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VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure 2.5 | 13 DEC 2022

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure - Cloud Director Edition Release 2.5 brings together various key features, enhancements, and bug fixes across carrier-grade workload compute, networking, and virtual infrastructure management areas. This release includes bug fixes that are key to NSX deployments and supports new VMware Cloud Director features and functionalities in the virtual infrastructure management area. Also, several high-performance, reliability, and management features are added in the compute and storage infrastructure areas.

Carrier-Grade Resilient Networking and Security

VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2.2 introduces the following key enhancements and bug fixes:

  • NSX Data Center for vSphere to NSX-T Data Center migration: Allows pausing or removing of hosts during in-place migration. The Migration Coordinator supports pauses between hosts or the removal of hosts during the host migration phase. In addition, a new migration mode is added to the Migration Coordinator for Lift-and-Shift - Configuration and Edge Migration. This mode allows migrating both configuration and edge, and establishes a performance-optimized distributed bridge between the NSX Data Center for vSphere (NSX-V) and NSX-T Data Center (NSX-T) environments. Hence, the connectivity between the source and destination environments is maintained during the lift-and-shift migration.

  • Install and upgrade process: Allows the registration of multiple NSX management clusters to a single vCenter Server. This feature allows the isolation of NSX lifecycle management per cluster and has all NSX workloads connect to the NSX on vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS).

  • Ease of operations: The NSX-T Data Center 3.2.2 release adds key features to increase the ease of operations including:

    • Backup & restore: Allows reminders to be sent for configuring the backups in the NSX Manager UI.

    • Upgrade readiness: NSX Upgrade Evaluation Tool is now integrated with pre-upgrade checks as part of the NSX framework. This feature eliminates the need for getting compliance approvals or versioning with a separate appliance. When you run the pre-upgrade checks, NSX checks the readiness of your NSX deployment for a successful NSX Manager upgrade.

  • Bug fixes: In addition, this release includes the following key bug fixes that are critical to NSX deployments:

    • Baremetal Edge Management and support for Mellonox NICs

    • NVDS to VDS Migration

    • NSX-V to NSX-T Migration

    • EVPN Route-Server mode

For more information, see the VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2.2 Release Notes.

Multi-Tenancy Management, UI, and Networking Enhancements

VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 introduces the following key features and enhancements:

  • Support for UFI boot and secure boot: Allows you to create a new VM with either BIOS or EFI boot firmware.

  • Enhanced IP address management with IP name spaces: Provides a structured approach to allocate Public and Private IP addresses across Organizations with a focus on the Provider T0 Gateway. In addition, a tenant can use IP Name Spaces for private addressing for use on Org VDC networks.

  • Service accounts work across sites in a multi-site environment: A service account token that is granted access to a Cloud Director site also works in associated Cloud Director sites.

  • Improved database password security: Increased database password length. Starting with VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1, the minimum database password length is 14 characters.

  • APIs under accelerated deprecation: VMware Cloud Director API 37.1 (VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1) contains APIs that are under accelerated deprecation and will be removed in future releases. For more information, see the VMware Cloud Director API Programming Guide API 37.0.

Important:

  • VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 does not support vCenter Server 6.6 and ESXi 6.7.

  • In the mixed mode deployment scenarios where Telco Cloud Automation manages the Telco Cloud Infrastructure and Telco Cloud Platform deployments, VMware Cloud Director 10.4.x is not compatible with Telco Cloud Automation 2.2.

For more information about these features and enhancements, see the VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 Release Notes.

In addition, VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 also inherits features and enhancements from VMware Cloud Director 10.4:

  • Static routing for NSX-T Data Center edge gateways: Both service providers and tenants can manually modify the routing table for NSX-T edge gateways. Use static routing in the following cases:

    • if you want to use a route that is not included in the routing table of your NSX-T edge gateway

    • if you want to direct traffic through a service edge gateway and a service interface

    • if you do not use distributed routing

  • Fast cross vCenter Server vApp instantiation utilizing shared storage: Provides added flexibility for enabling fast instantiation of vApps from a catalog across multiple vCenter Server instances.

  • Enhanced trust management integration with vSphere: Enhances SSL connectivity to all vSphere infrastructure components.

  • Enhanced security hardening: Includes the VMware Cloud Director STIG Readiness Guide. Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) provide technical, standards-based hardening guidance for the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Officially published STIGs are mandatory in the DoD and fill a crucial role in systems accreditation as part of the Risk Management Framework (RMF). STIGs deal with various threats, vulnerabilities, and remediations:

    • Intrusion Avoidance

    • Intrusion Detection

    • Response and Recovery

    • Security Implementation Guidance

  • API Deprecation: VMware Cloud Director API versions 31.0 and 32.0 are not supported from VMware Cloud Director 10.4 onwards. VMware Cloud Director API versions 33.0, 34.0, 35.0, and 35.2 are deprecated and will not be supported starting from VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1.

For more information about these features and enhancements, see the VMware Cloud Director 10.4 Release Notes.

Workload Management, Storage, and Reliability Enhancements

VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3h includes new features and fixes for vCenter Server.

For more information, see the VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3h Release Notes.

VMware vSAN 7.0 Update 3 introduces the following key enhancements:

  • Simplified Operations: Supports easy vSAN cluster shutdown and restart, enhanced network monitoring and anomaly detection, vSAN health check correlation, and so on.

