VMware vSphere+ Release Notes

What's New December 18, 2023

Manage ESXi cluster configurations (Technical Preview for all vCenter versions)

• You can now standardize the configurations of all your ESXi hosts by defining cluster profiles with the desired configurations and assigning the profile to all the relevant clusters across your vSphere+ environment.

• You can create a profile for the entire ESXi cluster by referencing a single host within a cluster to ensure consistent configuration.

• You can also schedule compliance checks for the entire cluster and view any configuration drifts at the host level.

This is a technical preview only feature. It is now available for all vCenter versions. The versions restrictions from earlier are no longer applicable.

What's New December 14, 2023

Update vCenter instances that are not self-managed

• You can now update vCenter instances that are not self-managed, from the VMware Cloud Console.

• Ensure that the management vCenter manages its own VM, and the vCenter version is 8.0 Update 2 or later.

See Enable Updates for Your vCenter.

What's New December 11, 2023

Enhanced RBAC

• Support for VMwareID

  • You can now use your VMware Cloud account to log into both VMware Cloud and the vCenter. Simply add the VMware Cloud account to the VMwareID domain in the vCenter, and provide the vCenter roles and permissions to the VMware Cloud user.

  • Ensure that the vCenter version is 8.0 Update 2 and later.

  See Add VMware Cloud Users to VMwareID Domain.

• Support for Okta and Azure AD

  • You can federate Okta and Azure AD identity providers with your VMware Cloud Organization.

  • For Azure AD federation, ensure that the vCenter version is 8.0 Update 2 and later.

  See Federate Your Identity Provider.

• New roles for access control

  vSphere+ now includes Subscription Administrator, DevOps User, and Viewer roles to help you provide or restrict permissions according to the level of access users need in vSphere+.

  See Manage vSphere+ Users and Roles.

What's New December 5, 2023

vCenter versions summary

• vSphere+ now provides an overview of the software version running on all the vCenter instances.

• You can easily identify the vCenter instances that require an update, and accordingly plan for updates.

• To view the software versions, go to Operations > Software Versions.

What's New December 1, 2023

Enhanced inventory view

Gateways that have been disconnected for more than 30 days are automatically removed from the vSphere+ inventory.

Manage ESXi cluster configurations (Technical Preview for vCenter Versions 7.0.x only)

• You can now standardize the configurations of all your ESXi hosts by defining cluster profiles with the desired configurations and assigning the profile to all the relevant clusters across your vSphere+ environment.

• You can create a profile for the entire ESXi cluster by referencing a single host within a cluster to ensure consistent configuration.

• You can also schedule compliance checks for the entire cluster and view any configuration drifts at the host level.

This is a technical preview only feature and is available for limited vCenter versions (7.0.x only). It is not yet available for vCenter versions 8.0.x.

Known Issue

• Checking compliance for more than four clusters simultaneously might fail.

  Workaround: Ensure that you select less than four clusters when checking compliance.

What's New June 12, 2023

Update vCenter in High Availability Mode

You can now update vCenter instances configured in high availability mode from the VMware Cloud Console. See Enable Updates for Your vCenter Server.

What's New May 16, 2023

View subscription usage for each vSphere+ and vSAN+ edition

Subscription Usage now shows usage information on each edition of vSphere+ and vSAN+.

What's New May 4, 2023

View vCenter Cloud Gateway Summary

You can view the complete list of registered gateways and vCenter servers in VMware Cloud Console > Inventory > Gateway.

What's New April 20, 2023

Lifecycle Management is now available during free trial

You can now enable Lifecycle Management and upgrade your vCenter instances while on free-trial. To enable updates for vCenter, see Enable Updates for Your vCenter Server.

What's New March 29, 2023

View vCenter update history

You can now view a detailed history of all the vCenter updates performed from the VMware Cloud Console > Maintenance page.

• Known Issues

Known Issues

• vCenter update precheck fails on vCenter instances configured with Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM)

  On vCenter instances configured with ELM, if there was an upgrade failure with a successful roll back, the next precheck fails with the error "The vCenter Server does not meet the requirements"

  Workaround: Complete the steps provided in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/71391.

• vCenter upgrade fails if the SSHD service is masked

  If the sshd service is masked, vCenter upgrade fails and the upgrade is reverted.

  Workaround: Unmask the sshd service in the vCenter, and then upgrade the vCenter.

• Cannot upgrade the vCenter to 8.0 Update 1 if the source vCenter is configured with NFS mounts

  If the NFS mount is attached to vCenter, upgrade to 8.0 Update 1 fails and the upgrade is reverted.

  Workaround: Unmount the NFS, and then upgrade the vCenter.

What's New March 23, 2023

Desired State Configuration Dashboard

You can get a bird’s-eye view into the compliance state of the vCenter Server instances and the associated profiles on the Desired State Configuration > Overview page. You can quickly discover the top 5 noncompliant vCenters Server instances and profiles, navigate to the vCenter Server Compliance page where you can use the side-by-side code comparison view to drill down further and analyze the drifts. See View the Desired State Compliance Summary.

