 3 also adds support for snapshots of PMem VMs. For more information, see vSphere Memory Monitoring and Remediation.
• Extended support for disk drives types:
  • Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vSphere Lifecycle Manager validates the following types of disk drives and storage device configurations:
    • • HDD (SAS/SATA)
    • • SSD (SAS/SATA)
    • • SAS/SATA disk drives behind single-disk RAID-0 logical volumes
    • For more information, see Cluster-Level Hardware Compatibility Checks.
• Use vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to manage a vSAN stretched cluster and its witness host:
  • Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3, you can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager images to manage a vSAN stretched cluster and its witness host. For more information, see Using vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images to Remediate vSAN Stretched Clusters.
• vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) enhancements:
  • With vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vSphere admins can configure vCLS virtual machines to run on specific datastores by configuring the vCLS VM datastore preference per cluster. Admins can also define compute policies to specify how the vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) should place vCLS agent virtual machines (vCLS VMs) and other groups of workload VMs. Admins can also customize the names of vCLS VMs from the default name with the cluster UUID.
• Improved interoperability between vCenter Server and ESXi versions:
  • Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3, vCenter Server can manage ESXi hosts from the previous two major releases and any ESXi host from version 7.0 and 7.0 updates. For example, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3 can manage ESXi hosts of versions 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0, all 7.0 update releases, including later than Update 3, and a mixture of hosts between major and update versions.
• New VMNIC tag for NVMe-over-RMDA storage traffic:
  • ESXi 7.0 Update 3 adds a new VMNIC tag for NVMe-over-RMDA storage traffic. This VMkernel port setting enables NVMe-over-RDMA traffic to be routed over the tagged interface. You can also use the ESXCLI command esxcli network ip interface tag add -i -t NVMeRDMA to enable the NVMeRDMA VMNIC tag.
• NVMe over TCP support:
  • vSphere 7.0 Update 3 extends the NVMe-oF suite with the NVMe over TCP storage protocol to enable high performance and parallelism of NVMe devices over a wide deployment of TCP/IP networks.

See the full release notes here.

vSAN 7.0 Update 3

Whats new:

• Developer Ready Infrastructure
  • CNS platform improvements.
    • CNS platform has improved performance, scale, and resiliency, including better concurrency for Async CSI queries, better handling of orphan volumes, and improved troubleshooting tools.
  • Vanilla Kubernetes support enhancements.
    • Enhancements include vSAN stretched cluster support and topology support.
  • vSphere with Tanzu.
    • vSAN 7.0 Update 3 supports ReadWriteMany PVs for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.
  • vDPp improvements.
    • vSAN Data Persistence Platform now supports asynchronous installation and upgrades of partner services. New versions of MinIO and Cloudian are available in this release. Pre-checks when entering maintenance mode and disk decommissioning support are available.
• Simplify Operations
  • vSAN cluster shutdown and restart.
    • ou now can easily shutdown and restart a vSAN cluster. The Shutdown Cluster wizard performs prechecks, and enables you to review, confirm and track the steps needed before and during shutdown and restart process.
  • vLCM enhancements.
    • vLCM’s hardware compatibility checks support validation of disk device firmware against the vSAN HCL before applying the desired cluster image. vLCM supports upgrade of vSAN witness host (dedicated) as part of the coordinated cluster remediation workflow for vSAN two-node clusters and stretched clusters.
  • Enhanced network monitoring and anomaly detection.
    • vSAN 7.0 Update 3 provides additional network health checks for diagnostics, and enables you to tune network monitoring thresholds.
  • vSAN health check correlation.
    • The new vSAN health correlation engine helps identify the root cause of issues on the cluster. This information can simplify troubleshooting and help you remediate related warnings on the cluster.
  • VM I/O trip analyzer.
    • Visual representation of the vSAN I/O path and related performance information throughout the I/O path enables you to easily diagnose VM performance issues.
  • Improved performance monitoring of PV/FCDs.
    • Performance displays can provide an end-to-end view of Persistent Volumes and First Class Disk performance.
• Platform Enhancements
  • Stretched cluster site/witness failure resiliency.
    • This release enables stretched clusters to tolerate planned or unplanned downtime of a site and the witness. You can perform site-wide maintenance (such as power or networking) without concerns about witness availability.
  • Nested fault domains for two-node deployments.
    • This feature provides the ability to make an additional copy of the data within the host in addition to making copies across the hosts in a two-node cluster. This delivers data-availability even after a planned/unplanned downtime of a host and losing a drive or disk group on the surviving host. The policy can be configured though SPBM.
  • Stuck I/O enhancements.
    • vSAN gracefully detects stuck I/O (failure of I/O controller to complete an operation) on a host and redirects it to a replica. The vSphere Client alerts you of the condition, so you can migrate workloads non-disruptively and power-cycle the problematic host.
  • Encryption key persistence..
    • Encryption keys generated by the Key Management solution can be stored in the TPM chip.
  • Access Based Enumeration.
    • vSAN File Services now supports SMB Access Based Enumeration (ABE). ABE restricts directory enumeration based on access privileges configured on the directory.

See the fulle release notes here.

Replication 8.5.

What’s new:

• VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 adds compatibility with VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 3.
• Support for changing the storage policy of replica disks.
• Support for FIPS with vSphere Replication.
• Report the quiescing status of virtual machines in the UI.
• Show replication target site name in the configure replication validation page.
• vRealize Operations Management Pack for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5. For information about the management pack, see VMware vRealize Operations Management Pack for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 Release Notes.
• vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 For information about the new workflows, see VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In for VMware vSphere Replication 8.5 Release Notes.

See the full release notes here.

vSphere for Tanzu.

See the release notes here.