This site will be decommissioned on December 31st 2024. After that date content will be available at techdocs.broadcom.com.

 

VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2 | Released Aug 21, 2018 | Build 9643711

See the Revision History of this document.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

What's New in VMware NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2

Important: NSX Data Center for vSphere cannot connect to SSO in an environment with multiple PSCs or STS certificates after installing or upgrading to NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2. For more information, please see VMware Knowledge Base article 57770.

Important: NSX for vSphere is now known as NSX Data Center for vSphere.

NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2 adds usability and serviceability enhancements, and addresses a number of specific customer bugs. See Resolved Issues for more information.

Changes introduced in NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2:

Networking and Edge Services

  • Multicast Support: Adds ability to configure L3 IPv4 multicast on Distributed Logical Router and Edge Service Gateway through support of IGMPv2 and PIM Sparse Mode.
  • Hardware VTEP: Added multi PTEP cluster capability to facilitate environments with multiple vCenters
  • SoftRSS: Improves bridging throughput on physical NICs that don't support DRSS

Security Services

  • Context-Aware Firewall: Additional Layer 7 Application Context Support (EPIC, MSSQL, BLAST AppIDs)
  • Firewall Rule Hit Count: ​Monitor rule usage and easily identify unused rules for clean-up
  • Firewall Section Locking: ​​Enables multiple security administrators to work concurrently on the firewall
  • NSX Application Rule Manager: Improved scale to 100 vNICs per session, further simplifying the process of creating security groups and whitelisting firewall rules for existing applications.

NSX User Interface

Operations and Troubleshooting

  • Authentication & Authorization: Introduces 2 new roles (Network Engineer and Security Engineer). Adds ability to enable/disable basic authentication.
  • NSX Scale Dashboard: Provides visibility into 25 new metrics. Adds ability to edit usage warning thresholds and filter for objects exceeding limits.
  • NSX Controller Cluster Settings: Specify common settings (DNS, NTP, Syslog) to apply to NSX Controller Cluster.
  • Support for VM Hardware version 11 for NSX components: For new installs of NSX 6.4.2, NSX appliances (Manager, Controller, Edge, Guest Introspection) are installed with VM HW version 11. For upgrades to NSX 6.4.2, please see Upgrade Notes for further details.

Versions, System Requirements, and Installation

Note:

  • The table below lists recommended versions of VMware software. These recommendations are general and should not replace or override environment-specific recommendations.

  • This information is current as of the publication date of this document.

  • For the minimum supported version of NSX and other VMware products, see the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix. VMware declares minimum supported versions based on internal testing.

Product or Component Version
NSX Data Center for vSphere

VMware recommends the latest NSX release for new deployments.

When upgrading existing deployments, please review the NSX Data Center for vSphere Release Notes or contact your VMware technical support representative for more information on specific issues before planning an upgrade.

vSphere

 

  • For vSphere 6.0:
    Supported: 6.0 Update 2, 6.0 Update 3
    Recommended: 6.0 Update 3. vSphere 6.0 Update 3 resolves the issue of duplicate VTEPs in ESXi hosts after rebooting vCenter server. SeeVMware Knowledge Base article 2144605 for more information.

  • For vSphere 6.5:
    Supported: 6.5a, 6.5 Update 1, 6.5 Update 2.
    Recommended: 6.5 Update 1. vSphere 6.5 Update 1 resolves the issue of EAM failing with OutOfMemory. See VMware Knowledge Base Article 2135378 for more information.
    If you are using multicast routing on vSphere 6.5, vSphere 6.5 Update 2 is recommended.

  • For vSphere 6.7
    Supported: 6.7, 6.7 Update 1
    Recommended: 6.7 Update 1
    Important: If you are upgrading an existing vSphere installation and you want to upgrade vSphere Distributed Switches to 6.6 (available with vSphere 6.7), you must upgrade to vSphere 6.7 U1 or later. The VDS 6.6 provided with vSphere 6.7 GA version is not compatible with NSX Data Center for vSphere. 

Note: vSphere 5.5 is not supported with NSX 6.4.
Guest Introspection for Windows All versions of VMware Tools are supported. Some Guest Introspection-based features require newer VMware Tools versions:
  • Use VMware Tools 10.0.9 and 10.0.12 to enable the optional Thin Agent Network Introspection Driver component packaged with VMware Tools.
  • Upgrade to VMware Tools 10.0.8 and later to resolve slow VMs after upgrading VMware Tools in NSX / vCloud Networking and Security (see VMware knowledge base article 2144236).
  • Use VMware Tools 10.1.0 and later for Windows 10 support.
  • Use VMware Tools 10.1.10 and later for Windows Server 2016 support.
Guest Introspection for Linux This NSX version supports the following Linux versions:
  • RHEL 7 GA (64 bit)
  • SLES 12 GA (64 bit)
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (64 bit)

System Requirements and Installation

For the complete list of NSX installation prerequisites, see the System Requirements for NSX section in the NSX Installation Guide.

For installation instructions, see the NSX Installation Guide or the NSX Cross-vCenter Installation Guide.

Deprecated and Discontinued Functionality

End of Life and End of Support Warnings

For information about NSX and other VMware products that must be upgraded soon, please consult the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix.

  • NSX for vSphere 6.1.x reached End of Availability (EOA) and End of General Support (EOGS) on January 15, 2017. (See also VMware knowledge base article 2144769.)

  • vCNS Edges no longer supported. You must upgrade to an NSX Edge first before upgrading to NSX 6.3 or later.

