vSphere Update Manager 6.7 Update 1 for Windows OS | 16 OCT 2018 | Build  10164201

vCenter Server 6.7 Update 1 | 16 OCT 2018 | Build 10244745

vSphere Update Manager service in vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 1 | 16 OCT 2018 | Build 10244745

Check for additions and updates to these release notes

What's in the Release Notes

These release notes cover the following topics:

The Update Manager release notes provide information about VMware vSphere Update Manager, an optional module for VMware vCenter Server. For more information about VMware vSphere Update Manager, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation.

What's New

  • Updating firmware: You can use vSphere Update Manager to upgrade the firmware of the servers that run your vSAN clusters.
  • Dropped database requirement for UMDS: Installing and setting up a database is no longer a requirement for using UMDS and the UMDS installation procedure is simplified. For more information, see the vSphere Update Manager Installation and Administration Guide.
  • Updated versions of the following open source components that are embedded in Update Manager 6.7 Update 1:
    • The ESXi userworld libxml2 library is updated to version 2.9.8.
    • Curl version is updated to 7.59.0.
    • The Oracle (Sun) JRE package is updated to version 1.8u181.
    • Eclipse Jetty is upgraded to 9.4.10.v20180503.

Product Support Notices

  • Virtual appliances upgrade with Update Manager is deprecated: Upgrade and patch operations of virtual appliances is deprecated in Update Manager 6.7 release.

Update Manager Functionality Differences Between vSphere Client and vSphere Web Client

Note: Using Update Manager functionality in the vSphere Client (HTML5-based GUI) is only supported for Update Manager that runs in the vCenter Server Appliance.

Supported vSphere Update Manager features

6.7.0
vSphere Web Client

6.7.0
vSphere Client

6.7.1
vSphere Client

Update Manager Home -> Compliance statistics

NO

YES

YES

Update Manager Home ->  Monitor Tab -> Events and Notifications

YES

NO

PARTIAL (Filter manually
for Update Manager events)

Update Manager Home -> Baselines Tab

YES

YES

YES

Duplicate baselines and baseline groups

NO

YES

YES

Update Manager Home -> Updates Tab

YES

YES

YES

Filter updates by baseline

NO

NO

YES

Import patches from a URL

NO

YES

YES

Upload patches with a single step

NO

YES

YES

Update Manager Home ->  ESXi Images Tab

YES

YES

YES

Import ESXi images from a URL

NO

YES

YES

Upload ESXi images with a single step

NO

YES

YES

View ESXi image contents

YES

NO

NO

Update Manager Home -> Settings Tab -> Remediation settings

NO

NO

PARTIAL 1

vCenter object -> Updates Tab -> Host / Cluster Compliance

YES

YES

YES

Quick Boot support

YES

NO

YES

Upgrade firmware for vSAN clusters

NO

NO

YES

Display installed patches on the host

NO

YES

YES

Automatic pre-check on remediation

NO

NO

YES

Remediate with a single step

NO

YES

YES

Invoke Create Baseline process from the Attach Baseline dialog

YES

NO

NO

Scheduled remediation

YES

NO

PARTIAL (Fewer
recurrence options) 

Change remediation settings

YES

NO

PARTIAL 2

Select settings for current host remediation task only

YES

NO

NO

Remediate hosts/clusters simultaneously against multiple baselines or baseline groups

YES

NO

NO

Remediate hosts/clusters against selected patches of a baseline or a baseline group

YES

NO

NO

Scan and remediate buttons are located on the same page

YES

YES

NO

Status details for incompatible baselines YES NO NO

vCenter object -> Updates Tab -> VM Compliance

YES

NO

YES

Upgrade VMware Tools on reboot with a single click

NO

NO

YES

VM remediation with a single click

NO

NO

YES

VM baselines

YES

YES

NO 3

vCenter object -> Updates Tab -> Schedule a scan

YES

NO

PARTIAL (Fewer
recurrence options) 

vCenter object -> Monitor Tab -> Tasks & Events -> Edit a scheduled scan

YES

NO

NO

vCenter object -> Context menu actions

YES

NO

PARTIAL (Fewer
menu actions)

Export of grid contents (e.g. export baseline contents)

YES

NO

PARTIAL (No custom
item selection)

1 The following host/cluster remediation settings are not available from the Update Manager general settings:

  • Enable parallel remediation
  • Enable Quick Boot
  • Disable any removable media devices
  • Disable Distributed Power Management (DPM)
  • Disable High Availability Admission Control (HAC)
  • Disable Fault Tolerance (FT)

2 During remediation, Update Manager handles host/cluster settings as follows:

  • The options to enable parallel remediation, disable removable media devices, ignore warnings about unsupported hardware devices, ignore warnings for no longer supported VMFS datastores, are not active.
  • The options to enable Quick Boot, disable Distributed Power Management (DPM), disable High Availability Admission Control (HAC) and disable Fault Tolerance (FT), are active.

