VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3o | 28 SEP 2023 | ISO Build 22357613

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

NEW: This release resolves CVE-2023-34048 and CVE-2023-34056. For more information on these vulnerabilities and their impact on VMware products, see VMSA-2023-0023.

  • Migration of persistent container volumes between datastores in the vSphere Cloud Native Storage: Starting with vSphere 7.0 Update 3o, you can migrate persistent container volumes between datastores in the vSphere Cloud Native Storage by using the vSphere Client.

  • Activate retreat mode for vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) from the vSphere Client: With vSphere 7.0 Update 3o, you can activate retreat mode on a vCLS cluster by using the EDIT VCLS MODE button at Configure > vSphere Cluster Services > General.

  • For VMware vSphere with Tanzu updates, see VMware vSphere with Tanzu Release Notes.

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

Earlier Releases of vCenter Server 7.0

Features, resolved and known issues of vCenter Server are described in the release notes for each release. Release notes for earlier releases of vCenter Server 7.0 are:

For internationalization, compatibility, installation, upgrade, open source components and product support notices, see the VMware vSphere 7.0 Release Notes.

For more information on vCenter Server supported upgrade and migration paths, please refer to VMware knowledge base article 67077.

Patches Contained in This Release

Patch for VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 Update 3o

Product Patch for vCenter Server containing VMware software fixes, security fixes, and third-party product fixes.

This patch is applicable to vCenter Server.

Download Filename

VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-7.0.3.01700-22357613-patch-FP.iso

Build

22357613

Download Size

6718.0 MB

md5sum

6591318d7c1b10c16f52eb2553c880a0

sha256checksum

cb5e135aa14f0413f7e9f4d013c6fbcba5a65e12699fa2ba40565784b3dd72fb

Download and Installation

Download this patch from Broadcom Support Portal.

For download instructions for earlier releases, see Download Broadcom products and software.

  1. Attach the VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-7.0.3.01700-22357613-patch-FP.iso file to the vCenter Server 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 shells, see VMware knowledge base article 2100508.

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

Product Support Notices

Restoring Memory Snapshots of a VM with independent disk for virtual machine backups is not supported: You can take a memory snapshot of a virtual machine with an independent disk only to analyze the guest operating system behavior of a virtual machine. You cannot use such snapshots for virtual machine backups because restoring this type of snapshots is unsupported. You can convert a memory snapshot to a powered-off snapshot, which can be successfully restored.

Resolved Issues

Security Issues

  • This release resolves CVE-2023-34048 and CVE-2023-34056. For more information on these vulnerabilities and their impact on VMware products, see VMSA-2023-0023.

  • If an Internet proxy password contains certain reserved characters, some vSphere Lifecycle Management operations fail

    Certain reserved characters in an Internet proxy password, except alphanumeric and dashes, underscores, periods, and tildes, trigger URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, of the password string, which causes failure of some vSphere Lifecycle Management operations that require access to the Internet through a password-protected proxy. For example, when you click Select Actions > Sync HCL on the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view in the vSphere Client, you see the error Update HCL data - A general system error occurred even though a correct proxy server username and password are configured.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Multiple ESXi hosts intermittently lose connectivity but quickly reconnect

    If you have an invalid Key Management Server (KMS) configuration in your vCenter system, such as a stale testing instance, the vpxd service periodically tries to connect to that KMS to check its status, which leads to wrong file descriptors. As a result, ESXi hosts lose connectivity. Hosts disconnect one at a time but reconnected automatically after 1 second.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • The field organizationalUnitName is required for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates

    Starting from vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3o, if you use the vSphere Automation API, Certificate Manager utility, or Certificate management CLIs as an interface to manage vCenter Server Certificates, you can leave the organizationalUnitName field empty. The change does not affect existing workflows for certificate replacement or Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs). The vSphere Client and PowerCLI 12.4 still require data for the organizationalUnitName field.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Vulnerability scans might report the HTTP TRACE method on vCenter ports 9084 and 9087 as vulnerable

    Some third-party tools for vulnerability scans might report the HTTP TRACE method on vCenter ports 9084 and 9087 as vulnerable.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3o provides the following security updates:

    • Apache Tomcat is updated to version 8.5.89.

    • The Spring Framework is updated to version 5.3.27.

    • The Jackson package is updated to version 2.15.2.

    • The Commons Lang3 software library is updated to version 3.12.0.

    • The Commons-Collections4 software library is updated to version 4.4.

    • The Commons-Fileupload software library is updated to version 1.5.

    • Velocity-Engine-Core is updated to version 2.3.

    • The sqlite-jdbc is updated to version 3.42.0.0.

    • Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) is updated to version 3.22.3.

    • Jetty is updated to version 9.4.51.v20230217.

    • See the PhotonOS release notes for open source changes.

vSAN Issues

  • vCLS VMs are not powered on after vSAN cluster shutdown and restart

    During vSAN cluster shutdown, vSAN disables the cluster in ESX Agent Manager (EAM). When EAM service is restarted, it does not power-on the vCLS VMs.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Transient vSAN health check warning: Network configuration is out of sync

    vSAN Skyline health might randomly report that network configuration is out of sync. This transient issue occurs when the vSAN health service uses an outdated vCenter configuration to perform unicast check.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Virtual Machine Management

  • Migrating virtual machines between vCenter instances with Advanced Cross-vCenter vMotion might fail with "VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo required property deviceName not set"

    If the source and target vCenter instances, either on-prem or cloud, in an Advanced Cross-vCenter vMotion operation have matching networks with identical names for some of the network adapters, the operation might fail with an error such as VirtualEthernetCardNetworkBackingInfo required property deviceName not set. The issue does not affect standard cross-vCenter migration of VMs between linked vCenter instances.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • In the vSphere Client, some VM virtual hardware settings display in black on a dark background and you cannot clearly see their values

    In the vSphere Client, when you open Edit Settings > Virtual Hardware for a virtual machine and expand either the Memory or Hard disks sections, you see numbers displayed in black on a dark background and cannot clearly see the values.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Migrating multiple VMs between datacenters might fail to complete the Select a compute resource validation step

    In rare cases, when you migrate many VMs between datacenters, an issue with a property computation might result in failure to complete the validation on the Select a compute resource step and you might not be able to perform the migration.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • The parent resource pool or vApp might not be preserved when performing scheduled VM migration within the same cluster

    When you schedule a task to migrate VMs and the source and destination hosts are in the same cluster, the VMs might move out of the parent resource pool or vApp after the migration completes.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • In the vSphere Client, you cannot apply an encryption storage policy to a virtual machine

    If a key management server (KMS) cluster that enables virtual machine encryption tasks has connectivity issues, you cannot apply an encryption storage policy to a VM by using Edit VM Storage Policy or Edit VM Settings in the vSphere Client. You also see long loading times, due to the connectivity issue of the KMS cluster.

    This issue is partially resolved in this release. You can set an encryption storage policy to a virtual machine by using Edit VM Settings. However, you must fix the connectivity issue of the problematic KMS server or remove it from the key provider to make sure that encryption policies and the vSphere Client wizards work as expected.

  • In the vSphere Client, the Select all items option might not function properly after a live refresh of the data grid

    In the vSphere Client, when you add or modify an entity in a related object list, for example a list of VMs, the task triggers a self-refresh and a consecutive live refresh of the list. As the data grid gets updated twice, the Select all items option might not function properly.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • You cannot download .vmx files from a vCenter system

    If an ESXi host has encryption mode enabled, you cannot download .vmx files from this host even when individual VMs are not encrypted, unless you have Cryptographer.Access privilege on the vCenter system.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

vCenter Server and vSphere Client Issues

  • Special characters such as '%' in the vCenter folder names appear with escaped characters such as '%25'

    In some cases, you might see vCenter folder names that contain special characters such as '%' to display incorrectly in the vSphere Client because the special character is escaped. For example, a folder name My%Folder displays as My%25Folder.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • You see names of network adapters in the Virtual Hardware settings screen in the vSphere Client with "%2f" instead of "/"

    In the vSphere Client, when you navigate to a virtual machine > Edit Settings > Virtual Hardware, you see the names of network adapters with "%2f" instead of "/". For example, nw10.55.0.0/24 appears as nw10.55.0.0%2f24.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • If you delete the default Backup job failed or Backup job success alarms in vCenter, you cannot restore them

    The general alarms Backup job failed or Backup job success in vCenter are default alarms and if you delete them, you cannot add them back, because the backup default alerts are not available in the Add new alarm drop-down menu.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix adds Backup job failed and Backup job success alarms to the Add new alarm drop-down menu.

Installation and Upgrade Issues

  • You cannot migrate only the configuration and inventory of a vCenter by using the vCenter GUI installer

    When you perform a vCenter migration by using the GUI installer, if you select only the option Configuration and Inventory, you get data for the full list of options, including Tasks and Events, and Performance Metrics. The issue occurs, because regardless of the selection in the GUI installer, the selection in the backend is for all data.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • You see 'VMware directory error[9127]' in the backlog after vCenter upgrade to vCenter 7.x fails

    Due to a possible mismatch between the Common Name, cn, and the sAMAccountName LDAP attribute in a domain controller in your vCenter system, upgrades to vCenter 7.x might fail. In the /var/log/firstboot file, you see messages such as: INFO wcp-firstboot WCP storage user does not exists, create the user and VMware directory error[9127].

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Miscellaneous Issues

  • You see two SAN entries with the same hostname in a certificate signing request

    In rare cases, a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) might contain duplicate SAN entries. This issue has no functional impact and the CSR succeeds in creating a new certificate.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • The vCenter syslog service creates duplicated files into the directory /var/log/vmware/esx/HOSTNAME/

    After a change in the upstream configuration of the syslog service on your ESXi hosts, you might see duplicate stream files in the source system that pile up to consume extra space in vCenter.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • You see a logs for a duplicate vSphere HA entry after a restart of vSphere HA on an ESXi host

    When you use the vSphere Client to configure an advanced option for vSphere HA, if the entry contains a space, for example <unknownStateMonitorPeriod >, you might see a duplicate entry for the configured property after a restart of vSphere HA. In thefdm.log file on the host, you see an error such as:

    2022-12-05T20:55:58.592Z fdm[2104214]: Upgrade FDM configuration failed with error:Duplicate child: unknownStateMonitorPeriod.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Migration of ESXi 6.x VMs to 7.0 Update 2 and later fails with an error 'Module 'MonitorLoop' power on failed.'

    Migrating a 6.x virtual machine to an ESXi host of version 7.0 Update 2 or later by using vSphere vMotion might fail because the destination host requires larger VM overhead memory than the source host. In the backtrace, you see an error such as Module 'MonitorLoop' power on failed..

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix enhances the vSphere DRS advanced option NewDeltaAlloc.

  • You see some vsphere-ui logs not compressed after rotation

    Several vsphere-ui logs, such as catalina.log, localhost.log, manager.log, and host-manager.log, are not compressed after rotation and you might see lengthy lists of rotated files, if rotation is more frequent, for example daily.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • You see false vSphere Client alarms for certificate expiry with negative expiry dates even when you change the system date

    This issue occurs in very rare cases, when for some reason the date on your vCenter system is set to a distant future date, relative to which date vCenter certificates display as expired. As a result, you see certificate expiry alarms as expected, because alarms are not designed to consider cases when the vCenter system is set to a future date. vCenter alarms with negative expiry dates continue even after you change the system time to the correct date.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix makes sure you no longer see certificate expiry alarms after correcting the system date. Best practice is to avoid setting the date on your vCenter system to a distant future date.