  • NSX for vSphere 6.2.x has reached End of General Support (EOGS) as of August 20, 2018.

  • Based on security recommendations, 3DES as an encryption algorithm in NSX Edge IPsec VPN service is no longer supported.
    It is recommended that you switch to one of the secure ciphers available in IPsec service. This change regarding encryption algorithm is applicable to IKE SA (phase1) as well as IPsec SA (phase2) negotiation for an IPsec site.
     
    If 3DES encryption algorithm is in use by NSX Edge IPsec service at the time of upgrade to the release in which its support is removed, it will be replaced by another recommended cipher and therefore the IPsec sites that were using 3DES will not come up unless the configuration on the remote peer is modified to match the encryption algorithm used in NSX Edge.
     
    If using 3DES encryption, modify the encryption algorithm in the IPsec site configuration to replace 3DES with one of the supported AES variants (AES / AES256 / AES-GCM). For example, for each IPsec site configuration with the encryption algorithm as 3DES, replace it with AES. Accordingly, update the IPsec configuration at the peer endpoint.

General Behavior Changes

If you have more than one vSphere Distributed Switch, and if VXLAN is configured on one of them, you must connect any Distributed Logical Router interfaces to port groups on that vSphere Distributed Switch. Starting in NSX 6.4.1, this configuration is enforced in the UI and API. In earlier releases, you were not prevented from creating an invalid configuration. If you upgrade to NSX 6.4.1 or later and have incorrectly connected DLR interfaces, you will need to take action to resolve this. See the Upgrade Notes for details.

User Interface Removals and Changes

In NSX 6.4.1, Service Composer Canvas is removed.

Installation Behavior Changes

Starting with version 6.4.2, when you install NSX Data Center for vSphere on hosts that have physical NICs with ixgbe drivers, Receive Side Scaling (RSS) is not enabled on the ixgbe drivers by default. You must enable RSS manually on the hosts before installing NSX Data Center. Make sure that you enable RSS only on the hosts that have NICs with ixgbe drivers. For detailed steps about enabling RSS, see the VMware knowledge base article https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2034676. This knowledge base article describes recommended RSS settings for improved VXLAN packet throughput.

This new behavior applies only when you are doing a fresh installation of kernel modules (VIB files) on the ESXi hosts. No changes are required when you are upgrading NSX-managed hosts to 6.4.2.

API Removals and Behavior Changes

Deprecations in NSX 6.4.2

The following item is deprecated, and might be removed in a future release:

  • GET/POST/DELETE /api/2.0/vdn/controller/{controllerId}/syslog. Use GET/PUT /api/2.0/vdn/controller/cluster/syslog instead.

Behavior Changes in NSX 6.4.1

When you create a new IP pool with POST /api/2.0/services/ipam/pools/scope/globalroot-0, or modify an existing IP pool with PUT /api/2.0/services/ipam/pools/ , and the pool has multiple IP ranges defined, validation is done to ensure that the ranges do not overlap. This validation was not previously done.

Deprecations in NSX 6.4.0
The following items are deprecated, and might be removed in a future release.

  • The systemStatus parameter in GET /api/4.0/edges/edgeID/status is deprecated.
  • GET /api/2.0/services/policy/serviceprovider/firewall/ is deprecated. Use GET /api/2.0/services/policy/serviceprovider/firewall/info instead.
  • Setting tcpStrict in the global configuration section of Distributed Firewall is deprecated. Starting in NSX 6.4.0, tcpStrict is defined at the section level. Note: If you upgrade to NSX 6.4.0 or later, the global configuration setting for tcpStrict is used to configure tcpStrict in each existing layer 3 section. tcpStrict is set to false in layer 2 sections and layer 3 redirect sections. See "Working with Distributed Firewall Configuration" in the NSX API Guide for more information.

Behavior Changes in NSX 6.4.0
In NSX 6.4.0, the <name> parameter is required when you create a controller with POST /api/2.0/vdn/controller.

NSX 6.4.0 introduces these changes in error handling:

  • Previously POST /api/2.0/vdn/controller responded with 201 Created to indicate the controller creation job is created. However, the creation of the controller might still fail. Starting in NSX 6.4.0 the response is 202 Accepted.
  • Previously if you sent an API request which is not allowed in transit or standalone mode, the response status was 400 Bad Request. Starting in 6.4.0 the response status is 403 Forbidden.

CLI Removals and Behavior Changes

Do not use unsupported commands on NSX Controller nodes
There are undocumented commands to configure NTP and DNS on NSX Controller nodes. These commands are not supported, and should not be used on NSX Controller nodes. You should only use commands which are documented in the NSX CLI Guide.

Upgrade Notes

Note: For a list of known issues affecting installation and upgrades, see Installation and Upgrade Known Issues.

General Upgrade Notes

  • To upgrade NSX, you must perform a full NSX upgrade including host cluster upgrade (which upgrades the host VIBs). For instructions, see the NSX Upgrade Guide including the Upgrade Host Clusters section.

  • Upgrading NSX VIBs on host clusters using VUM is not supported. Use Upgrade Coordinator, Host Preparation, or the associated REST APIs to upgrade NSX VIBs on host clusters.

  • System Requirements: For information on system requirements while installing and upgrading NSX, see the System Requirements for NSX section in NSX documentation.

  • Upgrade path for NSX: The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the upgrade paths from VMware NSX.

  • Cross-vCenter NSX upgrade is covered in the NSX Upgrade Guide.

  • Downgrades are not supported:

    • Always capture a backup of NSX Manager before proceeding with an upgrade.

    • Once NSX has been upgraded successfully, NSX cannot be downgraded.

