vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j |  AUG 20 2020 | ISO Build 16708996

vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 3j |  AUG 20 2020 | ISO Build 16708996

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

What's New

  • vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j adds support to SMTP authentication in the vCenter Server Appliance to enable sending alerts and alarms by email in secure mode. You can choose between anonymous and authenticated way of sending email alerts. To configure SMTP authentication, you must first complete the steps described in Configure Mail Sender Settings. 
    The mail server name must be smtp.office365.com unless you have some customized configuration. The mail sender name should be the same as the mail.smtp.username property of the smtp user settings.
    To configure the smtp user settings, you must navigate to Advance Settings and set the properties mail.smtp.username to a valid SMTP account name, mail.smtp.password to a valid SMTP account password, and mail.smtp.port to 587.

  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j, you receive a weekly notification when the vCenter Single Sign-On Security Token Service (STS) signing certificate is close to expiration. Notifications start 90 days before the STS certificate expires and turn into daily over the last week before expiration.

  • With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j, you can hard stop a virtual machine by using the Managed Object Browser. Use method=terminate after navigating to the virtual machine you need to stop, for example https://10.100.200.300/mob/?moid=vm-518&method=terminate. You can verify the operation from the Recent Tasks pane and from Tasks and events under VMs > Monitor.

  • For Photon OS updates, see VMware vCenter Server Appliance Photon OS Security Patches. 

Earlier Releases of vCenter Server 6.7

Features and known issues of vCenter Server are described in the release notes for each release. Release notes for earlier releases of vCenter Server 6.7 are:

For internationalization, compatibility, installation and upgrade, open source components and product support notices see the VMware vCenter Sever 6.7 Update 1 Release Notes.

Upgrade Notes for This Release

For more information on vCenter Server versions that support upgrade to vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j, refer to VMware knowledge base article 67077.

Product Support Notices

With vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j, you cannot access the API Explorer to browse and invoke vSphere REST APIs by using the URL pattern https://[VC-HOSTNAME-OR-IP]/apiexplorer/. Instead, you must use the vSphere Client Developer Center. For more information, see Retrieve APIs Using API Explorer.

Patches Contained in This Release

This release of vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j delivers the following patch. See the VMware Patch Download Center for more information on downloading patches.

NOTE: vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j does not provide a security patch to update the JRE component of vCenter Server for Windows and Platform Services Controller for Windows. Instead, you must download the VMware-VIM-all-6.7.0-16708996.iso file from vmware.com.

Full Patch for VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7 Update 3j

Product Patch for vCenter Server Appliance containing VMware software fixes, security fixes, and third-party product fixes (for example, JRE and tcServer).

This patch is applicable to the vCenter Server Appliance and Platform Services Controller Appliance.

For vCenter Server and Platform Services Controller Appliances

Download Filename VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.45000-16708996-patch-FP.iso
Build 16708996
Download Size 2010.3 MB
md5sum 6633dc07ff053e51063c51365ffcf34b
sha1checksum 3e5a192cdfca93800207262d74f9f8fefe898d2a

Download and Installation

You can download this patch by going to the VMware Patch Download Center and selecting VC from the Select a Product drop-down menu.

  1. Attach the VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-6.7.0.45000-16708996-patch-FP.iso file to the vCenter Server Appliance CD or DVD drive.
  2. Log in to the appliance shell as a user with super administrative privileges (for example, root) and run the following commands:
    • To stage the ISO:
      software-packages stage --iso
    • To see the staged content:
      software-packages list --staged
    • To install the staged rpms:
      software-packages install --staged

For more information on using the vCenter Server Appliance shells, see VMware knowledge base article 2100508.

For more information on patching the vCenter Server Appliance, see Patching the vCenter Server Appliance.

For more information on staging patches, see Stage Patches to vCenter Server Appliance.

For more information on installing patches, see Install vCenter Server Appliance Patches.

For issues resolved in this patch see Resolved Issues.

For Photon OS updates, see VMware vCenter Server Appliance Photon OS Security Patches. 

For more information on patching using the Appliance Management Interface, see Patching the vCenter Server Appliance by Using the Appliance Management Interface.

Resolved Issues

The resolved issues are grouped as follows.

Virtual Machine Management Issues
  • VMDK files are missing from a folder that is shared by multiple virtual machines

    Some external solutions require to store VMDK files that belong to different virtual machines into a single directory or shared folder. However, if a reconfigure operation of one of the many virtual machines fails, the VMDK files of other virtual machines might be deleted during the recovery of the failed operation.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Registration of a virtual machine template fails the vpxd service and the vCenter Server system becomes unresponsive

    If you try to register a virtual machine template with an invalid or inaccessible virtual machine template executable file, the vpxd service fails and the vCenter Server system becomes unresponsive.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix prevents the vpxd service from failing if you pass an invalid virtual machine template but does not prevent you from adding an invalid template to the vCenter Server inventory. 