  • VMware Service Lifecycle Manager (vmware-vmon) vMon closes threads of the vpxd service before it succeeds to produce a core dump in case of failure

    In rare cases, when a core dump operation takes long, the vmware-vmon service that monitors the health of vCenter services might close threads of the vpxd service before it succeeds to produce a core dump in case of failure. As a result, you cannot investigate the root cause of the vpxd failure.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • The vpxd service frequently fails with a dump during a virtual machine migration operation

    In rare cases, when the hostd service returns an empty virtual machine layout during a migration operation, the vpxd service might fail with a dump due to a missing null check for virtual machine layouts.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix adds a null check for VM layout to prevent vpxd failures.

  • After a vCenter upgrade, SNMP might return the base version instead of the upgraded vCenter version information

    After a vCenter upgrade, when you run a snmpwalk command to get the vCenter version information, the command might return the base version instead of the upgraded version information.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • Core files of the SNMP service fill up the /storage/core directory

    The internal buffer that holds the CPU information of a virtual file system in the file/proc/cpuinfo might not be correctly calculated and cause many core files of the SNMP service to generate and fill up the /storage/core directory.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix makes sure that the buffer can hold the entire cpuinfo file properly.

  • ESXi hosts randomly disconnect from the Active Directory domain or vCenter due to Likewise memory exhaustion

    Memory leaks in Active Directory operations and related libraries, or when smart card authentication is enabled on an ESXi host, might lead to Likewise memory exhaustion.

    This issue is partially resolved in this release. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 78968.

Networking Issues

  • You cannot filter distributed port groups on the NSX Port Group ID column

    In the vSphere Client, when you try to filter distributed port groups on the NSX Port Group ID column, you might see an error such as Cannot filter by non-filterable property: DistributedVirtualPortgroup/dvpgNsxId error or you continuously see the ports datagrid display as loading.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix unblocks filtering, but you still cannot filter by the NSX Port Group ID column.

Storage Issues

  • vSphere Storage DRS operations with virtual machines fail with an error: The available storage IOPs capacity is not sufficient for the operation

    If some VMs in a storage cluster have storage I/O reservations, vSphere Storage DRS might fail to balance the I/O reservations in the cluster and throw and error such as The available storage IOPs capacity is not sufficient for the operation.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The manual workaround is to set the vSphere Storage DRS advanced option EnforceIOReservations to 0.

  • The timestamp property of DatastoreInfo object continuously changes and might even take old timestamps

    In case of shared datastores, timestamp in the DatastoreInfo object can vary from host to host. Timestamps indicate the time at which an ESXi host pulls data such as free space and capacity from the storage stack and different hosts can trigger refresh at different time. During host sync to update the DatastoreInfo object, vCenter might get an older timestamp that the one that another host has just sent, and you see a fluctuation in the timestamps.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

CIM and API Issues

  • Some API commands in the Appliance Shell might return unexpected results

    Some API commands that you use in the Appliance Shell in vCenter Server to perform various administrative tasks might return unexpected results. For example, the command com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.cpu.stats.get might return:

    Error in method: Operation Failed. (code com.vmware.applmgmt.err_operation_failed)or

    Error in executing command: 8002.

    Some health-related commands, such as:

    • com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.load.health.get

    • com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.mem.health.get

    • com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.storage.health.get

    • com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.swap.health.get

    • com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.system.health.get

    • com.vmware.appliance.version1.resources.softwarepackages.health.get

    might return only gray health status.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • The integrity_check_machine_account_executor.py tool might time out and you see a non-fatal error message

    When you run the vc-support command to collect the log support bundle of a vCenter, you might see a non-fatal error such as: cmd "/usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/vmdir-tool/integrity_check_machine_account_executor.py" timed out after 1200 seconds due to lack of progress in last 600 seconds (0 bytes read). In such cases, you only need to run that script separately to collect the complete output by using the [--integrityCheck] option of the /usr/lib/vmware-vmdir/vmdir-tool/vmdir_tool.py tool.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Auto Deploy Issues

  • Stateless ESXi hosts deployed from a Host Profile with a Fixed password configuration might disconnect from vCenter after a reboot

    Stateless ESXi hosts that you deploy by using vSphere Auto Deploy might not exit Maintenance Mode after a reboot and you need to set manually the root password to reconnect the hosts to a vCenter. The issue occurs only when you use a Host Profile with a Fixed password configuration that does not correctly apply after a reboot of stateless hosts.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • In VMware vSphere+, stateless ESXi hosts that you deploy by using vSphere Auto Deploy might fail to boot or connect to a cluster

    When you deploy stateless ESXi hosts by using Auto Deploy in an environment with a vSphere+ license, the verification of the license might fail during the host boot. As a result, the host cannot join the designated cluster and get the proper license.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

vSphere vMotion Issues

  • vSphere vMotion operation from a 6.7.x ESXi host with an Intel Ice Lake CPU fails with msg.checkpoint.cpucheck.fail

    vSphere vMotion operations by using either the vSphere Client or VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX) from an Intel Ice Lake CPU host running ESXi 6.7.x fails with an error such as msg.checkpoint.cpucheck.fail. In the vSphere Client, you see a message that cpuid.PSFD is not supported on the target host. In HCX, you see a report such as A general system error occurred: vMotion failed:.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Server Configuration Issues

  • The VMware vSphere Authentication Proxy (vmcam) service intermittently fails to start and you cannot complete a vCenter file-based backup

    When you use the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) to run a file-based backup, you might see an error such as:

    Invalid vCenter Server Status: All required services are not up! Stopped services:'vmcam'

    The issue occurs when the vmcam occasionally fails to start due to a possible change in the ownership of the vmcam log file from /vmcam to /root after a vCenter update.

    This issue is resolved in this release. The fix makes sure the vmcam log file is updated with the correct ownership.

  • When you configure vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) datastores by using PowerCLI or VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator you see redeployment of vCLS VMs on regular intervals

    When you create a custom datastore configuration of vCLS VMs by using VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator, former VMware vRealize Orchestrator, or PowerCLI, for example set a list of allowed datastores for such VMS, you might see redeployment of such VMs on regular intervals, for example each 15 minutes.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Known Issues

Server Configuration Issues

  • You see a message Error retrieving when trying to view the status of Key Management Server (KMS) instances in the vSphere Client

    In the vSphere Client, you might see a message Error retrieving for several minutes when trying to view Key Management Server (KMS) instances. The issue occurs when a KMS instance in a standard key provider loses connectivity. Until all network requests to the affected KMS time out, which takes around 4 minutes, you cannot see the status of any KMS instance in your system, only the error message for the key provider. After the timeout, you can see the status of all KMS instances.

    Workaround: If you see the Error retrieving message, wait for 4 minutes.

  • Due to a default timeout setting of 2 minutes, log in to vCenter instances in Enhanced Linked Mode takes long when any of the vCenters is down

    When you have a number of vCenter instances in Enhanced Linked Mode, if one of the instances is down for some reason, such as maintenance, log in to the other instances might take up to 2 minutes, which is the default timeout setting. Changing the timeout property that specifies the wait time for log in to linked vCenter instances is a complex task that requires manually editing the LinkedVcGroup.login.timeout property located in vim-commons-vsphere.properties. To simlify the task, starting with vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3l, the setting LinkedVcGroup.login.timeout=120000 moves from vim-commons-vsphere.properties to the webclient.properties file. Editing this option allows you to reduce the wait time so that if one of the vCenter logins is taking more time, it does not affect the log in time for other instances.

    Workaround: Edit /etc/vmware/vsphere-ui/webclient.properties and change the value of LinkedVcGroup.login.timeout from 120000 to a smaller value in milliseconds, but consider that a value of <= 0 is an infinite timeout.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager Issues

  • You cannot edit the VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Update Download scheduled task

    In the vSphere Client, when you navigate to a vCenter Server instance and select Scheduled Tasks under the Configure tab, if you select the VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Update Download task and click Edit, you cannot modify the existing settings.

    Workaround: You can edit the VMware vSphere Lifecycle Manager Update Download task by following the steps in the topic Configure the vSphere Lifecycle Manager Automatic Download Task.

vSAN Issues

  • Higher than actual vSAN storage pool free space estimate might lead to unexpected storage shortages

    The freeSpace parameter of a vSAN storage pool might not exclude disks with errors and display the unused space estimate as higher than the actual. As a result, you might see unexpected storage shortages. This issue only affects vSAN storage pools.

    Workaround: Manually compute the storage capacity by disregarding the freeSpace value of disks with errors from the overall storage capacity provided by the freeSpace parameter of the storage pool.

Virtual Machine Management

  • Filtering virtual machines based on IP address does not work for VMs with two or more IP addresses

    In the vSphere Client, when you filter a Virtual Machines list by IP address, virtual machines with two or more IP addresses, in cases such as two NICs attached or using virtualized IPs, might not appear in the filtered results.

    Workaround: Use the search in the vSphere Client Inventory.

Known Issues from Prior Releases

vSphere Cluster Services Issues

  • If all vSphere Cluster Service agent virtual machines in a cluster are down, vSphere DRS does not function in the cluster

    If vSphere Cluster Service agent virtual machines fail to deploy or power on in a cluster, services such as vSphere DRS might be impacted.

    Workaround: For more information on the issue and workarounds, see VMware knowledge base article 79892.

  • System virtual machines that support vSphere Cluster Services might impact cluster and datastore maintenance workflows

    In vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1, vSphere Cluster Services adds a set of system virtual machines in every vSphere cluster to ensure the healthy operation of vSphere DRS. The system virtual machines deploy automatically with an implicit datastore selection logic. Depending on your cluster configuration, the system virtual machines might impact some of the cluster and datastore maintenance workflows.

    Workaround: For more information on the impacted workflows and possible workarounds, see VMware knowledge base articles 79892 and 80483.

Installation, Upgrade, and Migration Issues

  • Upgrade to vSphere 7.0 Update 3c might require additional steps to force a full host-sync

    The supported upgrade sequence for vSphere systems is first to upgrade vCenter Server and then ESXi. However, in certain environments with ESXi hosts of version 7.0 Update 2d and later, you need to update ESXi first to 7.0 Update 3c and then vCenter Server. Such an upgrade sequence requires additional steps to force a full host-sync.

    Workaround: Log in to the appliance shell as a user with super administrative privileges (for example, root) and follow these steps:

    1. Stop the vpxd service.

    2. Run the command /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -d VCDB -c "update VPX_HOST_SYNC_GEN set master_gen=0 where host_id in (select id from VPX_HOST where product_version like '7.0.3%')".

    3. Start the vpxd service.

  • Hot-patched ESXi hosts with both i40en and i40enu Intel network drivers installed might fail to configure vSphere High Availability after upgrade to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c

    Due to the name change in the Intel i40en driver to i40enu and back to i40en, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c adds an upgrade precheck to make sure that ESXi hosts affected from the change are properly upgraded. However, if you apply an ESXi hot patch that is released after vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c and then upgrade your system to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c, the hot patch might not be listed in the precheck. As a result, you might not follow the proper steps to the upgrade and vSphere HA might fail to configure on such hosts.