  • To validate that your upgrade to NSX 6.4.x was successful see knowledge base article 2134525.

  • There is no support for upgrades from vCloud Networking and Security to NSX 6.4.x. You must upgrade to a supported 6.2.x release first.

  • Interoperability: Check the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix for all relevant VMware products before upgrading.
    • Upgrading to NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4: NSX 6.4 is not compatible with vSphere 5.5.
    • Upgrading to vSphere 6.5: When upgrading to vSphere 6.5a or later 6.5 versions, you must first upgrade to NSX 6.3.0 or later. NSX 6.2.x is not compatible with vSphere 6.5. See Upgrading vSphere in an NSX Environment in the NSX Upgrade Guide.
    • Upgrading to vSphere 6.7: When upgrading to vSphere 6.7 you must first upgrade to NSX 6.4.1 or later. Earlier versions of NSX are not compatible with vSphere 6.7. See Upgrading vSphere in an NSX Environment in the NSX Upgrade Guide.
  • Partner services compatibility: If your site uses VMware partner services for Guest Introspection or Network Introspection, you must review the  VMware Compatibility Guide before you upgrade, to verify that your vendor's service is compatible with this release of NSX.
  • Networking and Security plug-in: After upgrading NSX Manager, you must log out and log back in to the vSphere Web Client. If the NSX plug-in does not display correctly, clear your browser cache and history. If the Networking and Security plug-in does not appear in the vSphere Web Client, reset the vSphere Web Client server as explained in the NSX Upgrade Guide.
  • Stateless environments: In NSX upgrades in a stateless host environment, the new VIBs are pre-added to the Host Image profile during the NSX upgrade process. As a result, NSX on stateless hosts upgrade process follows this sequence:

    Prior to NSX 6.2.0, there was a single URL on NSX Manager from which VIBs for a certain version of the ESX Host could be found. (Meaning the administrator only needed to know a single URL, regardless of NSX version.) In NSX 6.2.0 and later, the new NSX VIBs are available at different URLs. To find the correct VIBs, you must perform the following steps:

    1. Find the new VIB URL from https://<nsxmanager>/bin/vdn/nwfabric.properties.
    2. Fetch VIBs of required ESX host version from corresponding URL.
    3. Add them to host image profile.

Upgrade Notes for NSX Components

Support for VM Hardware version 11 for NSX components

  • For new installs of NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2, the NSX components (Manager, Controller, Edge, Guest Introspection) are on VM Hardware version 11.
  • For upgrades to NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2, the NSX Edge and Guest Introspection components are automatically upgraded to VM Hardware version 11. The NSX Manager and NSX Controller components remain on VM Hardware version 8 following an upgrade. Users have the option to upgrade the VM Hardware to version 11. Consult KB (https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1010675) for instructions on upgrading VM Hardware versions.
  • For new installs of NSX 6.3.x, 6.4.0, 6.4.1, the NSX components (Manager, Controller, Edge, Guest Introspection) are on VM Hardware version 8.

NSX Manager Upgrade

  • Important: If you are upgrading NSX 6.2.0, 6.2.1, or 6.2.2 to NSX 6.3.5 or later, you must complete a workaround before starting the upgrade. See VMware Knowledge Base article 000051624 for details.

  • If you are upgrading from NSX 6.3.3 to NSX 6.3.4 or later you must first follow the workaround instructions in VMware Knowledge Base article 2151719.

  • If you use SFTP for NSX backups, change to hmac-sha2-256 after upgrading to 6.3.0 or later because there is no support for hmac-sha1. See VMware Knowledge Base article 2149282  for a list of supported security algorithms.

  • When you upgrade NSX Manager to NSX 6.4.1, a backup is automatically taken and saved locally as part of the upgrade process. See Upgrade NSX Manager for more information.

  • When you upgrade to NSX 6.4.0, the TLS settings are preserved. If you have only TLS 1.0 enabled, you will be able to view the NSX plug-in in the vSphere Web Client, but NSX Managers are not visible. There is no impact to datapath, but you cannot change any NSX Manager configuration. Log in to the NSX appliance management web UI at https://nsx-mgr-ip/ and enable TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. This reboots the NSX Manager appliance.

Controller Upgrade

  • The NSX Controller cluster must contain three controller nodes. If it has fewer than three controllers, you must add controllers before starting the upgrade. See Deploy NSX Controller Cluster for instructions.

  • In NSX 6.3.3, the underlying operating system of the NSX Controller changes. This means that when you upgrade from NSX 6.3.2 or earlier to NSX 6.3.3 or later, instead of an in-place software upgrade, the existing controllers are deleted one at a time, and new Photon OS based controllers are deployed using the same IP addresses.

    When the controllers are deleted, this also deletes any associated DRS anti-affinity rules. You must create new anti-affinity rules in vCenter to prevent the new controller VMs from residing on the same host.

    See Upgrade the NSX Controller Cluster for more information on controller upgrades.

Host Cluster Upgrade

  • If you upgrade from NSX 6.3.2 or earlier to NSX 6.3.3 or later, the NSX VIB names change.
    The esx-vxlan and esx-vsip VIBs are replaced with esx-nsxv if you have NSX 6.3.3 or later installed on ESXi 6.0 or later.

  • Rebootless upgrade and uninstall on hosts: On vSphere 6.0 and later, once you have upgraded from NSX 6.2.x to NSX 6.3.x or later, any subsequent NSX VIB changes will not require a reboot. Instead hosts must enter maintenance mode to complete the VIB change. This affects both NSX host cluster upgrade, and ESXi upgrade. See the NSX Upgrade Guide for more information.