Updated Profile Settings View

You can now easily interact with large complex JSON profiles as code. The Profile Settings view now includes an index that helps you to easily search, copy a part or whole profile, download a profile, and navigate to a section of the profile.

What's New March 9, 2023

Monitor Supervisors

After you subscribe your vCenter Server to vSphere+, you can monitor all the Supervisors in your vSphere+ environment from the VMware Cloud Console. You can view details such as the vSphere Namespaces, configuration status, and Kubernetes endpoint of each Supervisor without logging in to the vSphere Client. To monitor Supervisors, log in to the VMware Cloud Console > Inventory > select a vCenter Server > Supervisors. See Monitor Supervisors.

What's New February 7, 2023

Capacity monitoring powered by VMware vRealize Operations™

• You can now monitor the capacity usage of all the clusters associated with vCenter Server instances connected to vCenter Cloud Gateway.

• You can monitor and analyze details such as hosts, cores, VMs, time remaining, and capacity remaining on each cluster.

• To monitor capacity, log in to  https://vmc.vmware.com > Infrastructure Operations > Capacity.

Power on and power off VMs from the VMware Cloud Console

You can now power on and power off VMs from the VMware Cloud Console > Virtual Machines page. For other power operations, use the vSphere Client.

What's New December 20, 2022

You can now subscribe vCenter Server High Availability (vCenter HA) to vSphere+

You can now subscribe vCenter HA instance to vCenter Cloud Gateway and also susbcribe these vCenter HA instance to vSphere+.

What's New November 29, 2022

Email notifications when subscription usage exceeds committed capacity

Whenever the current subscription usage exceeds the subscription capacity you purchased, VMware Cloud Services sends an email notification with a detailed usage summary to all Organization Owners. Organization Owners can modify the notification settings from the Organization > Details page in the VMware Cloud Services Console.

What's New November 9, 2022

vSphere+ subscription now includes VMware Tanzu^® Mission Control™ Essentials

You can now set up a centralized hub for your DevOps teams to manage multi-cloud, multi-cluster Kubernetes platform. When you apply the vSphere+ subscription, the Tanzu Mission Control Essentials service gets activated automatically.

What's New November 1, 2022

You can now subscribe vCenter Server instances in Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) to vSphere+

• If you are connecting your vCenter Server instances to vCenter Cloud Gateway for the first time, you can use both ELM and non-ELM vCenter Server instances.

• You can now connect upto 8 vCenter Server instances to a single vCenter Cloud Gateway instance.

Known Issue

• Cannot connect ELM vCenter Server instances to the existing vCenter Cloud Gateway instance

  Issue: If you have already connected non-ELM vCenter Server instances to an existing vCenter Cloud Gateway, you cannot connect ELM vCenter Server instances to the same vCenter Cloud Gateway.

  Workaround: Download and install the latest version of vCenter Cloud Gateway. Connect the ELM vCenter Server instances to the latest vCenter Cloud Gateway.

What's New October 17, 2022

You can now use vSAN License Keys in vSphere+

• You can either use vSAN license keys or vSAN+ subscription for all the vSAN clusters in your vSphere+ environment.

• Do not use a combination of vSAN+ subscription and vSAN license keys. Combining vSAN+ subscriptions and vSAN license keys in the same vSphere+ environment or same VMware Cloud customer Organization will result in all vSAN cores being metered against your vSAN+ Subscription. 

• If the metered usage exceeds the subscription capacity, you will be out of compliance with your vSAN+ subscription.

Known Issue

• Incorrect core consumption displayed in the Licenses and Subscription UI

  When using vSAN+ in 2-node or vSAN stretched cluster environments that deploy the vSAN Witness Appliance, the vSphere+ metering service incorrectly adds 32 cores to the total number of utilized vSphere+ cores for each Witness appliance instance due to the embedded 2 CPU virtual hardware in each appliance.

  Workaround: Ignore any reported overage that is attributed solely to this issue. Even though the addition of these cores results in the total used cores exceeding the subscription capacity, you will not be charged for overage. 

What's New September 06, 2022

You can now use VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (DR) with vSphere+

You can now protect VMs and view the protection status directly from the VMware Cloud Console, if you have the VMware Cloud DR subscription. For advanced configurations, you can use the VMware Cloud DR dashboard.

vCenter Cloud Gateway Enhancement

You can now resume or reset the registration of vCenter Cloud Gateway to the cloud when troubleshooting issues during the registration process.

Known Issue

Issue: If proxy is enabled in vCenter Cloud Gateway, prechecks fail when registering vCenter Cloud Gateway to the cloud.

Workaround: Follow the steps provided in https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/89161.

What's New July 28, 2022

Free Trial of vSphere+ is now available

• VMware offers a 15-day free trial of vSphere+. During the free trial, you can explore all the vSphere+ capabilities except upgrading the vCenter Server from the VMC Console.