    Workaround: Upgrade the hot-patched ESXi hosts to version 7.0 Update 3c.

  • The vCenter Upgrade/Migration pre-checks fail with "Unexpected error 87"

    The vCenter Server Upgrade/Migration pre-checks fail when the Security Token Service (STS) certificate does not contain a Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field. This situation occurs when you have replaced the vCenter 5.5 Single Sign-On certificate with a custom certificate that has no SAN field, and you attempt to upgrade to vCenter Server 7.0. The upgrade considers the STS certificate invalid and the pre-checks prevent the upgrade process from continuing.

    Workaround: Replace the STS certificate with a valid certificate that contains a SAN field then proceed with the vCenter Server 7.0 Upgrade/Migration.

  • Problems upgrading to vSphere 7.0 with pre-existing CIM providers

    After upgrade, previously installed 32-bit CIM providers stop working because ESXi requires 64-bit CIM providers. Customers may lose management API functions related to CIMPDK, NDDK (native DDK), HEXDK, VAIODK (IO filters), and see errors related to uwglibc dependency.

    The syslog reports module missing, "32 bit shared libraries not loaded."

    Workaround: There is no workaround. The fix is to download new 64-bit CIM providers from your vendor.

  • Patching to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1 from earlier versions of vCenter Server 7.x is blocked when vCenter Server High Availability is enabled

    Patching to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1 from earlier versions of vCenter Server 7.x is blocked when vCenter Server High Availability is active.

    Workaround: To patch your system to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1 from earlier versions of vCenter Server 7.x, you must remove vCenter Server High Availability and delete the passive and witness nodes. After the upgrade, you must re-create your vCenter Server High Availability clusters.

  • Migration of a 6.7.x vCenter Server system to vCenter Server 7.x fails with an UnicodeEncodeError

    If you select the option to import all data for configuration, inventory, tasks, events, and performance metrics, the migration of a 6.7.x vCenter Server system to vCenter Server 7.x might fail for any vCenter Server system that uses a non-English locale. At step 1 of stage 2 of the migration, in the vSphere Client, you see an error such as:

    Error while exporting events and tasks data: …ERROR UnicodeEncodeError: Traceback (most recent call last):

    Workaround: You can complete the migration operation by doing either:

    • Select the default option Configuration and Inventory at the end of stage 1 of the migration.

      This option does not include tasks and events data.

    • Clean the data in the events tables and run the migration again.

  • If a Windows vCenter Server system has a database password containing non-ASCII characters, pre-checks of the VMware Migration Assistant fail

    If you try to migrate a 6.x vCenter Server system to vCenter Server 7.x by using the VMware Migration Assistant, and your system has a Windows OS, and uses an external database with a password containing non-ASCII characters, the operation fails. For example, Admin!23迁移. In the Migration Assistant console, you see the following error:

    Error:Component com.vmware.vcdb failed with internal errorResolution:File Bugzilla PR to VPX/VPX/vcdb-upgrade

    Workaround: None

  • During an update from vCenter Server 7.x to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1, you get prompts to provide the vCenter Single Sign-On password

    During an update from vCenter Server 7.x to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1, you get prompts to provide vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password.

    Workaround: If you run the update by using the vCenter Server Management Interface, you must provide the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password.

    If you run the update by using software-packages or CLI in an interactive manner, you must interactively provide the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password.

    If you run the update by using software-packages or CLI in a non-interactive manner, you must provide the vCenter Single Sign-On administrator password by an answer file in the format

    { "vmdir.password": "SSO Password of Administrator@<SSO-DOMAIN> user" }

  • Smart Card and RSA SecurID authentication might stop working after upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0

    If you have configured vCenter Server for either Smart Card or RSA SecurID authentication, see the VMware knowledge base article at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/78057 before starting the vSphere 7.0 upgrade process. If you do not perform the workaround as described in the KB, you might see the following error messages and Smart Card or RSA SecurID authentication does not work.

    "Smart card authentication may stop working. Smart card settings may not be preserved, and smart card authentication may stop working."

    or

    "RSA SecurID authentication may stop working. RSA SecurID settings may not be preserved, and RSA SecurID authentication may stop working."

    Workaround: Before upgrading to vSphere 7.0, see the VMware knowledge base article at https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/78057.

  • You might not be able to apply or remove NSX while you add ESXi hosts by using a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image to a cluster with enabled VMware vSphere High Availability

    If you start an operation to apply or remove NSX while adding multiple ESXi hosts by using a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image to a vSphere HA-enabled cluster, the NSX-related operations might fail with an error in the vSphere Client such as:

    vSphere HA agent on some of the hosts on cluster <cluster_name> is neither vSphere HA master agent nor connected to vSphere HA master agent. Verify that the HA configuration is correct.

    The issue occurs because vSphere Lifecycle Manager configures vSphere HA for the ESXi hosts being added to the cluster one at a time. If you run an operation to apply or remove NSX while vSphere HA configure operations are still in progress, NSX operations might queue up between the vSphere HA configure operations for two different ESXi hosts. In such a case, the NSX operation fails with a cluster health check error, because the state of the cluster at that point does not match the expected state that all ESXi hosts have vSphere HA configured and running. The more ESXi hosts you add to a cluster at the same time, the more likely the issue is to occur.

    Workaround: Deactivate and enable Sphere HA on the cluster. Proceed with the operations to apply or remove NSX.

  • After an upgrade of a vCenter Server 7.0 system, you cannot see the IP addresses of pods in the vSphere Pod Summary tab of the vSphere Client

    If you upgrade your vCenter Server 7.0 system to a later version, you can no longer see the IP addresses of pods in the vSphere Pod Summary tab of the vSphere Client.

    Workaround: Use the Kubernetes CLI Tools for vSphere to review details of pods:

    1. As a prerequisite, copy the pod and namespace names.

      • In the vSphere Client, navigate to Workload Management > Clusters.

      • Copy the IP displayed in the Control Plane Node IP Address tab.

      • You can navigate to https://<control_plane_node_IP_address> and download the Kubernetes CLI Tools, kubectl and kubectl-vsphere.

        Alternatively, follow the steps in Download and Install the Kubernetes CLI Tools for vSphere.

    2. Use the CLI plug-in for vSphere to review the pod details.

      1. Log in to the Supervisor cluster by using the command

        kubectl vsphere login --server=https://<server_adress> --vsphere-username <your user account name> --insecure-skip-tls-verify

      2. By using the names copied in step 1, run the commands for retrieving the pod details:

        kubectl config use-context <namespace_name>

        and

        kubectl describe pod <pod_name> -n <namespace_name>

    ​As a result, you can see the IP address in an output similar to:

    $ kubectl describe pod helloworld -n my-podvm-ns ...

    Status: Running

    IP: 10.0.0.10

    IPs:

    IP: 10.0.0.10 ...

  • Upgrading a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller from 6.7u3 to 7.0 fails with VMAFD error

    When you upgrade a vCenter Server deployment using an external Platform Services Controller, you converge the Platform Services Controller into a vCenter Server appliance. If the upgrade fails with the error install.vmafd.vmdir_vdcpromo_error_21, the VMAFD firstboot process has failed. The VMAFD firstboot process copies the VMware Directory Service Database (data.mdb) from the source Platform Services Controller and replication partner vCenter Server appliance.

    Workaround: Deactivate TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO) and Generic Segmentation Offload (GSO) on the Ethernet adapter of the source Platform Services Controller or replication partner vCenter Server appliance before upgrading a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller. See Knowledge Base article: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/74678

  • vCenter Server system upgrades fail in the pre-check stage

    Upgrades of your vCenter Server system might fail in the pre-check stage due to a limit in the authorization (Authz) connections. In the /var/log/vmware/vpxd-svcs/vpxd-svcs*.log file you see entries such as:

    Session count for user [after add]: <DOMAIN-NAME>\machine-xxxx is 200​Session limit reached for user: <DOMAIN-NAME>\machine-xxxx with 200 sessions.

    You might also see delayed response from the vSphere Client to load the inventory.

    Workaround: Restart vmware-vpxd-svcs in your vCenter Server system by using the command service-control --restart vmware-vpxd-svcs. Use the command only when no other activity runs in the vCenter Server system to avoid any interruptions to the workflow. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 81953.

  • Upgrading vCenter Server using the CLI incorrectly preserves the Transport Security Layer (TLS) configuration for the vSphere Authentication Proxy service

    If the vSphere Authentication Proxy service (vmcam) is configured to use a particular TLS protocol other than the default TLS 1.2 protocol, this configuration is preserved during the CLI upgrade process. By default, vSphere supports the TLS 1.2 encryption protocol. If you must use the TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols to support products or services that do not support TLS 1.2, use the TLS Configurator Utility to enable or deactivate different TLS protocol versions.

    Workaround: Use the TLS Configurator Utility to configure the vmcam port. To learn how to manage TLS protocol configuration and use the TLS Configurator Utility, see the VMware Security documentation.

  • You do not see a precheck error when patching to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c by using CLI

    Due to the name change in the Intel i40en driver to i40enu and back to i40en, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c adds an upgrade precheck to make sure that ESXi hosts affected from the change are properly upgraded. In some cases, if such hosts exist in your system, patching from an vCenter Server version earlier than 7.0 Update 3 to a version later than 7.0 Update 3 by using CLI might fail with the error Installation failed. Retry to resume from the current state. Or please collect the VC support bundle..

    However, instead of this error, you must see the precheck error message.

    Workaround: If you do not see the precheck error and patching your system to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c fails, make sure all ESXi hosts are upgraded to ESXi 7.0 Update 3c or higher, by using either a baseline created from an ISO or a single image, before upgrading vCenter Server. Do not use patch baselines based on the rollup bulletin. You can find additional debug log information at /var/log/vmware/applmgmt. For more details, see VMware knowledge base articles 87319 and 86447.

  • Smart card and RSA SecurID settings may not be preserved during vCenter Server upgrade

    Authentication using RSA SecurID will not work after upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0. An error message will alert you to this issue when attempting to login using your RSA SecurID login.

    Workaround: Reconfigure the smart card or RSA SecureID.

  • Upgrade to vSphere 7.0 Update 3c might require additional steps to force a full host-sync

    The supported upgrade sequence for vSphere systems is first to upgrade vCenter Server and then ESXi. However, in certain environments with ESXi hosts of version 7.0 Update 2c and later, you need to update ESXi first to 7.0 Update 3c and then vCenter Server. Such an upgrade sequence requires additional steps to force a full host-sync.

    Workaround: Log in to the appliance shell as a user with super administrative privileges (for example, root) and follow these steps:

    1. Stop the vpxd service.

    2. Run the command /opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -U postgres -d VCDB -c "update VPX_HOST_SYNC_GEN set master_gen=0 where host_id in (select id from VPX_HOST where product_version like '7.0.3%')".

    3. Start the vpxd service.

  • Migration of vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server appliance 7.0 fails with network error message

    Migration of vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server appliance 7.0 fails with the error message IP already exists in the network. This prevents the migration process from configuring the network parameters on the new vCenter Server appliance. For more information, examine the log file: /var/log/vmware/upgrade/UpgradeRunner.log

    Workaround:

    1. Verify that all Windows Updates have been completed on the source vCenter Server for Windows instance, or deactivate automatic Windows Updates until after the migration finishes.