​NSX Edge Upgrade

  • Validation added in NSX 6.4.1 to disallow an invalid distributed logical router configurations: In environments where VXLAN is configured and more than one vSphere Distributed Switch is present, distributed logical router interfaces must be connected to the VXLAN-configured vSphere Distributed Switch only. Upgrading a DLR to NSX 6.4.1 or later will fail in those environments if the DLR has interfaces connected to the vSphere Distributed Switch that is not configured for VXLAN. Use the API to connect any incorrectly configured interfaces to port groups on the VXLAN-configured vSphere Distributed Switch. Once the configuration is valid, retry the upgrade. You can change the interface configuration using PUT /api/4.0/edges/{edgeId} or PUT /api/4.0/edges/{edgeId}/interfaces/{index}. See the NSX API Guide for more information.

  • Host clusters must be prepared for NSX before upgrading NSX Edge appliances: Management-plane communication between NSX Manager and Edge via the VIX channel is no longer supported starting in 6.3.0. Only the message bus channel is supported. When you upgrade from NSX 6.2.x or earlier to NSX 6.3.0 or later, you must verify that host clusters where NSX Edge appliances are deployed are prepared for NSX, and that the messaging infrastructure status is GREEN. If host clusters are not prepared for NSX, upgrade of the NSX Edge appliance will fail. See Upgrade NSX Edge in the NSX Upgrade Guide for details.

  • Upgrading Edge Services Gateway (ESG):
    Starting in NSX 6.2.5, resource reservation is carried out at the time of NSX Edge upgrade. When vSphere HA is enabled on a cluster having insufficient resources, the upgrade operation may fail due to vSphere HA constraints being violated.

    To avoid such upgrade failures, perform the following steps before you upgrade an ESG:

    The following resource reservations are used by the NSX Manager if you have not explicitly set values at the time of install or upgrade.

    NSX Edge
    Form Factor    		 CPU Reservation Memory Reservation
    COMPACT 1000MHz 512 MB
    LARGE 2000MHz 1024 MB
    QUADLARGE 4000MHz 2048 MB
    X-LARGE 6000MHz 8192 MB

    1. Always ensure that your installation follows the best practices laid out for vSphere HA. Refer to document Knowledge Base article 1002080 .

    2. Use the NSX tuning configuration API:
      PUT https://<nsxmanager>/api/4.0/edgePublish/tuningConfiguration
      ensuring that values for edgeVCpuReservationPercentage and edgeMemoryReservationPercentage fit within available resources for the form factor (see table above for defaults).

  • Disable vSphere's Virtual Machine Startup option where vSphere HA is enabled and Edges are deployed. After you upgrade your 6.2.4 or earlier NSX Edges to 6.2.5 or later, you must turn off the vSphere Virtual Machine Startup option for each NSX Edge in a cluster where vSphere HA is enabled and Edges are deployed. To do this, open the vSphere Web Client, find the ESXi host where NSX Edge virtual machine resides, click Manage > Settings, and, under Virtual Machines, select VM Startup/Shutdown, click Edit, and make sure that the virtual machine is in Manual mode (that is, make sure it is not added to the Automatic Startup/Shutdown list).

  • Before upgrading to NSX 6.2.5 or later, make sure all load balancer cipher lists are colon separated. If your cipher list uses another separator such as a comma, make a PUT call to https://nsxmgr_ip/api/4.0/edges/EdgeID/loadbalancer/config/applicationprofiles and replace each  <ciphers> </ciphers> list in <clientssl> </clientssl> and <serverssl> </serverssl> with a colon-separated list. For example, the relevant segment of the request body might look like the following. Repeat this procedure for all application profiles:

    <applicationProfile>
  <name>https-profile</name>
  <insertXForwardedFor>false</insertXForwardedFor>
  <sslPassthrough>false</sslPassthrough>
  <template>HTTPS</template>
  <serverSslEnabled>true</serverSslEnabled>
  <clientSsl>
    <ciphers>AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA</ciphers>
    <clientAuth>ignore</clientAuth>
    <serviceCertificate>certificate-4</serviceCertificate>
  </clientSsl>
  <serverSsl>
    <ciphers>AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA</ciphers>
    <serviceCertificate>certificate-4</serviceCertificate>
  </serverSsl>
  ...
</applicationProfile>
  • Set Correct Cipher version for Load Balanced Clients on vROPs versions older than 6.2.0: vROPs pool members on vROPs versions older than 6.2.0 use TLS version 1.0 and therefore you must set a monitor extension value explicitly by setting "ssl-version=10" in the NSX Load Balancer configuration. See Create a Service Monitor in the NSX Administration Guide for instructions. 
    {
    "expected" : null,
    "extension" : "ssl-version=10",
    "send" : null,
    "maxRetries" : 2,
    "name" : "sm_vrops",
    "url" : "/suite-api/api/deployment/node/status",
    "timeout" : 5,
    "type" : "https",
    "receive" : null,
    "interval" : 60,
    "method" : "GET"
}

Guest Introspection Upgrade

  • Guest Introspection VM's now contain additional host identifying information in an XML file on the machine. When logging in to the Guest Introspection VM, the file "/opt/vmware/etc/vami/ovfEnv.xml" should include host identity information.

Upgrade Notes for FIPS

When you upgrade from a version of NSX earlier than NSX 6.3.0 to NSX 6.3.0 or later, you must not enable FIPS mode before the upgrade is completed. Enabling FIPS mode before the upgrade is complete will interrupt communication between upgraded and not-upgraded components. See Understanding FIPS Mode and NSX Upgrade in the NSX Upgrade Guide for more information.