• To start the free trial, go to https://vmc.vmware.com > Log out > vSphere+ > Learn More > Try vSphere+ For Free.

What's New July 12, 2022

vSphere Advantage is now vSphere+. vSphere+ is generally available, with newly added features:

• VMware vSAN+® subscription and SaaS services are available with vSphere+

  • You can now purchase vSAN+ subscriptions and use your existing vSAN clusters with vSphere+. You can use your existing vSAN licenses to purchase subscriptions.

  • After you purchase a vSAN+ subscription, you can view and monitor the vSAN clusters from the VMware Cloud Console.

  • vSphere+ supports vSAN clusters only with a vSAN+ subscription. vSAN clusters that use licenses are not supported with vSphere+. So, subscribe to vSAN+ now!

• Manage the Desired State Configurations of your vCenter Servers

  • Create profiles to define the desired state/golden standard for your vCenter Server instances.

  • Check Compliance of multiple vCenter Server instances and identify drifts within minutes.

  • Schedule routine checks to ensure your vCenter Server instances stay compliant.

• vSphere+ now includes VMware Tanzu Standard Runtime Edition in the subscription

  You can now transform your existing virtual infrastructure into an enterprise-ready, self-service Kubernetes platform.

What's New June 27, 2022

Compatibility with VMware Site Recovery Manager, VMware vSAN, and VMware NSX

• You can now use Site Recovery Manager, vSAN (subscription), and NSX with vCenter Server instances subscribed to vSphere Advantage.

• You can manage Site Recovery Manager license keys in the Administration > Licensing section of the vSphere Client and through the vCenter Server licensing APIs.

What's New June 8, 2022

Download Software Updates from the VMware Cloud Services console

You can now download the latest supported versions of vCenter Server and ESXi directly from the VMware Cloud Services console.

What's New May 25, 2022

Update your vCenter Server in a single click

• An easy-to-use interface to update your vCenter Server instances in a single click

• Conveniently check prerequisites in advance to prepare your vCenter Server for the update

• Automatic rollback and restore of vCenter Server instances without any manual intervention in case of an upgrade failure

• Faster troubleshooting of update issues by automatic log sharing with VMware Support

Known Issues

• Prerequisite checks for the vCenter Server upgrades fail if the network details are edited several times

  When you edit the network details, a new virtual ethernet card is attached to the vCenter Server, which may hit the maximum supported count after several edits.

  Workaround: Delete the older, unused virtual ethernet cards on the vCenter Server VM and click Check Prerequisites.

What's New May 12, 2022

Create VMs using templates

vSphere Advantage now provides the capability to create VMs by using pre-defined local templates, allowing you to scale your VM creation.

What's New December 16, 2021

VMware is pleased to offer VMware vSphere® Advantage™ services in limited regions. With vSphere Advantage, you can:

• Transition to subscription-based consumption for your vSphere deployments

  • Purchase vSphere though a subscription license. Pay based on your usage with flexible subscription options.

  • Eliminate license key management through keyless entitlement

  • Rely on a core-based licensing meter instead of socket-based licensing

• Centrally operate your entire vSphere real estate

  • Securely connect your on-premises vCenter Server instances to VMware Cloud via vCenter Cloud Gateway. This requires only outbound 443 (Https). You don't need to set up VPN and you can use regular network connection inbound to your vCenter Server instances.

  • View the on-premises vSphere inventory for your distributed deployments through a single pane of glass. Monitor your security posture and alerts through a central console.

  • Create and manage VMs for your distributed deployments through a central console

• Streamline vSphere infrastructure maintenance

  • Avoid time-intensive vCenter Server upgrading and patching. With vSphere Advantage, VMware manages your vCenter Server upgrades and patches for you.

Known Issues

• Change in vCenter Server certificates after registration with gateway leads to services failures

  When vCenter Server certificates are updated after vCenter Server has been registered with vCenter Cloud Gateway, the services do not pick up the latest certificates. These certificates are not yet trusted, which results in a failure of vSphere Advantage activities.

  For system security, the vCenter Server certificates must always be in a trusted state even after you update them. The initial certificates are validated though Trust on First Use (TOFU) when you register the vCenter Server instance and marked as trusted But, this mechanism does not process certificate updates so any updated vCenter Server certificates will appear to be untrusted. As a result, the gateway does not receive them and activities start to fail.

  Workaround: None

• Network proxy configuration changes you make on the gateway do not appear for the services

  When you change the network proxy configuration on the gateway, the services do not refresh to the latest proxy configuration, leading to failure during gateway registration.

  You add network proxy settings in the gateway using vCenter Server Management Interface (VAMI). The services in the gateway are aware of any proxy configuration you add. If you later change the proxy configuration, the services might not pick up the latest configuration, resulting in connectivity issues with VMware Cloud and a subsequent gateway registration failure.

  Workaround: To refresh stale proxy configurations in the services, reboot the gateway after any change you make to the proxy configuration for the gateway.