    2. Retry the migration of vCenter Server for Windows to vCenter Server appliance 7.0.

  • Hot-patched ESXi hosts with both i40en and i40enu Intel network drivers installed might fail to configure vSphere High Availability after upgrade to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c

    Due to the name change in the Intel i40en driver to i40enu and back to i40en, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c adds an upgrade precheck to make sure that ESXi hosts affected from the change are properly upgraded. However, if you apply an ESXi hot patch that is released after vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c and then upgrade your system to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3c, the hot patch might not be listed in the precheck. As a result, you might not follow the proper steps to the upgrade and vSphere HA might fail to configure on such hosts.

    Workaround: Upgrade the hot-patched ESXi hosts to version 7.0 Update 3c.

  • When you configure the number of virtual functions for an SR-IOV device by using the max_vfs module parameter, the changes might not take effect

    In vSphere 7.0, you can configure the number of virtual functions for an SR-IOV device by using the Virtual Infrastructure Management (VIM) API, for example, through the vSphere Client. The task does not require reboot of the ESXi host. After you use the VIM API configuration, if you try to configure the number of SR-IOV virtual functions by using the max_vfs module parameter, the changes might not take effect because they are overridden by the VIM API configuration.

    Workaround: None. To configure the number of virtual functions for an SR-IOV device, use the same method every time. Use the VIM API or use the max_vfs module parameter and reboot the ESXi host.

  • Upgraded vCenter Server appliance instance does not retain all the secondary networks (NICs) from the source instance

    During a major upgrade, if the source instance of the vCenter Server appliance is configured with multiple secondary networks other than the VCHA NIC, the target vCenter Server instance will not retain secondary networks other than the VCHA NIC. If the source instance is configured with multiple NICs that are part of VDS port groups, the NIC configuration will not be preserved during the upgrade. Configurations for vCenter Server appliance instances that are part of the standard port group will be preserved.

    Workaround: None. Manually configure the secondary network in the target vCenter Server appliance instance.

  • After upgrading or migrating a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller, users authenticating using Active Directory lose access to the newly upgraded vCenter Server instance

    After upgrading or migrating a vCenter Server with an external Platform Services Controller, if the newly upgraded vCenter Server is not joined to an Active Directory domain, users authenticating using Active Directory will lose access to the vCenter Server instance.

    Workaround: Verify that the new vCenter Server instance has been joined to an Active Directory domain. See Knowledge Base article: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2118543

  • Migrating a vCenter Server for Windows with an external Platform Services Controller using an Oracle database fails

    If there are non-ASCII strings in the Oracle events and tasks table the migration can fail when exporting events and tasks data. The following error message is provided: UnicodeDecodeError

    Workaround: None.

  • After an ESXi host upgrade, a Host Profile compliance check shows non-compliant status while host remediation tasks fail

    The non-compliant status indicates an inconsistency between the profile and the host.

    This inconsistency might occur because ESXi 7.0 does not allow duplicate claim rules, but the profile you use contains duplicate rules. For example, if you attempt to use the Host Profile that you extracted from the host before upgrading ESXi 6.5 or ESXi 6.7 to version 7.0 and the Host Profile contains any duplicate claim rules of system default rules, you might experience the problems.

    Workaround:

    1. Remove any duplicate claim rules of the system default rules from the Host Profile document.

    2. Check the compliance status.

    3. Remediate the host.

    4. If the previous steps do not help, reboot the host.

  • Error message displays in the vCenter Server Management Interface

    After installing or upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0, when you navigate to the Update panel within the vCenter Server Management Interface, the error message "Check the URL and try again" displays. The error message does not prevent you from using the functions within the Update panel, and you can view, stage, and install any available updates.

    Workaround: None.

  • Patching witness or passive nodes of environments with VMware vCenter Server High Availability enabled might fail

    In environments with vCenter Server High Availability enabled, patching a witness or passive node might fail with a message similar to:

    ​RuntimeError: unidentifiable C++ exception.

    Workaround: Deactivate vCenter Server High Availability. Apply patches to your vCenter Server system. Re-enable vCenter Server High Availability.

  • After patching your vCenter Server system to vCenter Server 7.0.0a, the TLS version of the VC Storage Clients might revert to the default

    If you have a TLS configuration for the VC Storage Clients service different from the default TLS 1.2 only, the TLS version might revert to the default after patching your vCenter Server system to vCenter Server 7.0.0a.

    Workaround: Use the TLS Configuration utility to enable or deactivate TLS versions on your vCenter Server system after the update.

  • After updating your system to vCenter Server 7.0.0b, you see systemd core dump in the /var/core folder

    After updating your system to vCenter Server 7.0.0b from either vCenter Server 7.0.0a or vCenter Server 7.0, in the /var/core folder you see systemd core dump, such as core.systemd-journal.393 and core.systemd-udevd.405. The core dump is harmless and can be removed.

    Workaround: None

  • After updating your vCenter Server system to 7.0.0b, the vCenter Server version is not updated in the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI)

    After updating your system to vCenter Server 7.0.0b from vCenter Server 7.0.0a or vCenter Server 7.0, you still see the previous vCenter Server version in the DCUI.

    Workaround: After you complete the update, to refresh the vCenter Server version, in the appliance shell, run the command /usr/lib/applmgmt/dcui/notify.

  • Update Planner fails with error Configured repository is not accessible due to network connectivity or incorrect URL

    If you use Update Planner, which is part of vSphere Lifecycle Manager used to facilitate vCenter Server updates, you might see the following error in the vSphere Client:

    Configured repository is not accessible due to network connectivity or incorrect URL. Verify the repository settings.

    The issue occurs when you use a custom local repository, such as https:///uploads/dpe/ or a DBC path, to store the extracted . If the custom repository for URL-based patching has an authentication policy, Update Planner might not be able to fetch the list of available updates.

    Workaround: Configure the custom repository such that authentication is not needed to access the custom repository URL.

  • After upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0.0b, you see vSphere HA errors on vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image based clusters

    After upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0.0b, on vSphere Lifecycle Manager Image based clusters that are configured with vSphere HA, you might see error messages about the vSphere HA configuration after logging in for the first time to the environment. In the vSphere Client, you see messages such as:

    Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA agent on the host. or

    Applying HA VIBs on the cluster encountered a failure.

    The issue occurs because exports of the image depot might take long and cause a timeout of the task. In the/storage/log/vmware/vmware-updatemgr/vum-server/vmware-vum-server.log you see this message: ​Export taking too long (Failure case)

    Workaround: This is a transient issue that resolves in 10 minutes after the vCenter Server is up and running. The issue does not affect any functionality. vSphere HA on the affected clusters operates as expected. All operations related to virtual machines, such as power on and migration, work across the vSphere HA-enabled clusters while this error recovery is still in progress.

  • You do not see a precheck error when patching to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3d by using CLI

    Due to the name change in the Intel i40en driver to i40enu and back to i40en, vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3d and later add an upgrade precheck to make sure that ESXi hosts affected from the change are properly upgraded. In some cases, if such hosts exist in your system, patching from a vCenter Server version earlier than 7.0 Update 3 to a version later than 7.0 Update 3 by using CLI might fail with the error Installation failed. Retry to resume from the current state. Or please collect the VC support bundle.. However, instead of this error, you must see the precheck error message.

    Workaround: If you do not see the precheck error and patching your system to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 3d fails, make sure all ESXi hosts are upgraded to ESXi 7.0 Update 3d, by using either a baseline created from an ISO or a single image, before upgrading vCenter Server. Do not use patch baselines based on the rollup bulletin. You can find additional debug log information at /var/log/vmware/applmgmt. For more details, see VMware knowledge base articles 87319 and 86447.

Security Features Issues

  • Encrypted virtual machine fails to power on when HA-enabled Trusted Cluster contains an unattested host

    In VMware® vSphere Trust Authority™, if you have enabled HA on the Trusted Cluster and one or more hosts in the cluster fails attestation, an encrypted virtual machine cannot power on.

    Workaround: Either remove or remediate all hosts that failed attestation from the Trusted Cluster.

  • Encrypted virtual machine fails to power on when DRS-enabled Trusted Cluster contains an unattested host

    In VMware® vSphere Trust Authority™, if you have enabled DRS on the Trusted Cluster and one or more hosts in the cluster fails attestation, DRS might try to power on an encrypted virtual machine on an unattested host in the cluster. This operation puts the virtual machine in a locked state.

    Workaround: Either remove or remediate all hosts that failed attestation from the Trusted Cluster.

  • Migrating or cloning encrypted virtual machines across <span>vCenter Server</span> instances fails when attempting to do so using the vSphere Client

    If you try to migrate or clone an encrypted virtual machine across vCenter Server instances using the vSphere Client, the operation fails with the following error message: "The operation is not allowed in the current state."

    Workaround: You must use the vSphere APIs to migrate or clone encrypted virtual machines across vCenter Server instances.

Networking Issues

  • When you use the VMware Remote Console, the envoy service might intermittently fail

    An issue with the envoy service specific to the VMware Remote Console might lead to intermittent failures of the service. As a result, the vCenter Server Management Interface or vCenter Server APIs might also become unavailable.

    Workaround: Use the vSphere Client as an alternative to the VMware Remote Console.

  • Reduced throughput in networking performance on Intel 82599/X540/X550 NICs

    The new queue-pair feature added to ixgben driver to improve networking performance on Intel 82599EB/X540/X550 series NICs might reduce throughput under some workloads in vSphere 7.0 as compared to vSphere 6.7.

    Workaround: To achieve the same networking performance as vSphere 6.7, you can deactivate the queue-pair with a module parameter. To deactivate the queue-pair, run the command:

    # esxcli system module parameters set -p "QPair=0,0,0,0..." -m ixgben

    After running the command, reboot.

  • If you try to deactivate vSphere with Tanzu on a vSphere cluster, the operation stops with an error

    If some virtual machines outside of a Supervisor Cluster reside on any of the NSX segment port groups on the cluster, the cleanup script cannot delete such ports and deactivate vSphere with Tanzu on the cluster. In the vSphere Client, you see the error Cleanup requests to NSX Manager failed and the operation stops at Removing status. In the/var/log/vmware/wcp/wcpsvc.log file, you see an error message such as

    Segment path=[...] has x VMs or VIFs attached. Disconnect all VMs and VIFs before deleting a segment.

    Workaround: Delete the virtual machines indicated in the /var/log/vmware/wcp/wcpsvc.log file from the segment. Wait for the operation to restore.

  • After upgrading to NSX 6.4.7, when a static IPv6 address is assigned to workload VMs on an IPv6 network, the VMs are unable to ping the IPv6 gateway interface of the edge

    This issue occurs after upgrading the vSphere Distributed Switches from 6.x to 7.0.

    Workaround 1:

    Select the VDS where all the hosts are connected, go to the Edit setting, and under Multicast option switch to basic.

    Workaround 2:

    Add the following rules on the edge firewall:

    Ping allow rule.

    Multicast Listener Discover (MLD) allow rule, which are icmp6, type 130 (v1) and type 143 (v2).