  • Ciphers supported on OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan: If you are using SSL VPN client on OS X 10.11 (EL Capitan), you will be able to connect using AES128-GCM-SHA256, ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256, ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA38, AES256-SHA and AES128-SHA ciphers and those using OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) will be able to connect using AES256-SHA and AES128-SHA ciphers only.

  • Do not enable FIPS before the upgrade to NSX 6.3.x is complete. See Understand FIPS mode and NSX Upgrade in the NSX Upgrade Guide for more information.

  • Before you enable FIPS, verify any partner solutions are FIPS mode certified. See the VMware Compatibility Guide and the relevant partner documentation.

FIPS Compliance

NSX 6.4 uses FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic modules for all security-related cryptography when correctly configured.

Note:

  • Controller and Clustering VPN: The NSX Controller uses IPsec VPN to connect Controller clusters. The IPsec VPN uses the VMware Linux Kernel Cryptographic Module (VMware Photon OS 1.0 environment), which is in the process of being CMVP validated.
  • Edge IPsec VPN: The NSX Edge IPsec VPN uses the VMware Linux Kernel Cryptographic Module (VMware NSX OS 4.4 environment), which is in the process of being CMVP validated.

Document Revision History

21 Aug 2018: First edition.
5 Sept 2018: Second edition. Added install/upgrade note (known issue 2186945). Added known issues 2166571, 2164495, 2186968, 2183584. Added resolved issues 2141490, 2167554.
11 Sept 2018: Third edition. Added resolved issue 2160695.
19 Sept 2018: Fourth edition. Added known issue 2197754 and related note in System Requirements table.
13 Dec 2018: Fifth edition. Updated What's New to remove incorrect limit info and add SoftRSS info.
8 March 2019: Sixth edition. Added resolved issue 2249307.
29th April 2019: Seventh edition. Updated info about VDS 6.6 and issue 2197754.

Resolved Issues

The resolved issues are grouped as follows.

General Resolved Issues
  • Fixed Issue 2133183: API /api/3.0/ai/directorygroup not working

    NullPointerException is thrown from backend and API returns error. Unable to automate workflow.

  • Fixed Issue 1993691: Removing a host without first removing it as a replication node can lead to stale entries in VSM

    If a host serves as a replication node for a HW VTEP and it needs to be removed from its parent cluster, ensure first that it is no longer a replication node before removing it from the cluster. If that is not done, in some cases its status as a replication node is maintained in the NSX Manager database which can cause errors when further manipulating replication nodes.

    Workaround: See Knowledge Base Article 52418 for more information.

  • Fixed issue 2123783: Unable to create or edit Network Introspection rules in a Cross-VC NSX environment

    In a Cross-VC NSX environment where the versions of primary/secondary NSX Managers are a mix of NSX 6.3.x and NSX 6.4.x, user is unable to create and edit Network Introspection rules.

  • Fixed Issue 2139594: In some case, DaD ping forwarded back, causing DaD process to detect duplicate IP addresses

    System event reports fake duplicated IP detected.

  • Fixed Issue 1874863: Unable to authenticate with changed password after sslvpn service disable/enable with local authentication server

    When SSL VPN service is disabled and re-enabled and when using local authentication, users are unable to log in with changed passwords.

    See VMware Knowledge Base Article 2151236 for more information.

  • Fixed Issue 2147002: Services and performance impact with Guest Introspection installed on NSX for vSphere 6.4.1

    The issue is seen when it takes a long time to vMotion or storage vMotion VMs between hosts with Guest Introspection enabled.
    Frequent "Mux is disconnected" event logs are observed in VM vmware.log along with "PANIC: NamespaceDb.cpp:AccessNamespaceDb():83 Function call to read_key failed" ERROR message seen in host syslog.

  • Fixed Issue 2082892: VM not present on vCenter and restore done by edit appliances or change of appliance placement leads to stranded VMs causing network disruption

    Traffic disruption seen or more than 2 VMs in vCenter for the same edge when HA is enabled.

  • Fixed Issue 2046427: Changing Vmknic or LS dvs portgroup teaming policy can result in DP outage

    During Host preparation (VXLAN), if you are setting the vmknic teaming policy, the Uplink teaming policy on DVS is set accordingly. Any new Logical switch dvs pg that are created also receive this teaming policy.

  • Fixed Issue 2197754: Hosts show purple diagnostic screen when vSphere Distributed Switch is upgraded to 6.6

    If you have NSX 6.4 installed, and you upgrade vSphere Distributed Switches to version 6.6, ESXi displays a purple diagnostic screen. New installs of vSphere 6.7 with vSphere Distributed Switch 6.6 are not affected. Fixed in vSphere 6.7 Update 1.

  • Fixed Issue 2141490: ToR binding on NSX Manager and controller out of sync

    Unable to modify the HW binding on a logical switch or delete the configuration. UI shows the following error: "Failed to do operation on the Controller. {0}"

  • Fixed Issue 2164495:  If a VM is requesting for more than 255 multicast groups, with VDS in igmp snooping mode, all the multicast traffic hitting the ESXi host will be sent to this Vm as it is put in All Multicast mode.

    If a VM is requesting more than 255 multicast groups, with the VDS in igmp snooping mode, the VM port will be put in all multicast mode and might receive traffic for other groups that it is not requesting. Once a port goes into All Multicast mode, it cannot be cleared from that state.
            