  • vCenter Server does not report compatible datastores when one datastore is mounted on multiple datacenters

    If you have ESXi hosts across different datacenters that use the same VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes datastore, you do not see compatible datastores when you run the Get-SpbmCompatibleStorage PowerCLI command or use the storage policy editor in the vSphere Client.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Metrics for clone and deploy operations with virtual machines stay at 0

    In some cases, the metrics Number of virtual machine clone operations and Number of virtual machine template deploy operations stay at 0, despite successfully completed operations, due to an issue with the counter logic.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • You see an unnecessary error message during NFC file send operations

    The error message [NFC ERROR] NfcSendFile: Failed to get sidecar paths: NFC_SUCCESS is logged during NFC file send operations. This is a cosmetic issue and has no functional impact.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Security Issues
  • Update to jQuery

    The jQuery version is updated to jquery-3.0.0 to resolve security issues with identifiers CVE-2012-6708, CVE-2015-9251 and CVE-2016-7103.

  • Update to AngularJS

    AngularJS is updated to version angular-1.5.0 to resolve a known security issue.

  • Update to JRE

    Oracle (Sun) JRE is updated to version 1.8.0.251.

  • Update to the Apache Tomcat server

    The Apache Tomcat server is updated to versions 8.5.56/7.0.105.

  • Update of the Jackson package

    The Jackson package is updated to versions 2.10.4/2.11.1

  • Update to the dom4j library

    The dom4j library is updated to version 2.1.3.

  • Update to the SQLite database

    The SQLite database is updated to version 3.32.3.

  • Update to OpenSSL library

    The OpenSSL library is updated to version openssl-1.0.2v.

  • Upgrade of Eclipse Jetty

    Eclipse Jetty is upgraded to version 9.4.30.v20200611.

  • Update to the Spring Framework

    The Spring Framework is updated to version 4.3.27.

Backup Issues
  • ESXi host disconnects from the vCenter Server system due to a failure of the vpxa service during a backup operation

    When backing up certain disks of a virtual machine, the management agent on ESXi, vpxa, might fail with a core dump due to an unhandled error condition. As a result, the ESXi host disconnects from the vCenter Server system and any backup in progress fails.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • In vCenter Server systems with large inventory and stats data, backups might time out after 72000 seconds

    A deadlock in the child threads during a backup of vCenter Server systems with large inventory and stats data might cause a failure of the backup operation. In the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client, you see a message such as ERROR: Timeout! Failed to complete in 72000 seconds.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • If you use all caps for the NFS and SMB protocols when you create a backup with a retention policy, the policy might not work

    If you use all caps for the NFS and SMB protocols when you create a scheduled file-based backup with a retention policy, old backups might not be removed as per the policy.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Networking Issues
  • After a restart or upgrade of the vpxd service, you cannot see IP addresses in the Summary tab of virtual machines

    After a restart or upgrade of the vpxd service, you cannot see IP addresses of virtual machines in the Summary tab in the vSphere Web Client and the vSphere Client.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Storage Issues
  • You see excessive vim.fault.NotFound exceptions from the CatalogSyncManager in the vpxd logs

    If a datastore does not have a catalog directory, the queryCatalogChange method throws a notFound error. The number of such exceptions in the vpxd logs might be excessive, although the error does not indicate an actual problem. You see logs such as:

    067f1]52896559-13f7-3b39-8a59-ab2cb6e09425 -- CatalogSyncManager -- vim.vslm.vcenter.CatalogSyncManager.queryCatalogChange: vim.fault.NotFound:
     Result:
     (vim.fault.NotFound) {
        faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
        faultMessage = <unset>
        msg = "The object or item referred to could not be found."
     }
     Args:

     Arg catalogChangeSpec:
     (vim.vslm.CatalogChangeSpec) {
        datastore = 'vim.Datastore:ds:///vmfs/volumes/5d81151e-b431af81-c9ba-02004882d5ca/',
        startVClockTime = (vim.vslm.VClockInfo) {
           vClockTime = 1
        },
        fullSync = false
     }

       

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix changes the exception type to an internal error code to reduce the log footprint. You must upgrade to both vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j and ESXi670-202008001 to enable the fix. 

