Hello everyone, VMware announced the GA of vSphere 6.5 Update 1, the awaited version for some of the people in version 6.0 or for those in 6.5 with some bugs which this version fixes. Here you can find the most relevant links, the Release Notes and the Download Links, followed by a detailed what’s new per each product:
Release Notes
- https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-651-release-notes.html
- https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-esxi-651-release-notes.html
Download Links
- https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VC65U1&productId=614&rPId=17343
- https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI65U1&productId=614&rPId=17342
What’s new in vCenter Server
- You can run the vCenter Server Appliance GUI and CLI installers on Microsoft Windows 2012 x64 bit, Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 x64 bit, Microsoft Windows 2016 x64 bit, and macOS Sierra.
- TcServer is now replaced with Tomcat 8.5.8.
- vCenter Server 6.5 Update 1 supports Guest OS customization for Ubuntu 17.04 OS.
- VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection (VADP) now also support Windows Server 2016 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL 7.3 as operating systems to perform proxy backup. This is in addition to the backup proxy operating systems already supported with VADP and VDDK 6.5.
- If you prefer to use Update Manager for the upgrade of ESXi and vSAN stack, you can now enable vSAN software upgrades through integration with vSphere Update Manager. This provides a unified and common workflow. For more information see the vSphere Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
- External database support: vCenter Server now supports Microsoft SQL Server 2016, Microsoft SQL Server 2016 SP1, and Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP2.
- The HTML5-based vSphere Client now supports most content library and OVF deployment operations, as well as operations on roles and permissions, basic customization of the Guest OS, and additions to virtual machine, host, datastore, and network management.
- The HTML5-based vSphere Client now supports French, Swiss-French, and Swiss-German keyboards. For known issues related to the keyboard mapping, see https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2149039.
- Linked vCenter Server instances now support up to 15 vCenter Server instances, 5,000 ESXi hosts, 50,000 powered on virtual machines, and 70,000 registered virtual machines. For more information, see the vSphere Configuration Maximums.
- During the command-line installation, upgrade and migration processes of vCenter Server Appliance, a structured status file is provided along with installer logs.
- Updates to JRE package. The Oracle (Sun) JRE package is updated to version 1.8.0_131.
The full list of resolved issues, here.
What’s new in ESXi
Regarding ESXi, we don’t have a lot of what’s new, here is the full list:
- If you prefer to use Update Manager for the upgrade of ESXi and vSAN stack, you can now enable vSAN software upgrades through integration with vSphere Update Manager. This provides a unified and common workflow. For more information see the vSphere Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
- Driver Updates:
- Cavium qlnativefc driver
- VMware nvme driver
- Intel i40en driver with Lewisburg 10G NIC Support
- Intel ne1000 driver with Lewisburg 1G NIC Support
- Intel igbn driver
- Intel ixgben driver
- Broadcom ntg3 driver
The full list of resolved issues, here.
It is indeed even a mandatory update for all those using vSphere 6.5.
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