  • High throughput virtual machines may experience degradation in network performance when Network I/O Control (NetIOC) is enabled

    Virtual machines requiring high network throughput can experience throughput degradation when upgrading from vSphere 6.7 to vSphere 7.0 with NetIOC enabled.

    Workaround: Adjust the ethernetx.ctxPerDev setting to enable multiple worlds.

  • IPv6 traffic fails to pass through VMkernel ports using IPsec

    When you migrate VMkernel ports from one port group to another, IPv6 traffic does not pass through VMkernel ports using IPsec.

    Workaround: Remove the IPsec security association (SA) from the affected server, and then reapply the SA. To learn how to set and remove an IPsec SA, see the vSphere Security documentation.

  • Higher ESX network performance with a portion of CPU usage increase

    ESX network performance may increase with a portion of CPU usage.

    Workaround: Remove and add the network interface with only 1 rx dispatch queue. For example:

    esxcli network ip interface remove --interface-name=vmk1

    esxcli network ip interface add --interface-name=vmk1 --num-rxqueue=1

  • VM might lose Ethernet traffic after hot-add, hot-remove or storage vMotion

    A VM might stop receiving Ethernet traffic after a hot-add, hot-remove or storage vMotion. This issue affects VMs where the uplink of the VNIC has SR-IOV enabled. PVRDMA virtual NIC exhibits this issue when the uplink of the virtual network is a Mellanox RDMA capable NIC and RDMA namespaces are configured.

    Workaround: You can hot-remove and hot-add the affected Ethernet NICs of the VM to restore traffic. On Linux guest operating systems, restarting the network might also resolve the issue. If these workarounds have no effect, you can reboot the VM to restore network connectivity.

  • Change of IP address for a VCSA deployed with static IP address requires that you create the DNS records in advance

    With the introduction of the DDNS, the DNS record update only works for VCSA deployed with DHCP configured networking. While changing the IP address of the vCenter server via VAMI, the following error is displayed:

    The specified IP address does not resolve to the specified hostname.

    Workaround: There are two possible workarounds.

    1. Create an additional DNS entry with the same FQDN and desired IP address. Log in to the VAMI and follow the steps to change the IP address.

    2. Log in to the VCSA using ssh. Execute the following script:

      ./opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net

      Use option 6 to change the IP adddress of eth0. Once changed, execute the following script:

      ./opt/likewise/bin/lw-update-dns

      Restart all the services on the VCSA to update the IP information on the DNS server.

  • It may take several seconds for the NSX Distributed Virtual Port Group (NSX DVPG) to be removed after deleting the corresponding logical switch in NSX Manager.

    As the number of logical switches increases, it may take more time for the NSX DVPG in vCenter Server to be removed after deleting the corresponding logical switch in NSX Manager. In an environment with 12000 logical switches, it takes approximately 10 seconds for an NSX DVPG to be deleted from vCenter Server.

    Workaround: None.

  • Hostd runs out of memory and fails if a large number of NSX Distributed Virtual port groups are created.

    In vSphere 7.0, NSX Distributed Virtual port groups consume significantly larger amounts of memory than opaque networks. For this reason, NSX Distributed Virtual port groups can not support the same scale as an opaque network given the same amount of memory.

    Workaround:To support the use of NSX Distributed Virtual port groups, increase the amount of memory in your ESXi hosts. If you verify that your system has adequate memory to support your VMs, you can directly increase the memory of hostd using the following command.

    localcli --plugin-dir /usr/lib/vmware/esxcli/int/ sched group setmemconfig --group-path host/vim/vmvisor/hostd --units mb --min 2048 --max 2048

    Note that this will cause hostd to use memory normally reserved for your environment's VMs. This may have the affect of reducing the number of VMs your ESXi host can support.

  • DRS may incorrectly launch vMotion if the network reservation is configured on a VM

    If the network reservation is configured on a VM, it is expected that DRS only migrates the VM to a host that meets the specified requirements. In a cluster with NSX transport nodes, if some of the transport nodes join the transport zone by NSX-T Virtual Distributed Switch (N-VDS), and others by vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) 7.0, DRS may incorrectly launch vMotion. You might encounter this issue when:

    • The VM connects to an NSX logical switch configured with a network reservation.

    • Some transport nodes join transport zone using N-VDS, and others by VDS 7.0, or, transport nodes join the transport zone through different VDS 7.0 instances.

    Workaround: Make all transport nodes join the transport zone by N-VDS or the same VDS 7.0 instance.

  • When adding a VMkernel NIC (vmknic) to an NSX portgroup, vCenter Server reports the error "Connecting VMKernel adapter to a NSX Portgroup on a Stateless host is not a supported operation. Please use Distributed Port Group instead."

    • For stateless ESXi on Distributed Virtual Switch (VDS), the vmknic on a NSX port group is blocked. You must instead use a Distributed Port Group.

    • For stateful ESXi on VDS, vmknic on NSX port group is supported, but vSAN may have an issue if it is using vmknic on a NSX port group.

    Workaround: Use a Distributed Port Group on the same VDS.

  • Enabling SRIOV from vCenter for QLogic 4x10GE QL41164HFCU CNA might fail

    If you navigate to the Edit Settings dialog for physical network adapters and attempt to enable SR-IOV, the operation might fail when using QLogic 4x10GE QL41164HFCU CNA. Attempting to enable SR-IOV might lead to a network outage of the ESXi host.

    Workaround: Use the following command on the ESXi host to enable SRIOV:

    esxcfg-module

Storage Issues

  • VMFS datastores are not mounted automatically after disk hot remove and hot insert on HPE Gen10 servers with SmartPQI controllers

    When SATA disks on HPE Gen10 servers with SmartPQI controllers without expanders are hot removed and hot inserted back to a different disk bay of the same machine, or when multiple disks are hot removed and hot inserted back in a different order, sometimes a new local name is assigned to the disk. The VMFS datastore on that disk appears as a snapshot and will not be mounted back automatically because the device name has changed.

    Workaround: None. SmartPQI controller does not support unordered hot remove and hot insert operations.

  • ESXi might terminate I/O to NVMeOF devices due to errors on all active paths

    Occasionally, all active paths to NVMeOF device register I/O errors due to link issues or controller state. If the status of one of the paths changes to Dead, the High Performance Plug-in (HPP) might not select another path if it shows high volume of errors. As a result, the I/O fails.

    Workaround: Deactivate the configuration option /Misc/HppManageDegradedPaths to unblock the I/O.

  • VOMA check on NVMe based VMFS datastores fails with error

    VOMA check is not supported for NVMe based VMFS datastores and will fail with the error:

    ERROR: Failed to reserve device. Function not implemented

    Example:

    # voma -m vmfs -f check -d /vmfs/devices/disks/: <partition#>
Running VMFS Checker version 2.1 in check mode
Initializing LVM metadata, Basic Checks will be done

Checking for filesystem activity
Performing filesystem liveness check..|Scanning for VMFS-6 host activity (4096 bytes/HB, 1024 HBs).
ERROR: Failed to reserve device. Function not implemented
Aborting VMFS volume check
VOMA failed to check device : General Error

    Workaround: None. If you need to analyse VMFS metadata, collect it using the -l option, and pass to VMware customer support. The command for collecting the dump is:

    voma -l -f dump -d /vmfs/devices/disks/:<partition#>

  • Using the VM reconfigure API to attach an encrypted First Class Disk to an encrypted virtual machine might fail with error

    If an FCD and a VM are encrypted with different crypto keys, your attempts to attach the encrypted FCD to the encrypted VM using the VM reconfigure API might fail with the error message:

    Cannot decrypt disk because key or password is incorrect.

    Workaround: Use the attachDisk API rather than the VM reconfigure API to attach an encrypted FCD to an encrypted VM.

  • ESXi host might get in non responding state if a non-head extent of its spanned VMFS datastore enters the Permanent Device Loss (PDL) state

    This problem does not occur when a non-head extent of the spanned VMFS datastore fails along with the head extent. In this case, the entire datastore becomes inaccessible and no longer allows I/Os.

    In contrast, when only a non-head extent fails, but the head extent remains accessible, the datastore heartbeat appears to be normal. And the I/Os between the host and the datastore continue. However, any I/Os that depend on the failed non-head extent start failing as well. Other I/O transactions might accumulate while waiting for the failing I/Os to resolve, and cause the host to enter the non responding state.

    Workaround: Fix the PDL condition of the non-head extent to resolve this issue.

  • After recovering from APD or PDL conditions, VMFS datastore with enabled support for clustered virtual disks might remain inaccessible

    You can encounter this problem only on datastores where the clustered virtual disk support is enabled. When the datastore recovers from an All Paths Down (APD) or Permanent Device Loss (PDL) condition, it remains inaccessible. The VMkernel log might show multiple SCSI3 reservation conflict messages similar to the following:

    2020-02-18T07:41:10.273Z cpu22:1001391219)ScsiDeviceIO: vm 1001391219: SCSIDeviceCmdCompleteCB:2972: Reservation conflict retries 544 for command 0x45ba814b8340 (op: 0x89) to device "naa.624a9370b97601e346f64ba900024d53"

    The problem can occur because the ESXi host participating in the cluster loses SCSI reservations for the datastore and cannot always reacquire them automatically after the datastore recovers.

    Workaround: Manually register the reservation using the following command:

    vmkfstools -L registerkey /vmfs/devices/disks/<device name>

    where the <device name> is the name of the device on which the datastore is created.

  • Virtual NVMe Controller is the default disk controller for Windows 10 guest operating systems

    The Virtual NVMe Controller is the default disk controller for the following guest operating systems when using Hardware Version 15 or later:

    Windows 10

    Windows Server 2016

    Windows Server 2019

    Some features might not be available when using a Virtual NVMe Controller. For more information, see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2147714

    Note: Some clients use the previous default of LSI Logic SAS. This includes ESXi host client and PowerCLI.

    Workaround: If you need features not available on Virtual NVMe, switch to VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) or LSI Logic SAS. For information on using VMware Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI), see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1010398

  • After an ESXi host upgrade to vSphere 7.0, presence of duplicate core claim rules might cause unexpected behavior

    Claim rules determine which multipathing plugin, such as NMP, HPP, and so on, owns paths to a particular storage device. ESXi 7.0 does not support duplicate claim rules. However, the ESXi 7.0 host does not alert you if you add duplicate rules to the existing claim rules inherited through an upgrade from a legacy release. As a result of using duplicate rules, storage devices might be claimed by unintended plugins, which can cause unexpected outcome.

    Workaround: Do not use duplicate core claim rules. Before adding a new claim rule, delete any existing matching claim rule.

  • A CNS query with the compliance status filter set might take unusually long time to complete

    The CNS QueryVolume API enables you to obtain information about the CNS volumes, such as volume health and compliance status. When you check the compliance status of individual volumes, the results are obtained quickly. However, when you invoke the CNS QueryVolume API to check the compliance status of multiple volumes, several tens or hundreds, the query might perform slowly.

    Workaround: Avoid using bulk queries. When you need to get compliance status, query one volume at a time or limit the number of volumes in the query API to 20 or fewer. While using the query, avoid running other CNS operations to get the best performance.

  • <span style="color:#CC0000">New</span> Deleted CNS volumes might temporarily appear as existing in the CNS UI

    After you delete an FCD disk that backs a CNS volume, the volume might still show up as existing in the CNS UI. However, your attempts to delete the volume fail. You might see an error message similar to the following:

    The object or item referred to could not be found.