  • If you increase the storage provisioning of a datastore, in the vCloud Director Web Console, the total size for the datastore might not change

    If you increase the storage provisioning of a datastore, in the vCloud Director Web Console, the total size for the datastore might not change. You might even see negative used and provisioned amounts in the Storage Policies tab. The vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client display the correct updated size of the datastore, but the vCloud Director Web Console does not update.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

vSphere HA and Fault Tolerance Issues
  • An ESXi host unexpectedly goes into maintenance mode due to a hardware issue reported by Proactive HA

    If you configure a filter on your vCenter Server system by using the Proactive HA feature to bypass certain health updates, such as to block failure conditions, the filter might not take effect after a restart of the vpxd service. As a result, an ESXi host might unexpectedly go into maintenance mode due to a hardware issue reported by Proactive HA.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server, vSphere Web Client and vSphere Client Issues
  • Attempts to change the Primary Network Identifier (PNID) of a vCenter Server system fail with an error that the SSO username does not have administrator privilege

    If you attempt to change the PNID of a vCenter Server system by using the virtual appliance management interface, the operation fails with a message such as The SSO username does not have administrator privilege at the last step of the procedure.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • An ESXi host fails to reconnect to a cluster with Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) enabled after disconnecting from the cluster

    An ESXi host fails to reconnect to a cluster with Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) enabled after disconnecting from the cluster, because the EVC compatibility test fails as the ESXi configuration is not available for a disconnected host.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix attempts to fetch the ESXi configuration regardless of the ESXi host connection state in the vCenter Server system.

  • vSphere Web Client times out and you cannot log in to your vCenter Server systems in Enhanced Linked Mode

    The vpxd service might become unresponsive due to concurrent calls of the API method UpdateCounterLevelMapping from the PerformanceManager object. As a result, vSphere Web Client times out and you cannot log in to your vCenter Server system in Enhanced Linked Mode.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • In the vSphere Client, you can place an ESXi host in maintenance mode before the Confirm Maintenance Mode dialog box fully loads

    In the vSphere Client, the Confirm Maintenance Mode dialog box initially loads by displaying an OK button. If you click that button before the screen fully loads, you can place the ESXi host in maintenance mode with some parameters for workload migration undefined. In such a case, you must go out of maintenance mode, enter the correct parameters, for example placing powered-off virtual machines to another host, and then again place the host in maintenance mode.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix disables the OK button before the Confirm Maintenance Mode dialog box fully loads. The fix also prevents the Move powered-off and suspended virtual machines to other hosts in the cluster check box to be selected by default. Once the screen fully loads, you can deselect the check box.

Install and Upgrade Issues
  • Domain repoint operations fail due to a tagging error

    If the usedBy field in tags and categories on the source vCenter Server machine is not blank, domain repoint operations might fail. The issue occurs due to a casting exception in the tagging data import. In the domain_data_export.log file, you see an error such as:

    Failed to import Tagging Data. java.util.ArrayList cannot be cast to java.lang.String.

    This issue is resolved in this release. 

CLI Issues
  • PowerCLI Invoke-VMScript cmdlet fails due to a mismatch in the SSL certificate FQDN

    If you add an ESXi host to a vCenter Server system by using an FQDN, download and install VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) root certificate on a PowerCLI client machine, as described in VMware knowledge base article 2108294, and modify the PowerCLI configuration by using the setting Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -Scope Session -InvalidCertificateAction Prompt, the Invoke-VMScript cmdlet fails to run scripts in a guest OS due to a mismatch in the SSL certificate FQDN.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix returns a URL with the ESXi host name if available, instead of a host IP, in the vCenter Server for uploading and downloading files on a guest OS.

Miscellaneous Issues
  • You receive blank emails for certain vCenter Server alarms

    vCenter Server sends email notifications with a body of up to 998 characters, defined by the MAIL_MAX_LINE_LENGTH parameter. Any email message that exceeds this parameter is not populated and the email body is empty.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Known Issues

The known issues are grouped as follows.

Install and Upgrade Issues
  • If you overwrite the etc/issue file, vCenter Server Appliance upgrade by using the Virtual Appliance Management Infrastructure user interface fails

    If you overwrite the etc/issue file, for example to create a Custom Login Banner, vCenter Server Appliance upgrade by using the Virtual Appliance Management Infrastructure user interface fails. You see an error in the interface such as: Got exception while trying to save metadata to a file: Unexpected content in /etc/issue file.

    Workaround: Use the software-packages install command or restore the contents of the /etc/issue file before an upgrade by using the Virtual Appliance Management Infrastructure user interface.

Virtual Machine Management Issues
  • NEW: You cannot deploy virtual machines by using a VM template after an upgrade to vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3j

    After an upgrade to vCenter Server Update 3j, you cannot deploy virtual machines by using the Guest OS customization option and a VM template with computer name longer than 15 characters. The issue only occurs if the computer name of the VM template exceeds 15 characters.

    Workaround: Make sure the the computer name of the VM template has less than 15 characters. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 81832.

Known Issues from Prior Releases

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

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