  • Fixed Issue 2160695: Network Introspection do-not-redirect (allow) rule via Partner Services UI incorrectly requires DSCP marking to be configured.

    Network Introspection do-not-redirect (allow) rule via Partner Services UI incorrectly requires DSCP marking to be configured.

Installation and Upgrade Resolved Issues
  • Fixed Issue 2045149: NSX Management Service does not start after upgrading from 6.2.9 to 6.4.0 if timezone is set to JST

    NSX Manager stops with an exception after upgrading. Changing the time zone after upgrading has no effect.

  • Fixed Issue 2013290: Upgrade to NSX for vSphere 6.3.5 may fail in an environment using CA certificates

    The NSX Manager appliance User Interface may fail to load or continue to show a spinning wheel indicating the upgrade in progress. However, when the web page is refreshed, it fails to load.

  • Fixed Issue 2155816: DLR Instances get removed from hosts after upgrade of NSX Manager to 6.4.0/6.4.1 in case of invalid/inconsistent configuration entries in Manager database

    In case of invalid configuration where LIFs of a DLR are connected to logical switches of different scopes or in cases of stale entries of LIFs with scope differing the valid entries, migration script fails in populating the scope information among db tables as a single scope is expected for each DLR instance. This results in the DLR instances not being published to hosts.

  • Fixed Issue 2036024: NSX Manager upgrade stuck at "Verifying uploaded file" due to database disk usage

    Upgrade log file vsm-upgrade.log also contains this message: "Database disk usage is at 75%, but it should be less than 70%". You can view vsm-upgrade.log in the NSX Manager support bundle. Navigate to Networking & Security > Support Bundle, and select to include NSX Manager logs.

    Workaround: Contact VMware customer support.

Logical Networking and NSX Edge Resolved Issues
  • Fixed Issue 2132361: Web Client becomes unresponsive when you see Edge certificates whose certificate type is NULL

    The plugin of NSX 6.3.6 and 6.4.1 cannot manage certificates whose <certificateType> is NULL such as old PSC certificate.

  • Fixed Issue 1874863: Unable to authenticate with changed password after sslvpn service disable/enable with local authentication server

    When SSL VPN service is disabled and re-enabled and when using local authentication, users are unable to log in with changed passwords.

  • Fixed Issue 2091636: Nginx on Edge required upgrade from 1.12.0 to latest stable version (1.12.2)

    Edge was using Nginx version 1.12.0, which was found to be affected with CVE-2017-7529.

NSX Manager Resolved Issues
  • Fixed Issue 2088315: NSX manager backup operation fails

    The rabbitmq certificate present in the backup file S01_NSX_00_00_00_Fri23Mar2018 is expired. Use the following steps to check the backup certificate.
    openssl enc -md sha512 -d -aes-256-cbc -salt -in S01_NSX_00_00_00_Fri23Mar2018 -out backup.tar -pass 'pass: )' tar -xvf backup.tar
    openssl x509 -enddate -noout -in home/secureall/secureall/.store/.rabbitmq_cert.pem

    Output is a expired date:
    notAfter=Dec 26 20:20:40 1978 GMT

    Contact support. Support should create a new certificate.

  • Fixed Issue 2028485: CPU spike causing NSX Manager to crash and disconnect from vCenter

    A large number of IP address assigned per vnic causes out of memory issues.

  • Fixed Issue 2016363: Upgrade bundle extraction failed

    Unable to proceed with upgrade due to "Upgrade bundle extraction failed" error or missing files in upgrade tarball. Log file may contain this message: "Error: ./snmp/snmp.xml missing from upgrade tarball. Please check your upgrade tarball."

  • Fixed Issue 2167554: On the Service Composer > Security Policy > Add/Edit Network Introspection screen, the UI hangs when vendor template (profile configuration) in service profile is not defined

    UI remains in continuous loading state and blocks add/edit network introspection service.

  • Fixed Issue 2249307: The Locale ID on ESXi host is reset to default upon ESXi host reconnection to NSX Manager

    Missing DLR routes. DLR no longer routing traffic. Host receives the wrong Locale ID and the intended DLR routes are not retained.

Security Services Resolved Issues
  • Fixed Issue 2161412: DFW rules publish fail with error, "Unmatched rules found in the configuration"

    When a global DFW publish is made after a DFW section is modified, some rules not belonging to the modified section are incorrectly matched, causing the DFW rule publish to fail.

  • Fixed Issue 1702339: Vulnerability scanners might report a Quagga bgp_dump_routes vulnerability CVE-2016-4049

    Vulnerability scanners might report a Quagga bgp_dump_routes vulnerability CVE-2016-4049 in NSX for vSphere. NSX for vSphere uses Quagga, but the BGP functionality (including the vulnerability) is not enabled. This vulnerability alert can be safely disregarded.

  • Fixed Issue 1979457: If GI-SVM is deleted or removed during the upgrade process and backward compatibility mode, then identity firewall through Guest Introspection (GI) will not work unless the GI cluster is upgraded

    Identity firewall will not work and no logs related to identity firewall would be seen. Identity firewall protection will be suspended unless the cluster is upgraded.

  • Fixed Issue 2017806: Error message is not clear when adding members to security groups used in RDSH firewall sections on security policies

    If a security group is used in RDSH firewall sections on security policies, you can only add directory group members to it. If you try to add any member other than directory group, the following error displays:
    "Security group is being used by service composer, Firewall and cannot be modified"

    The error message doe not convey that the security group cannot be modified because the security group is used in RDSH firewall sections on security policies.

    Workaround: None.

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows.