    Workaround: The next full synchronization will resolve the inconsistency and correctly update the CNS UI.

  • <span style="color:#CC0000">New</span> Under certain circumstances, while a CNS operation fails, the task status appears as successful in the vSphere Client

    This might occur when, for example, you use an incompliant storage policy to create a CNS volume. The operation fails, while the vSphere Client shows the task status as successful.

    Workaround: The successful task status in the vSphere Client does not guarantee that the CNS operation succeeded. To make sure the operation succeeded, verify its results.

  • <span style="color:#CC0000">New</span> Unsuccessful delete operation for a CNS persistent volume might leave the volume undeleted on the vSphere datastore

    This issue might occur when the CNS Delete API attempts to delete a persistent volume that is still attached to a pod. For example, when you delete the Kubernetes namespace where the pod runs. As a result, the volume gets cleared from CNS and the CNS query operation does not return the volume. However, the volume continues to reside on the datastore and cannot be deleted through the repeated CNS Delete API operations.

    Workaround: None.

vCenter Server and vSphere Client Issues

  •  You do not see the VLAN ID in the port properties page of a VMkernel network adapter in the vSphere Client

    In the vSphere Client, when you follow the path Host > Add Networking, after you select a VMkernel network adapter and an existing standard switch, in the Port properties page you might not see the VLAD ID. The issue occurs because the VLAN ID component is part of the network-ui module, which is lazy loaded and needs a trigger to refresh.

    Workaround: Go to Host > Configure > Networking > Virtual Switches to trigger the loading of the network ui module and the VLAD ID appears.

  • Vendor providers go offline after a PNID change​

    When you change the vCenter IP address (PNID change), the registered vendor providers go offline.

    Workaround: Re-register the vendor providers.

  • Cross vCenter migration of a virtual machine fails with an error

    When you use cross vCenter vMotion to move a VM's storage and host to a different vCenter server instance, you might receive the error The operation is not allowed in the current state.

    This error appears in the UI wizard after the Host Selection step and before the Datastore Selection step, in cases where the VM has an assigned storage policy containing host-based rules such as encryption or any other IO filter rule.

    Workaround: Assign the VM and its disks to a storage policy without host-based rules. You might need to decrypt the VM if the source VM is encrypted. Then retry the cross vCenter vMotion action.

  • Storage Sensors information in Hardware Health tab shows incorrect values on vCenter UI, host UI, and MOB

    When you navigate to Host > Monitor > Hardware Health > Storage Sensors on vCenter UI, the storage information displays either incorrect or unknown values. The same issue is observed on the host UI and the MOB path “runtime.hardwareStatusInfo.storageStatusInfo” as well.

    Workaround: None.

  • vSphere UI host advanced settings shows the current product locker location as empty with an empty default

    vSphere UI host advanced settings shows the current product locker location as empty with an empty default. This is inconsistent as the actual product location symlink is created and valid. This causes confusion to the user. The default cannot be corrected from UI.

    Workaround: User can use the esxcli command on the host to correct the current product locker location default as below.

    1. Remove the existing Product Locker Location setting with: "esxcli system settings advanced remove -o ProductLockerLocation"

    2. Re-add the Product Locker Location setting with the appropriate default:

    2.a. If the ESXi is a full installation, the default value is "/locker/packages/vmtoolsRepo" export PRODUCT_LOCKER_DEFAULT="/locker/packages/vmtoolsRepo"

    2.b. If the ESXi is a PXEboot configuration such as autodeploy, the default value is: "/vmtoolsRepo" export PRODUCT_LOCKER_DEFAULT="/vmtoolsRepo"

    Run the following command to automatically figure out the location: export PRODUCT_LOCKER_DEFAULT=`readlink /productLocker`

    Add the setting: esxcli system settings advanced add -d "Path to VMware Tools repository" -o ProductLockerLocation -t string -s $PRODUCT_LOCKER_DEFAULT

    You can combine all the above steps in step 2 by issuing the single command:

    esxcli system settings advanced add -d "Path to VMware Tools repository" -o ProductLockerLocation -t string -s `readlink /productLocker`

  • Skyline Health page displays garbage characters

    In the vSphere Client, when you navigate to vCenter Server or select an ESXi host in the vSphere Client navigator and click Monitor > Skyline Health, the page displays garbage characters in the following locales: Korean, Japanese, German and French.

    Workaround: Switch to English locale.

Virtual Machine Management Issues

  • You cannot add or modify an existing network adapter on a virtual machine

    If you try to add or modify an existing network adapter on a virtual machine, the Reconfigure Virtual Machine task might fail with an error such as Cannot complete operation due to concurrent modification by another operation in the vSphere Client. In the/var/log/hostd.log file of the ESXi host where the virtual machine runs, you see logs such as:

    2020-07-28T07:47:31.621Z verbose hostd[2102259] [Originator@6876 sub=Vigor.Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/vsan:526bc94351cf8f42-41153841cab2f9d9/bad71f5f-d85e-a276-4cf6-246e965d7154/interop_l2vpn_vmotion_VM_1.vmx] NIC: connection control message: Failed to connect virtual device 'ethernet0'.

    In the vpxa.log file, you see entries similar to: 2020-07-28T07:47:31.941Z info vpxa[2101759] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=opId-59f15-19829-91-01-ed] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-138 -- vm-13 -- vim.VirtualMachine.reconfigure: vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault:

    Workaround: For each ESXi host in your cluster do the following:

    1. Connect to the ESXi host by using SSH and run the command

      esxcli system module parameters set -a -p dvfiltersMaxFilters=8192 -m dvfilter

    2. Put the ESXi host in Maintenance Mode.

    3. Reboot the ESXi host.

    For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 80399.

  • ESXi 6.5 hosts with AMD Opteron Generation 3 (Greyhound) processors cannot join Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) AMD REV E or AMD REV F clusters on a vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1 system

    In vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1, vSphere cluster services, such as vSphere DRS and vSphere HA, run on ESX agent virtual machines to make the services functionally independent of vCenter Server. However, the CPU baseline for AMD processors of the ESX agent virtual machines have POPCNT SSE4A instructions, which prevents ESXi 6.5 hosts with AMD Opteron Generation 3 (Greyhound) processors to enable EVC mode AMD REV E and AMD REV F on a vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1 system.

    Workaround: None

  • The postcustomization section of the customization script runs before the guest customization

    When you run the guest customization script for a Linux guest operating system, the precustomization section of the customization script that is defined in the customization specification runs before the guest customization and the postcustomization section runs after that. If you enable Cloud-Init in the guest operating system of a virtual machine, the postcustomization section runs before the customization due to a known issue in Cloud-Init.

    Workaround: Deactivate Cloud-Init and use the standard guest customization.

  • Group migration operations in vSphere vMotion, Storage vMotion, and vMotion without shared storage fail with error

    When you perform group migration operations on VMs with multiple disks and multi-level snapshots, the operations might fail with the error com.vmware.vc.GenericVmConfigFault Failed waiting for data. Error 195887167. Connection closed by remote host, possibly due to timeout.

    Workaround: Retry the migration operation on the failed VMs one at a time.

  • Deploying an OVF or OVA template from a URL fails with a 403 Forbidden error

    The URLs that contain an HTTP query parameter are not supported. For example, http://webaddress.com?file=abc.ovf or the Amazon pre-signed S3 URLs.

    Workaround: Download the files and deploy them from your local file system.

  • Importing or deploying local OVF files containing non-ASCII characters in their name might fail with an error

    When you import local .ovf files containing non-ASCII characters in their name, you might receive 400 Bad Request Error. When you use such .ovf files to deploy a virtual machine in the vSphere Client, the deployment process stops at 0%. As a result, you might receive 400 Bad Request Error or 500 Internal Server Error.

    Workaround:

    1. Remove the non-ASCII characters from the .ovf and .vmdk file names.

      • To edit the .ovf file, open it with a text editor.

      • Search the non-ASCII .vmdk file name and change it to ASCII.

    2. Import or deploy the saved files again.

  • <span style="color:#CC0000">New </span>The third level of nested objects in a virtual machine folder is not visible

    Perform the following steps:

    1. Navigate to a data center and create a virtual machine folder.

    2. In the virtual machine folder, create a nested virtual machine folder.

    3. In the second folder, create another nested virtual machine, virtual machine folder, vApp, or VM Template.

    As a result, from the VMs and Templates inventory tree you cannot see the objects in the third nested folder.

    Workaround: To see the objects in the third nested folder, navigate to the second nested folder and select the VMs tab.

  • vSAN file services operations fail on vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled clusters

    During a change in the state of an ESXi host, vSAN file services operations might fail on vSphere Lifecycle Manager-enabled clusters due to a race condition with the vSphere ESX Agent Manager (EAM). The problem happens during upgrades and operations, such as power on or power off, booting, or when the host exits maintenance or standby mode. The race condition occurs when an endpoint has been unavailable before the change of state of the ESXi host. In such cases, the EAM starts a remediation process that cannot be resolved and fails operations from other services, such as the vSAN file services.

    Workaround: Restart the vSphere ESX Agent Manager.

vSphere HA and Fault Tolerance Issues

  • VMs in a cluster might be orphaned after recovering from storage inaccessibility such as a cluster wide APD

    Some VMs might be in orphaned state after cluster wide APD recovers, even if HA and VMCP are enabled on the cluster.

    This issue might be encountered when the following conditions occur simultaneously:

    • All hosts in the cluster experience APD and do not recover until VMCP timeout is reached.

    • HA primary initiates failover due to APD on a host.

    • Power on API during HA failover fails due to one of the following:

      • APD across the same host

      • Cascading APD across the entire cluster

      • Storage issues

      • Resource unavailability

    • FDM unregistration and VCs steal VM logic might initiate during a window where FDM has not unregistered the failed VM and VC's host synchronization responds that multiple hosts are reporting the same VM. Both FDM and VC unregister the different registered copies of the same VM from different hosts, causing the VM to be orphaned.

    Workaround: You must unregister and reregister the orphaned VMs manually within the cluster after the APD recovers.

    If you do not manually reregister the orphaned VMs, HA attempts failover of the orphaned VMs, but it might take between 5 to 10 hours depending on when APD recovers.

    The overall functionality of the cluster is not affected in these cases and HA will continue to protect the VMs. This is an anomaly in what gets displayed on VC for the duration of the problem.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager Issues

  • vSphere Lifecycle Manager and vSAN File Services cannot be simultaneously enabled on a vSAN cluster in vSphere 7.0 release

    If vSphere Lifecycle Manager is enabled on a cluster, vSAN File Services cannot be enabled on the same cluster and vice versa. In order to enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager on a cluster, which has VSAN File Services enabled already, first deactivate vSAN File Services and retry the operation. Please note that if you transition to a cluster that is managed by a single image, vSphere Lifecycle Manager cannot be deactivated on that cluster.

    Workaround: None.

  • When a hardware support manager is unavailable, vSphere High Availability (HA) functionality is impacted

    If hardware support manager is unavailable for a cluster that you manage with a single image, where a firmware and drivers addon is selected and vSphere HA is enabled, the vSphere HA functionality is impacted. You may experience the following errors.

    • Configuring vSphere HA on a cluster fails.

    • Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA agent on a host: Applying HA VIBs on the cluster encountered a failure.

    • Remediating vSphere HA fails: A general system error occurred: Failed to get Effective Component map.

    • Disabling vSphere HA fails: Delete Solution task failed. A general system error occurred: Cannot find hardware support package from depot or hardware support manager.

    Workaround:

    • If the hardware support manager is temporarily unavailable, perform the following steps.

    1. Reconnect the hardware support manager to vCenter Server.

    2. Select a cluster from the Hosts and Cluster menu.

    3. Select the Configure tab.

    4. Under Services, click vSphere Availability.

    5. Re-enable vSphere HA.

    • If the hardware support manager is permanently unavailable, perform the following steps.

    1. Remove the hardware support manager and the hardware support package from the image specification

    2. Re-enable vSphere HA.

    3. Select a cluster from the Hosts and Cluster menu.

    4. Select the Updates tab.

    5. Click Edit .

    6. Remove the firmware and drivers addon and click Save.

    7. Select the Configure tab.

    8. Under Services, click vSphere Availability.

    9. Re-enable vSphere HA.

  • I/OFilter is not removed from a cluster after a remediation process in vSphere Lifecycle Manager

    Removing I/OFilter from a cluster by remediating the cluster in vSphere Lifecycle Manager, fails with the following error message: iofilter XXX already exists. Тhe iofilter remains listed as installed.

    Workaround:

    1. Call IOFilter API UninstallIoFilter_Task from the vCenter Server managed object (IoFilterManager).

    2. Remediate the cluster in vSphere Lifecycle Manager.

    3. Call IOFilter API ResolveInstallationErrorsOnCluster_Task from the vCenter Server managed object (IoFilterManager) to update the database.

  • While remediating a vSphere HA enabled cluster in vSphere Lifecycle Manager, disabling and re-enabling vSphere HA causes a vSphere HA error state

    Disabling and re-enabling vSphere HA during remediation process of a cluster, may fail the remediation process due to vSphere HA health checks reporting that hosts don't have vSphere HA VIBs installed. You may see the following error message: Setting desired image spec for cluster failed.

    Workaround: Аfter the cluster remediation operation has finished, deactivate and re-enable vSphere HA for the cluster.

  • Checking for recommended images in vSphere Lifecycle Manager has slow performance in large clusters

    In large clusters with more than 16 hosts, the recommendation generation task could take more than an hour to finish or may appear to hang. The completion time for the recommendation task depends on the number of devices configured on each host and the number of image candidates from the depot that vSphere Lifecycle Manager needs to process before obtaining a valid image to recommend.

    Workaround: None.

  • Checking for hardware compatibility in vSphere Lifecycle Manager has slow performance in large clusters

    In large clusters with more than 16 hosts, the validation report generation task could take up to 30 minutes to finish or may appear to hang. The completion time depends on the number of devices configured on each host and the number of hosts configured in the cluster.

    Workaround: None

  • Incomplete error messages in non-English languages are displayed, when remediating a cluster in vSphere Lifecycle Manager

    You can encounter incomplete error messages for localized languages in the vCenter Server user interface. The messages are displayed, after a cluster remediation process in vSphere Lifecycle Manager fails. For example, your can observe the following error message.

    The error message in English language: Virtual machine 'VMC on DELL EMC -FileServer' that runs on cluster 'Cluster-1' reported an issue which prevents entering maintenance mode: Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file[local-0] VMC on Dell EMC - FileServer/VMC on Dell EMC - FileServer.vmx

    The error message in French language: La VM « VMC on DELL EMC -FileServer », située sur le cluster « {Cluster-1} », a signalé un problème empêchant le passage en mode de maintenance : Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file[local-0] VMC on Dell EMC - FileServer/VMC on Dell EMC - FileServer.vmx

    Workaround: None.

  • When you convert a cluster that uses baselines to a cluster that uses a single image, a warning is displayed that vSphere HA VIBs will be removed

    Converting a vSphere HA enabled cluster that uses baselines to a cluster that uses a single image, may result a warning message displaying that vmware-fdm component will be removed.

    Workaround: This message can be ignored. The conversion process installs the vmware-fdm component.

  • If vSphere Update Manager is configured to download patch updates from the Internet through a proxy server, after upgrade to vSphere 7.0 that converts Update Manager to vSphere Lifecycle Manager, downloading patches from VMware patch repository might fail

    In earlier releases of vCenter Server you could configure independent proxy settings for vCenter Server and vSphere Update Manager. After an upgrade to vSphere 7.0, vSphere Update Manager service becomes part of the vSphere Lifecycle Manager service. For the vSphere Lifecycle Manager service, the proxy settings are configured from the vCenter Server appliance settings. If you had configured Update Manager to download patch updates from the Internet through a proxy server but the vCenter Server appliance had no proxy setting configuration, after a vCenter Server upgrade to version 7.0, the vSphere Lifecycle Manager fails to connect to the VMware depot and is unable to download patches or updates.

    Workaround: Log in to the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface, https://vcenter-server-appliance-FQDN-or-IP-address:5480, to configure proxy settings for the vCenter Server appliance and enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager to use proxy.

  • If you use a Java client to review remediation tasks, you cannot extract the results from the remediation operations

    If you use a Java client to review remediation tasks, extracting the results might fail with a ConstraintValidationException error. The issue occurs when an ESXi host fails to enter maintenance mode during the remediation and gets a status SKIPPED, but at the same time wrongly gets an In Progress flag for the consecutive remediation operations. This causes the ConstraintValidationException error on the Java Clients and you cannot extract the result of the remediation operation.

    Workaround: Fix the underlying issues that prevent ESXi hosts to enter Maintenance Mode and retry the remediation operation.

  • The general vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot and local depots in Remote Office and Branch Office (ROBO) deployments might not be in sync

    ROBO clusters that have limited or no access to the Internet or limited connectivity to vCenter Server can download an image from a depot that is local for them instead of accessing the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot in vCenter Server. However, vSphere Lifecycle Manager generates software recommendations in the form of pre-validated images only on a central level and a recommended image content might not be available at a depot override.

    Workaround: If you decide to use a recommended image, make sure the content between depot overrides and the central depot are in sync.

  • Cluster remediation by using the vSphere Lifecycle Manager might fail on ESXi hosts with enabled lockdown mode

    If a cluster has ESXi hosts with enabled lockdown mode, remediation operations by using the vSphere Lifecycle Manager might skip such hosts. In the log files, you see messages such as Host scan task failed and com.vmware.vcIntegrity.lifecycle.EsxImage.UnknownError An unknown error occurred while performing the operation..

    Workaround: Add the root user to the exception list for lockdown mode and retry the cluster remediation.

  • You cannot use an ESXi image with OEM content to create clusters by using vSphere Lifecycle Manager workflows after an update

    When you update an ESXi image with OEM content, for example Dell ESXi 7.0 Update 2a to Dell ESXi 7.0 Update 3d, some reserved VIBs, such that are present in the VMware base image but overridden by async VIBs packaged by the OEM, might be deleted. The same issue might occur after updating your system by using a non-critical baseline and then update to a higher version by using an ESXi image with OEM content. For example, if you update to 7.0 Update 2 by using a non-critical baseline and then update to 7.0 Update 3 by using a Dell ESXi 7.0 Update 3 image, reserved VIBs might also be deleted. As a result, you cannot use ESXi hosts with the updated version to create a vSphere Lifecycle Manager cluster managed by a single image. The operation fails and in the backtrace, you see errors such as:

    2021-11-24T09:42:49Z lifecycle: 2101166: HostSeeding:956 ERROR Extract depot failed: ('VMW_bootbank_bnxtroce_216.0.58.0-23vmw.703.0.0.18644231', 'Failed to add reserved VIB VMW_bootbank_bnxtroce_216.0.58.0-23vmw.703.0.0.18644231: not found in the reserved VIB cache storage')2021-11-24T09:42:50Z lifecycle: 2101166: imagemanagerctl:373 ERROR Extract depot failed.021-11-24T09:42:50Z lifecycle: 2101166: imagemanagerctl:152 ERROR [ReservedVibExtractError] ('VMW_bootbank_bnxtroce_216.0.58.0-23vmw.703.0.0.18644231', 'Failed to add reserved VIB VMW_bootbank_bnxtroce_216.0.58.0-23vmw.703.0.0.18644231: not found in the reserved VIB cache storage')

    Workaround: Use interactive or scripted upgrade instead of vSphere Lifecycle Manager workflows.

  • After you upgrade to vCenter Server 7.0.0b, in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view in the vSphere Client, you do not see the Show only rollup updates toggle button

    In vCenter Server 7.0.0b, you can use the Show only rollup updates toggle button to filter and select patches that you want to include in a baseline when you use the vSphere Lifecycle Manager.

    The button is available in the Updates tab on the Lifecycle Manager pane, Menu > Lifecycle Manager, which is the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view in the vSphere Client. The button is also available in the Select Patches Manually page on the Baselines tab in the Create Baseline wizard, which opens when you select New > Baseline.

    However, the Show only rollup updates toggle button might not be visible after you upgrade to vCenter Server 7.0.0b.

    Workaround: After an upgrade to vCenter Server 7.0.0b, restart the vSphere Client. For more information, see Start, Stop, and Restart Services.

  • The Show only rollup updates toggle button is always turned on when you open a tab in the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view in the vSphere Client

    In vCenter Server 7.0.0b, you can use the Show only rollup updates toggle button to filter and select patches that you want to include in a baseline when you use the vSphere Lifecycle Manager.

    The button is available in the Updates tab on the Lifecycle Manager pane, Menu > Lifecycle Manager, which is the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view in the vSphere Client. The button is also available in the Select Patches Manually page on the Baselines tab in the Create Baseline wizard, which opens when you select New > Baseline.

    However, the toggle button appears always turned on when you navigate to either of the Updates tab or the Select Patches Manually page. Even if you turn off the button when navigating away from the tab or page, it appears still turned on the next time you open them.

    Workaround: None

  • When you use the Update Planner, in the vSphere Client you might see Unexpected error occurred while fetching the updates

    When you use Update Planner, which is part of vSphere Lifecycle Manager, used to facilitate vCenter Server updates, you might see the following error in the vSphere Client:

    Unexpected error occurred while fetching the updates

    The issue occurs when you use a custom HTTPS port that prevents you from running interoperability reports by using the vSphere Client.

    Workaround: Manually invoke the API. For more details, see the vSphere Automation API.

Miscellaneous Issues

  • When applying a host profile with version 6.5 to a ESXi host with version 7.0, the compliance check fails

    Applying a host profile with version 6.5 to a ESXi host with version 7.0, results in Coredump file profile reported as not compliant with the host.

    Workaround: There are two possible workarounds.

    1. When you create a host profile with version 6.5, set an advanced configuration option VMkernel.Boot.autoCreateDumpFile to false on the ESXi host.

    2. When you apply an existing host profile with version 6.5, add an advanced configuration option VMkernel.Boot.autoCreateDumpFile in the host profile, configure the option to a fixed policy, and set value to false.

  • Cannot migrate container volume due to insufficient space

    The Migrate volume dialog in vSphere Client considers the current size of container volumes and the free space available on the target datastores. If the free space of a datastore is less than the volume size, then you cannot select the datastore for migration. vSphere preserves the storage policy as it migrates the volume, but the file size of the volume might change depending on the destination datastore type and its supported features. The vSphere Client might show the datastore has insufficient space to perform the migration, even though enough space is available.