VM baselines are no longer in use. You can directly update VM Hardware and VM Tools versions of a VM.

 

Installation Notes

This section includes information about the installation of Update Manager and Update Manager Download Service, an optional module of vSphere Update Manager.

Update Manager

The Update Manager module consists of a server component and client components for the vSphere Client (an HTML5-based GUI) and the vSphere Web Client (a Flex-based GUI).

Update Manager Installation on a Windows Operating System

The Update Manager server 6.7 Update 1 for Windows is delivered as a 64-bit application and can be installed only on 64-bit Windows operating systems. Before you install Update Manager, you must install vCenter Server on Windows. The Update Manager server has the same requirements for a host OS like the vCenter Server. For database compatibility information, see the section Databases that Support Installation of the Update Manager Server.

Installation of VMware vSphere Update Manager requires network connectivity with an existing vCenter Server system.

The Update Manager server can be installed on the same Windows system as vCenter Server or on a different system. Each instance of vSphere Update Manager can be associated with a single vCenter Server instance.

During installation, you cannot connect the Update Manager server that runs on Windows to a vCenter Server Appliance.

Hardware Requirements for Installation of Update Manager on Windows System

Minimum hardware requirements for Update Manager vary depending on how Update Manager is deployed on a Windows operating system.

If the database is installed on the same machine as Update Manager, requirements for memory size and processor speed are higher. The minimum requirements to ensure acceptable performance are as follows:

  • Processor: Intel or AMD x86 processor with two or more logical cores, each with a speed of 2 GHz.

  • Network: 10/100 Mbps
    For best performance, use a Gigabit connection between Update Manager and ESXi hosts.
  • Memory:
    • 2 GB RAM if Update Manager and the vCenter Server are on different machines.
    • 8 GB RAM if Update Manager and the vCenter Server are on the same machine.

Update Manager Integration with the vCenter Server Appliance

Update Manager 6.7 Update 1 is integrated with the vCenter Server Appliance and is delivered as an optional service. Starting in vSphere 6.5, you can no longer connect Update Manager instance that is installed on a Windows Server machine with the vCenter Server Appliance.

To use the Update Manager server in the vCenter Server Appliance, start VMware vSphere Update Manager Extension service.

A deployment model of Update Manager with the vCenter Server Appliance uses PostgreSQL database. Update Manager and the vCenter Server Appliance share the same PostgreSQL database server but use separate PostgreSQL database instances.

Update Manager Client Interfaces

Update Manager has client components in both the vSphere Client (an HTML5-based GUI) and the vSphere Web Client (a Flex-based GUI).

The Update Manager client plug-ins for the vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client require no installation. However, you can use Update Manager capabilities in the vSphere Client only if you use the vCenter Server Appliance that delivers Update Manager as a service.

The Update Manager client component for the vSphere Client 6.7 Update 1 provides the full set of Update Manager capabilities that let you perform patch and version management for your vSphere inventory. Furthermore, performing tasks with Update Manager in the vSphere Client 6.7 Update 1 is simplified compared to the existing Update Manager functionality in the vSphere Web Client.

You can access the compliance view of Update Manager by selecting an object from the vSphere inventory and navigating to the Update Manager tab in the vSphere Web Client or the Updates tab in the vSphere Client.

Update Manager Download Service

vSphere Update Manager Download Service (UMDS) is an optional module of Update Manager that you can use to download patch definitions on a system that is separate from the Update Manager server. Use UMDS in case your Update Manager deployment system is secured and the machine on which the Update Manager server is installed has no access to the Internet.

You have two options for installation of UMDS. You can install UMDS on a 64-bit Windows operating systems. You must not install the UMDS on the same Windows machine where the Update Manager server is installed.
You can also install the UMDS on a Linux-based system. In vSphere 6.7 Update 1, an installer for UMDS 6.7 Update 1 is delivered with the ISO file of the vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 1. As a prerequisite to install the UMDS on Linux, you need a Linux server. Mount the ISO file of the vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 1 to the Linux server, and install and configure UMDS 6.7 Update 1.

To use UMDS, the download service must be of a version that is compatible with the Update Manager server. For more information about the compatibility between Update Manager and the UMDS, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation.