General Known Issues
  • Issue 2186945: NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2 will result in loss of SSO functionality under specific conditions

    NSX Data Center for vSphere cannot connect to SSO in an environment with multiple PSCs or STS certificates after installing or upgrading to NSX Data Center for vSphere 6.4.2.

    Workaround: See VMware Knowledge Base article 57770 for more information and a workaround.

  • Issue 2130563: Warning message appears when assigning NSX Data Center license: "The selected license does not support some of the features that are currently available to the licensed assets"

    If you have an NSX for vSphere license assigned, and then assign an NSX Data Center license, you see the following warning message: "The selected license does not support some of the features that are currently available to the licensed assets". This is because the two licenses define the NSX features differently. If you are assigning a license edition that licenses the same features as your current license, it is safe to ignore this message.

    See VMware knowledge base article 2145269 for more information about NSX licenses.

    Workaround: Verify the new license supports the feature you need, and ignore the warning message.

  • Issue 2127813: Cannot choose and assign NSX license key to NSX Manager while using vSphere Client (HTML5)

    If you log into the vSphere Client (HTML5) and add an NSX license key, you cannot assign the key from Licenses > Assets > Solutions. The new license key is not visible.

    Workaround: Use the vSphere Web Client to add and assign licenses.

  • In the vSphere Web Client, when you open a Flex component which overlaps an HTML view, the view becomes invisible.

    When you open a Flex component, such as a menu or dialog, which overlaps an HTML view, the view is temporarily hidden.
    (Reference: http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/developer/webclient/60/vwcsdk_600_releasenotes.html#issues)

    Workaround: None. 

  • Issue 2166571: There may be a 1 to 2 second multicast loss during vmotion of VMs.

    During vmotion, the workloads might experience 1-2 multicast loss, similar to unicast traffic.

  • Issue 2134192: Error is thrown when there is no port on the switch

    If a physical switch on a hardware gateway has no port, NSX throws an error when trying to get the port from the switch. You will see the error, "Unable to fetch inventory information" while trying to get the port.

    Workaround: Create at least one port on the switch.

  • Issue 2126743: IP address of VMs not published to addrset when VMs added to security group

    When a VM is added to securitygroup, the IP of the VM doesn't show up in the addrset. Traffic fails, as the proper policy is not applied to the VM, even if it is part of a properly-configured security group.

    Workaround:

    1. Restart NSX Manager.
    2. Force sync the host from the NSX host preparation page.
  • Issue 2118255: DLR control VM doesn't participate in multicast routing

    DLR control VM doesn't participate in multicast routing; all the multicast related cli will show empty cli display in control VM.

  • Issue 2145540: For ESX version 6.7, total number of underlay multicast groups joined by a host cannot exceed 128

    It is recommended that you use replication multicast range of 64 or less (CIDR /26 or higher) while configuring multicast routing under a DLR.

Installation and Upgrade Known Issues

Before upgrading, please read the section Upgrade Notes, earlier in this document.

  • Issue 2006028: Host upgrade may fail if vCenter Server system is rebooting during upgrade

    If the associated vCenter Server system is rebooted during a host upgrade, the host upgrade might fail and leave the host in maintenance mode. Clicking Resolve does not move the host out of maintenance mode. The cluster status is "Not Ready".

    Workaround: Exit the host from maintenance mode manually. Click "Not Ready" then "Resolve All" on the cluster.

  • Issue 2001988: During NSX host cluster upgrade, Installation status in Host Preparation tab alternates between "not ready" and "installing" for the entire cluster when each host in the cluster is upgrading

    During NSX upgrade, clicking "upgrade available" for NSX prepared cluster triggers host upgrade. For clusters configured with DRS FULL AUTOMATIC, the installation status alternates between "installing" and "not ready", even though the hosts are upgraded in the background without issues.

    Workaround: This is a user interface issue and can be ignored. Wait for the host cluster upgrade to proceed.

  • Issue 1859572: During the uninstall of NSX VIBs version 6.3.x on ESXi hosts that are being managed by vCenter version 6.0.0, the host continues to stay in Maintenance mode
    If you are uninstalling NSX VIBs version 6.3.x on a cluster, the workflow involves putting the hosts into Maintenance mode, uninstalling the VIBs and then removing the hosts from Maintenance mode by the EAM service. However, if such hosts are managed by vCenter server version 6.0.0, then this results in the host being stuck in Maintenance mode post uninstalling the VIBs. The EAM service responsible for uninstalling the VIBs puts the host in Maintenance mode but fails to move the hosts out of Maintenance mode.

    Workaround: Manually move the host out of Maintenance mode. This issue will not be seen if the host is managed by vCenter server version 6.5a and above.

  • Issue 1797929: Message bus channel down after host cluster upgrade
    After a host cluster upgrade, vCenter 6.0 (and earlier) does not generate the event "reconnect", and as a result, NSX Manager does not set up the messaging infrastructure on the host. This issue has been fixed in vCenter 6.5.

    Workaround: Resync the messaging infrastructure as below:
    POST https://<ip>:/api/2.0/nwfabric/configure?action=synchronize

    <nwFabricFeatureConfig>
  <featureId>com.vmware.vshield.vsm.messagingInfra</featureId>
  <resourceConfig>
    <resourceId>host-15</resourceId>
  </resourceConfig>
</nwFabricFeatureConfig>

  • Issue 1263858: SSL VPN does not send upgrade notification to remote client
    SSL VPN gateway does not send an upgrade notification to users. The administrator has to manually communicate that the SSL VPN gateway (server) is updated to remote users and they must update their clients.