  • Platform Enhancements: Provides stretched cluster site and witness failure resiliency, nested fault domains for two-node deployments, I/O controller enhancements, and so on.

For more information, see the VMware vSAN 7.0 Update 3 Release Notes.

Components

Mandatory Add-On Components

Note: Additional license is required.

Optional Add-On Components

Note: Additional license is required.

End of General Support Guidance

VMware Product Lifecycle Matrix outlines the End of General Support (EoGS) dates for VMware products. Lifecycle planning is required to keep each component of the VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure solution in a supported state. Plan the component updates and upgrades according to the EoGS dates. To ensure that the component versions are supported, you may need to update the Telco Cloud Infrastructure solution to its latest maintenance release.

VMware pre-approval is required to use a product past its EoGS date. To discuss the extended support of products, contact your VMware representative.

VMware NSX-T Data Center 3.2.x: If you purchase NSX-T Data Center as part of the Telco Cloud bundles, NSX-T Data Center is entitled to the support lifecycle specific to the Telco Cloud bundles. The entitlement details for NSX-T Data Center 3.2.x are as follows:

  • General Availability: 2021-12-16

  • End of General Support: 2026-12-16

​The Technical Guidance phase is not available for this product lifecycle. To receive new severity 1 bug fixes and security updates, upgrade NSX-T Data Center to the latest maintenance release in the 3.2.x release series.

Resolved Issues

  • Unable to Merge Provider VDCs Backed by NSX-T Data Center

    When you merge two Provider Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) that are backed by NSX-T Data Center, the following error occurs:

    Cannot merge Provider VDCs. Found NSX-T backed Provider VDC

    This issue is resolved in VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1.

  • Same DHCPv6 Client DUID is Generated for all VMs Deployed Using VMware Cloud Director vApp Template

    The same DHCPv6 client DUID is generated for all the VMs that are deployed using the VMware Cloud Director vApp template.

    This issue is resolved in vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3h.

  • PSOD with Exception 14 Error Occurs on ESXi Hosts When Network I/O Control is Enabled

    When NSX-T prepared hosts are configured for N-VDS (E) and Network I/O Control is enabled, PSOD occurs on the ESXi host with the following error:

    error exception 14 in world 9444461

    This issue is resolved in ESXi 7.0 Update 3g.

Known Issues

  • Operation Failed Error Occurs While Changing the State of vROps Node to Offline or Online

    When you change the state of a vRealize Operations node to offline or online from the vROps 8.6.4 UI, the following error occurs:

    Operation failed. If the error persists, contact VMware support.

    Workaround: Close the error window in the vROps UI and refresh the browser. The nodes move to offline or online state successfully.

  • Unable to Retrieve Server Pool Details of the NSX-T Native Load Balancer After Adding NSX Advanced Load Balancer

    If you add NSX Advanced Load Balancer as an enforcement point, the status details of the native load balancer’s server pool are not retrieved. The operational status of the server pool in the NSX-T native load balancer appears blank, and the pool member details also do not appear in the NSX-T UI.

    Workaround: None

  • Permission Denied Error Occurs While Running Cell Management Tool Commands

    When you run a cell management tool command, the permission denied error occurs.

    Workaround: Change the permission of the cell-management-tool.log file manually by using the chmod command.

    Example: chmod 600 /opt/vmware/vcloud-director/logs/cell-management-tool.log

  • NSX-T VIBs Not Updated Automatically After Upgrading ESXi from 6.7 U3b to 7.0 U3g

    After upgrading ESXi from 6.7 U3b to 7.0 U3g, the ESXi hosts do not update NSX-T vSphere Installation Bundles (VIBs) automatically.

    Workaround: Do one of the following tasks:

  • New External Network Entry Created in VMware Cloud Director Edge Gateways Although the Entry Creation Task Fails

    When you create a new external network entry in the VMware Cloud Director Edge Gateway, the entry creation task fails with an error but the entry gets created.

    Solution: Ignore the error.

  • ESXi Cluster Upgrade Fails When One or More VMs are Connected to a Standard Switch

    When you upgrade an ESXi cluster with one or more VMs connected to a Standard Switch, Distributed Resource Scheduler cannot move those VMs to active ESXi hosts. Hence, the ESXi hosts containing those VMs cannot be moved into maintenance mode resulting in upgrade failure.

    Workaround: Before you proceed with the ESXi cluster upgrade, do one of the following tasks:

    • Manually move the VMs from the Standard Switch to a Distributed Switch.

    • Power OFF the VMs connected to the Standard Switch.

  • Network Creation Fails During the NSX-T Node Failover

    The creation of a new network fails in the VMware Cloud Director UI when the NSX-T node failover is in progress.

    Workaround: Wait until the NSX-T node failover completes and then create the network from the VMware Cloud Director UI.

  • DHCPV6 Relay Fails to Provide IPv6 addresses from the DHCPv6 Server

    In NSX-T Data Center, the DHCPV6 relay fails to provide IPv6 addresses from the DHCPv6 server.

    Workaround: Use other methods such as DHCPv6 server to dynamically assign IP addresses to VMs.

Support Resources

For additional support resources, see the VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure documentation page.

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