Installing UMDS 6.7 Update 1 in an Environment with Update Manager 6.7 Update 1 Instances Only

In the UMDS 6.7 Update 1 installation wizard, you can select the patch store to be an existing download directory from an earlier UMDS 6.5 or UMDS 6.0 installation and reuse the applicable downloaded updates in UMDS 6.7 Update 1. You should uninstall existing UMDS 6.0 or UMDS 5.5 instances before reusing the patch store. After you associate an existing download directory with UMDS 6.7 Update 1, you cannot use it with earlier UMDS versions.
If you install UMDS and associate it with an existing download directory, make sure that you perform at least one download by using UMDS 6.7 Update 1 before you export updates.

Installing UMDS 6.7 Update 1 in an Environment with both Update Manager 6.7 Update 1 and Update Manager 6.5 Instances

Do not install UMDS 6.7 Update 1 with an existing UMDS 6.5 download directory if your environment contains both Update Manager 6.7 and Update Manager 6.5 instances. In such a case, you need a UMDS 6.7 Update 1 and a UMDS 6.5 installations on two separate machines, so that you can export updates for each respective Update Manager versions.

Update Manager Utility

The Update Manager Utility allows you to change the database password and proxy authentication, re-register Update Manager with vCenter Server, and replace the SSL certificates for Update Manager. For more information about reconfiguring the Update Manager settings by using the utility, see the Reconfiguring VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation.

When you install Update Manager or UMDS, vSphere Update Manager Utility is silently installed on your system as an additional component.

Upgrade Notes

This release allows upgrades from Update Manager versions 6.5 and 6.0 and their respective Update releases that are installed on a 64-bit Windows operating system. Before you upgrade Update Manager, you must upgrade vCenter Server and the vSphere Web Client to a compatible version.
Direct upgrades from Update Manager earlier than version 5.5, or Update Manager systems that are installed on a 32-bit platform are not supported. You must use the data migration tool that is provided with Update Manager 5.0 installation media to move your Update Manager system from 32-bit operating system to Update Manager 5.0 on a 64-bit Windows operating system. After that perform an upgrade from version 5.0 or version 5.1 to version 5.5 before upgrading to version 6.7. For detailed information how to use the data migration tool, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager documentation for Update Manager 5.0.

Upgrade from UMDS 5.x, or UMDS 6.x to UMDS 6.7 Update 1 is not supported.

Migration Notes

VMware provides supported paths for migrating Update Manager from a Windows operating system to run in the vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 1.

Update Manager can be migrated to vCenter Server Appliance in the following vCenter Server deployment models:

  • vCenter Server and Update Manager run on the same Windows machine
  • vCenter Server and Update Manager run on different Windows machines
  • Update Manager runs on a Windows machine and is connected to a vCenter Server Appliance

For detailed information how to perform migration, see the Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager and the vSphere Upgrade documentation. 

Interoperability and Software Requirements

The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the compatibility of current and previous versions of VMware vSphere components, including ESXi, vCenter Server and optional VMware products. The compatibility for vCenter Server also apply to vSphere Update Manager server and the UMDS. The vSphere Update Manager, vSphere Web Client and vSphere Client are packaged with vCenter Server.

In addition, check this site for information about supported management and backup agents before installing ESXi or vCenter Server.

Operating Systems that Support Installation of the Update Manager Server and UMDS

To see a list of operating systems on which you can install the Update Manager server and the UMDS, see Supported host operating systems for VMware vCenter Server installation. The supported host operating systems for vCenter Server installation listed in the article also apply for installation of the respective versions of the Update Manager server and the UMDS.

Databases that Support Installation of the Update Manager Server and UMDS

The Solution/Database Interoperability option from the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides information about the databases that are compatible with vCenter Server. The database compatibility for vCenter Server also apply to vSphere Update Manager server and the UMDS.

Operations with vSphere Inventory Objects that Update Manager supports

  • Host patching of the following host version:
    • ESXi 6.0
    • ESXi 6.5
    • ESXi 6.7
  • Host upgrades from ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 6.5 and their respective update releases to ESXi 6.7 Update 1
  • Upgrades of VMware Tools and virtual hardware for virtual machines

Supported Operating Systems for Upgrade of VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware

Note: The following is the list of Operating Systems supported for Upgrade of VMware Tools and Virtual Hardware:
  • Windows Server 2016 Datacenter Edition 64-bit
  • Windows Server 10 Enterprise Edition 32-bit
  • Windows 8.1 Update 3 Enterprise Edition 32-bit
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Update 3 Datacenter Edition 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition 64-bit
  • Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise Edition 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Datacenter Edition 64-bit
  • Windows 10 RTM
  • Windows 8.1 Update 1 [Professional/Enterprise] 32-bit
  • Windows 8.1 Update 1 [Professional/Enterprise] 64-bit
  • Windows 8.1 [Professional/Enterprise] 32-bit
  • Windows 8.1 [Professional/Enterprise] 64-bit
  • Windows 8 [Professional/Enterprise] 32-bit
  • Windows 8 [Professional/Enterprise] 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Update 1 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2012 [Standard/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows 7 [Professional/Enterprise] 32-bit
  • Windows 7 [Professional/Enterprise] 64-bit
  • Windows 7 [Professional/Enterprise] 32-bit SP1
  • Windows 7 [Professional/Enterprise] 64-bit SP1
  • Windows Server 2008 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 32-bit
  • Windows Server 2008 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2008 SP2 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 32-bit
  • Windows Server 2008 SP2 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit
  • Windows XP Professional 32-bit (SP3 required)
  • Windows XP Professional 64-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 32-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows Vista [Business/Enterprise] 32-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows Vista [Business/Enterprise] 64-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows Server 2003 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 32-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows Server 2003 [Standard/Enterprise/Datacenter] 64-bit (SP2 required)
  • Windows 2000 [Professional/Server/Advanced Server/Datacenter Server] 32-bit
  • Windows 2000 [Professional/Server/Advanced Server/Datacenter Server] 64-bit
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2
  • CentOS 8 (64-bit)
  • CentOS 7.5
  • CentOS 6.10
  • CentOS 6.9
  • CentOS 6.5
  • CentOS 6
  • CentOS 5.10
  • CentOS 5
  • CentOS 4
  • Debian 9.5
  • Debian 8.1
  • Debian 8
  • Debian 6
  • Debian 5
  • Debian 4
  • Ubuntu non LTS 15.04
  • Ubuntu LTS 18.04.1
  • Ubuntu LTS 18.04
  • Ubuntu 17.x
  • Ubuntu LTS 16.04.5
  • Ubuntu LTS 16.04.4
  • Ubuntu 16.04
  • Ubuntu 14.04
  • Ubuntu 13.10
  • Ubuntu 11.x
  • Ubuntu 10.x
  • Ubuntu 9.x
  • Ubuntu 8.x
  • Ubuntu 7.x
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (64-bit)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 8 (64-bit)
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 7.5
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 7.0
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.10
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.7
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.5
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 6
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.1
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 5
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux 4
  • Oracle Enterprise Linux UEK3 Update 5
  • Asianux 4
  • Asianux 3
  • Asianux Server 8 (64-bit)
  • Linux 4.x Kernel
  • Linux 4.x Kernel (64-bit)

Note: Linux guest operating systems using Open VM Tools or Operating System Specific Packages are managed using distribution-specific package management tools, such as Yum or Apt. Update Manager does not support upgrading of VM Tools or Virtual Hardware version for such Linux virtual machines.

Resolved Issues

  • Pre-Check Remediation might display a status Unknown in big environments with objects consisting of more than 100 entities

    In big environments with more than 100 virtual machines running on a single host, or more than 100 hosts, or more than 100 clusters, the Pre-Check Remediation might display a status Unknown. This is due to a limit of 101 for the collective number of a selected entity and its sub-entities.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Host scan operation might fail with generic error message after migrating Update Manager that runs on Windows to vCenter Server Appliance 6.7

    If you migrate Update Manager server that runs on Windows to a vCenter Server Appliance 6.7, scan operations of hosts might fail with a generic error message.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Update Manager fails to download patches from UMDS

    After download and export of patches with the UMDS, the __hostupdate20-consolidated-metadata-index__.xml file permissions are set to 600. Therefore Update Manager might fail to download the patches from UMDS.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Host remediation might fail if the locker partition runs out of space

    During host remediation, the locker partition, where the system downloads the .iso file to upgrade the host, might reach its space limit and the transaction might fail. This impacts the host upgrade workflow and you might see an error for insufficient locker space.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • After an upgrade to vCenter Server 6.7 you might not be able to edit the proxy settings of the vSphere Update Manager by using the vSphere Web Client

    After an upgrade to vCenter Server 6.7, attempts to edit the proxy settings of the vSphere Update Manager by using the vSphere Web Client might fail with the message An internal error has occurred - Error #1009.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows.

Installing, Upgrading, and Migration
  • Attached baselines table does not indicate firmware updates

    In the Update Manager Web Client, the Status column in the Attached baselines table might display only the software compliance status of a selected object and not indicate required firmware updates.

    Workaround: To see firmware compliance status:

    • For hosts, select the baseline and look at the Firmware tab in the details table.
    • For clusters, select the baseline and look at the column Firmware in the details table.

Known Issues from Prior Releases

To view a list of previous known issues, click here.

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