    Workaround: Users need to uninstall the older version of client and install the latest version manually.

  • Issue 2106417: GI SVM goes into Failed state after NSX Manager is upgraded from 6.3.0 to 6.4.1

    If you are using vCenter Server 6.5 u1, and upgrade NSX Manager from 6.3.0 to 6.4.1, GI SVM upgrade might be Failed.

    Workaround: Once the issue occurs, delete and then redeploy the GI SVMs.

NSX Manager Known Issues
  • Issue 2171182: Unable to create or manage multiple replication clusters from the Hardware Devices tab in the NSX user interface

    Through the NSX user interface, you are able to view and manage a single default replication cluster, but not multiple replication clusters.

    Workaround: Support for multiple replication clusters is currently only available through the API. Use the NSX API to manage multiple replication clusters.

Logical Networking and NSX Edge Known Issues
  • Issue 1747978: OSPF adjacencies are deleted with MD5 authentication after NSX Edge HA failover
    In an NSX for vSphere 6.2.4 environment where the NSX Edge is configured for HA with OSPF graceful restart configured and MD5 is used for authentication, OSPF fails to start gracefully. Adjacencies forms only after the dead timer expires on the OSPF neighbor nodes.

    Workaround: None

  • Issue 2005973: Routing daemon MSR loses all routing configuration after deleting a few gre tunnels and then doing a force sync of edge node from Management Plane

    This problem can occur on a edge with BGP sessions over GRE tunnels. When some of the GRE tunnels are deleted and then a force sync of the edge is done from MP, edge loses all routing configuration.

    Workaround: Reboot edge node.

  • Issue 2015368: Firewall logging may cause out-of-memory issues under certain circumstances

    When the Edge firewall is enabled in configurations of high scale, and firewall logging is enabled on some or all rules, it is possible, although uncommon, for the Edge to encounter an Out-Of-Memory (OOM) condition. This is especially true when there is a lot of traffic hitting the logging rules. When an OOM condition occurs, the Edge VM will automatically reboot.

    Workaround: Firewall logging is best used for debugging purposes, and then disabled again for normal use. To avoid this OOM issue, disable all firewall logging.

  • Issue 2005900: Routing daemon MSR on Edge is stuck at 100% CPU when all GRE tunnels are flapped in an 8-way iBGP/multi-hop BGP ECMP scale topology

    This problem can occur in a scale topology where iBGP or multi-hop BGP is configured on ESG with multiple neighbors running over many GRE tunnels. When multiple GRE tunnels flap, MSR may get stuck indefinitely at 100% CPU.

    Workaround: Reboot edge node.

  • Issue 1993241: IPSEC Tunnel redundancy using static routing is not supported

    IPSEC traffic will fail if primary tunnel goes down, causing traffic disruption.

    Workaround: Disable and enable service.

Security Services Known Issues
  • Issue 2186968: Static IPset not reported to containerset API call

    If you have service appliances, NSX might omit IP sets in communicating with Partner Service Managers.  This can lead to partner firewalls allowing or denying connections incorrectly.

    Workaround: Contact VMware customer support for a workaround. See VMware Knowledge Base article 57834 for more information.

  • Issue 2183584: Security groups created within an Application Rule Manager session are not displayed in the drop down menu of the applied-to column of the recommended rule

    Security groups created within an Application Rule Manager session are not displayed in the drop down menu of the applied-to column of the recommended rule.

    Workaround: See VMware Knowledge base article 57837 for a workaround.

  • Issue 1648578: NSX forces the addition of cluster/network/storage when creating a new NetX host-based service instance
    When you create a new service instance from the vSphere Web Client for NetX host-based services such as Firewall, IDS, and IPS , you are forced to add cluster/network/storage even though these are not required.

    Workaround: When creating a new service instance, you may add any information for cluster/network/storage to fill out the fields. This will allow the creation of the service instance and you will be able to proceed as required.

  • Issue 2018077: Firewall publish fails when rule has custom L7 ALG service without destination port and protocol

    When creating L7 service by selecting any of the following L7 ALG APP (APP_FTP, APP_TFTP, APP_DCERPC, APP_ORACLE) without providing destination port and protocol, and then using them in firewall rules, the firewall rule publish fails.

    Workaround: Provide the appropriate destination port and protocol (TCP/UDP) values while creating custom L7 service for the following ALG services:

    • APP_FTP : port 21 protocol: TCP
    • APP_TFTP: port 69 protocol: UDP
    • APP_DCERPC: port 135 protocol: TCP
    • APP_ORACLE: port 1521 protocol: TCP
  • Issue 2066629: After upgrading to NSX-v 6.4.0, you see the error: "Possible DHCP DOS attack seen on the host. Please refer to NSX Manager and VM Kernel logs for details."

    This issue occurs because a new DHCP DoS related security feature was introduced in NSX-v 6.4.0, that may report false positives. These are warning messages only, and have no operational impact on your environment.

    Workaround: See VMware Knowledge Base article 53914 for more information.

Monitoring Services Known Issues
  • Issue 1466790: Unable to choose VMs on bridged network using the NSX traceflow tool
    Using the NSX traceflow tool, you cannot select VMs that are not attached to a logical switch. This means that VMs on an L2 bridged network cannot be chosen by VM name as the source or destination address for traceflow inspection.

    Workaround: For VMs attached to L2 bridged networks, use the IP address or MAC address of the interface you wish to specify as destination in a traceflow inspection. You cannot choose VMs attached to L2 bridged networks as source. See the knowledge base article 2129191 for more information.

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