VMware HCX 4.8.3 | 16 OCT 2024 | Build 24298559 (Connector), 24298562 (Cloud)

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

About VMware HCX

VMware HCX delivers secure and seamless application mobility and infrastructure hybridity across both on-premises and in the cloud. HCX abstracts the distinct private or public vSphere resources and presents a Service Mesh as an end-to-end entity. HCX Interconnect can then provide high-performance, secure, and optimized multi-site connectivity to achieve infrastructure hybridity and present multiple options for bi-directional virtual machine mobility with technologies that facilitate the modernization of legacy data centers.

System Requirements and Compatibility

For HCX deployment requirements, see Preparing for HCX Installation.

The following resources provide information related to HCX deployments:

Early Adoption Features

Early Adoption (EA) denotes an initial release phase of a critical service feature with limited field exposure. While the feature has completed its entire development cycle and it is fully supported in production, due to strong dependencies on the deployment environment, thorough validation and qualification is recommended before activating it.

Installation and Upgrade

Installing HCX 4.8.3

For sample installation workflows by deployment type, see Installing HCX Manager.

Upgrading to HCX 4.8.3

  • Requirements for HCX deployments:

    • Upgrading to HCX 4.8.3 from HCX 4.4 and above is supported using online upgrade notification from HCX Manager standalone (:443)/VC Plugin UI.

    • Upgrading to HCX 4.8.3 from all versions less than 4.4 requires offline upgrade using HCX Manager appliance management UI (:9443).

      Note:

      Refer to Upgrade HCX Manager for Local Sites to download the HCX 4.8.3 Connector and Cloud Manager upgrade bundle and use the HCX Manager appliance management interface, https://hcx-ip-or-fqdn:9443, to perform the upgrade.

      For HCX deployed in VMware Cloud on AWS infrastructure, the HCX Manager appliance management UI (:9443) interface won't be accessible for the end user. VMware Cloud on AWS customers running less than HCX 4.4 versions must open a support request with Broadcom to help assist with the HCX Cloud Manager upgrade.

    • All site paired systems must be upgraded.

    • All Service Mesh appliances including Network Extension (NE) must be upgraded to 4.8.2.

Note:

VMware HCX 4.8 introduces PhotonOS version 4, which is unsupported for new installation and upgrade for vSphere infrastructure enabled with AMD EPYC CPU families. For more information, refer to VMware Knowledge Base 95172.

  • Upgrade snapshots:

    • During upgrades to HCX 4.8.3, HCX Manager snapshots are taken automatically.

    • Upgrade snapshots are only taken when an HCX Manager is deployed on the same vCenter Server registered to it. For other deployments, manual snapshots can be taken.

    • HCX retains automatic snapshots for 24 hours before deleting them.

      Note: To restore the HCX Manager from a snapshot, contact VMware Support.

  • VMware sends administrative messages to HCX systems that are running out of support and require upgrade.

  • Upgrade compatibility information is available as a table in VMware Product Interoperability Matrix - Upgrade Path.

Important:

HCX 4.5.0 and later releases have new security requirements for OS Assisted Migration (OSAM). If you use OSAM in your environment, you must upgrade HCX Connector, HCX Cloud Manager, and HCX OSAM data plane appliances (Sentinel Gateway, Sentinel Data Receiver) to HCX 4.5.0 or later. Additionally, you must upgrade Sentinel agents running on the source workloads. For compatibility with HCX 4.8.0, the Sentinel agents, Sentinel Gateway, and Sentinel Data Receiver must be running HCX 4.5.0 or later. If not all appliances are compatible, migrations can stall and must be started again after upgrade.

What's New

This release resolves CVE-2024-38814. For more information on these vulnerabilities and their impact on VMware products, see VMSA-2024-0021.

Resolved Issues

  • PR/3431167 - Unable to upgrade HCX Connector/Cloud Managers to 4.9 or later.

Product Support Notices

About NSX for vSphere systems in Extended Support

  • NSX for vSphere General Support ended on January 16, 2022.

  • NSX for vSphere systems in Technical Guidance (under Extended Support contracts) are only supported at the evacuation site (source), with HCX Connector.

  • To determine the HCX Connector version for evacuation, refer to VMware KB articles 82702 and 71398.

Note that HCX Cloud installations require current (Generally Available) VMware software components.  NSX for vSphere is not suitable or supported for HCX Cloud installations.

check-circle-line exclamation-circle-line close-line
Scroll to top icon