    Workaround: None

  • The Actions drop-down menu does not contain any items when your browser is set to language different from English

    When your browser is set to language different from English and you click the Switch to New View button from the virtual machine Summary tab of the vSphere Client inventory, the Actions drop-down menu in the Guest OS panel does not contain any items.

    Workaround: Select the Actions drop-down menu on the top of the virtual machine page.

  • Mellanox ConnectX-4 or ConnectX-5 native ESXi drivers might exhibit minor throughput degradation when Dynamic Receive Side Scaling (DYN_RSS) or Generic RSS (GEN_RSS) feature is turned on

    Mellanox ConnectX-4 or ConnectX-5 native ESXi drivers might exhibit less than 5 percent throughput degradation when DYN_RSS and GEN_RSS feature is turned on, which is unlikely to impact normal workloads.

    Workaround: You can deactivate DYN_RSS and GEN_RSS feature with the following commands:

    # esxcli system module parameters set -m nmlx5_core -p "DYN_RSS=0 GEN_RSS=0"

    # reboot

  • RDMA traffic between two VMs on the same host might fail in PVRDMA environment

    In a vSphere 7.0 implementation of a PVRDMA environment, VMs pass traffic through the HCA for local communication if an HCA is present. However, loopback of RDMA traffic does not work on qedrntv driver. For instance, RDMA Queue Pairs running on VMs that are configured under same uplink port cannot communicate with each other.

    In vSphere 6.7 and earlier, HCA was used for local RDMA traffic if SRQ was enabled. vSphere 7.0 uses HCA loopback with VMs using versions of PVRDMA that have SRQ enabled with a minimum of HW v14 using RoCE v2.

    The current version of Marvell FastLinQ adapter firmware does not support loopback traffic between QPs of the same PF or port.

    Workaround: Required support is being added in the out-of-box driver certified for vSphere 7.0. If you are using the inbox qedrntv driver, you must use a 3-host configuration and migrate VMs to the third host.

  • Unreliable Datagram traffic QP limitations in qedrntv driver

    There are limitations with the Marvell FastLinQ qedrntv RoCE driver and Unreliable Datagram (UD) traffic. UD applications involving bulk traffic might fail with qedrntv driver. Additionally, UD QPs can only work with DMA Memory Regions (MR). Physical MRs or FRMR are not supported. Applications attempting to use physical MR or FRMR along with UD QP fail to pass traffic when used with qedrntv driver. Known examples of such test applications are ibv_ud_pingpong and ib_send_bw.

    Standard RoCE and RoCEv2 use cases in a VMware ESXi environment such as iSER, NVMe-oF (RoCE) and PVRDMA are not impacted by this issue. Use cases for UD traffic are limited and this issue impacts a small set of applications requiring bulk UD traffic.

    Marvell FastLinQ hardware does not support RDMA UD traffic offload. In order to meet the VMware PVRDMA requirement to support GSI QP, a restricted software only implementation of UD QP support was added to the qedrntv driver. The goal of the implementation is to provide support for control path GSI communication and is not a complete implementation of UD QP supporting bulk traffic and advanced features.

    Since UD support is implemented in software, the implementation might not keep up with heavy traffic and packets might be dropped. This can result in failures with bulk UD traffic.

    Workaround: Bulk UD QP traffic is not supported with qedrntv driver and there is no workaround at this time. VMware ESXi RDMA (RoCE) use cases like iSER, NVMe, RDMA and PVRDMA are unaffected by this issue.

  • Servers equipped with QLogic 578xx NIC might fail when frequently connecting or disconnecting iSCSI LUNs

    If you trigger QLogic 578xx NIC iSCSI connection or disconnection frequently in a short time, the server might fail due to an issue with the qfle3 driver. This is caused by a known defect in the device's firmware.

    Workaround: None.

  • ESXi might fail during driver unload or controller disconnect operation in Broadcom NVMe over FC environment

    In Broadcom NVMe over FC environment, ESXi might fail during driver unload or controller disconnect operation and display an error message such as: @BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world 2098707:vmknvmeGener IP 0x4200225021cc addr 0x19

    Workaround: None.

  • ESXi does not display OEM firmware version number of i350/X550 NICs on some Dell servers

    The inbox ixgben driver only recognizes firmware data version or signature for i350/X550 NICs. On some Dell servers the OEM firmware version number is programmed into the OEM package version region, and the inbox ixgben driver does not read this information. Only the 8-digit firmware signature is displayed.

    Workaround: To display the OEM firmware version number, install async ixgben driver version 1.7.15 or later.

  • X710 or XL710 NICs might fail in ESXi

    When you initiate certain destructive operations to X710 or XL710 NICs, such as resetting the NIC or manipulating VMKernel's internal device tree, the NIC hardware might read data from non-packet memory.

    Workaround: Do not reset the NIC or manipulate vmkernel internal device state.

  • NVMe-oF does not guarantee persistent VMHBA name after system reboot

    NVMe-oF is a new feature in vSphere 7.0. If your server has a USB storage installation that uses vmhba30+ and also has NVMe over RDMA configuration, the VMHBA name might change after a system reboot. This is because the VMHBA name assignment for NVMe over RDMA is different from PCIe devices. ESXi does not guarantee persistence.

    Workaround: None.

  • Backup fails for vCenter database size of 300 GB or greater

    If the vCenter database size is 300 GB or greater, the file-based backup will fail with a timeout. The following error message is displayed: Timeout! Failed to complete in 72000 seconds

    Workaround: None.

  • A restore of vCenter Server 7.0 which is upgraded from vCenter Server 6.x with External Platform Services Controller to vCenter Server 7.0 might fail

    When you restore a vCenter Server 7.0 which is upgraded from 6.x with External Platform Services Controller to vCenter Server 7.0, the restore might fail and display the following error: Failed to retrieve appliance storage list

    Workaround: During the first stage of the restore process, increase the storage level of the vCenter Server 7.0. For example if the vCenter Server 6.7 External Platform Services Controller setup storage type is small, select storage type large for the restore process.

  • Enabled SSL protocols configuration parameter is not configured during a host profile remediation process

    Enabled SSL protocols configuration parameter is not configured during a host profile remediation and only the system default protocol tlsv1.2 is enabled. This behavior is observed for a host profile with version 7.0 and earlier in a vCenter Server 7.0 environment.

    Workaround: To enable TLSV 1.0 or TLSV 1.1 SSL protocols for SFCB, log in to an ESXi host by using SSH, and run the following ESXCLI command: esxcli system wbem -P <protocol_name>

  • Unable to configure Lockdown Mode settings by using Host Profiles

    Lockdown Мode cannot be configured by using a security host profile and cannot be applied to multiple ESXi hosts at once. You must manually configure each host.

    Workaround: In vCenter Server 7.0, you can configure Lockdown Mode and manage Lockdown Mode exception user list by using a security host profile.

  • When a host profile is applied to a cluster, Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) settings are missing from the ESXi hosts

    Some settings in the VMware config file /etc/vmware/config are not managed by Host Profiles and are blocked, when the config file is modified. As a result, when the host profile is applied to a cluster, the EVC settings are lost, which causes loss of EVC functionalities. For example, unmasked CPUs can be exposed to workloads.

    Workaround: Reconfigure the relevant EVC baseline on cluster to recover the EVC settings.

  • Using a host profile that defines a core dump partition in vCenter Server 7.0 results in an error

    In vCenter Server 7.0, configuring and managing a core dump partition in a host profile is not available. Attempting to apply a host profile that defines a core dump partition, results in the following error: No valid coredump partition found.

    Workaround: None. In vCenter Server 7.0., Host Profiles supports only file-based core dumps.

  • You cannot paste by right clicking in the vi editor

    If you use the vi text editor on a vCenter Server Appliance instance, you cannot paste previously copied content by right clicking. Instead, the vi editor changes mode to Visual.

    Workaround: From the vCenter Server Appliance shell, run the command/usr/bin/sed -i.bak -E '2alet skip_defaults_vim=1' /etc/vimrc.

  • HTTP requests from certain libraries to vSphere might be rejected

    The HTTP reverse proxy in vSphere 7.0 enforces stricter standard compliance than in previous releases. This might expose pre-existing problems in some third-party libraries used by applications for SOAP calls to vSphere.

    If you develop vSphere applications that use such libraries or include applications that rely on such libraries in your vSphere stack, you might experience connection issues when these libraries send HTTP requests to VMOMI. For example, HTTP requests issued from vijava libraries can take the following form:

    POST /sdk HTTP/1.1
SOAPAction
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
User-Agent: Java/1.8.0_221

    The syntax in this example violates an HTTP protocol header field requirement that mandates a colon after SOAPAction. Hence, the request is rejected in flight.

    Workaround: Developers leveraging noncompliant libraries in their applications can consider using a library that follows HTTP standards instead. For example, developers who use the vijava library can consider using the latest version of the yavijava library instead.

  • SNMP dynamic firewall ruleset is modified by Host Profiles during a remediation process

    The SNMP firewall ruleset is a dynamic state, which is handled during runtime. When a host profile is applied, the configuration of the ruleset is managed simultaneously by Host Profiles and SNMP, which can modify the firewall settings unexpectedly.

    Workaround: There are two possible workarounds.

    • To allow the ruleset to manage itself dynamically, exclude the SNMP firewall ruleset option in the configuration of the host profile.

    • To proceed with the double management of the ruleset, when needed, correct the firewall ruleset state.

  • You might see a dump file when using Broadcom driver lsi_msgpt3, lsi_msgpt35 and lsi_mr3

    When using the lsi_msgpt3, lsi_msgpt35 and lsi_mr3 controllers, there is a potential risk to see dump file lsuv2-lsi-drivers-plugin-util-zdump. There is an issue when exiting the storelib used in this plugin utility. There is no impact on ESXi operations, you can ignore the dump file.

    Workaround: You can safely ignore this message. You can remove the lsuv2-lsi-drivers-plugin with the following command:

    esxcli software vib remove -n lsuv2-lsiv2-drivers-plugin

  • You might see reboot is not required after configuring SR-IOV of a PCI device in vCenter, but device configurations made by third party extensions might be lost and require reboot to be re-applied.

    In ESXi 7.0, SR-IOV configuration is applied without a reboot and the device driver is reloaded. ESXi hosts might have third party extensions perform device configurations that need to run after the device driver is loaded during boot. A reboot is required for those third party extensions to re-apply the device configuration.

    Workaround: You must reboot after configuring SR-IOV to apply third party device configurations.

  • You see black or grey zones in the background of a parent window in the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) after a child window closes

    In the DCUI, when you close a child window by pressing the ESC or Enter keys, or the Cancel or OK buttons, the parent window appearance might change. The background color changes to grey or black for some part of the parent window. However, all required information from the DCUI is properly displayed and all operations performed in the DCUI complete successfully.

    Workaround: Wait for 1 minute without refreshing the current window in the DCUI or pressing any key.

Backup Issues

  • If you use the NFS and SMB protocols for file-based backup of vCenter Server, the backup fails after an update from vCenter Server 7.x to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1

    If you use the Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols for file-based backup of vCenter Server, the backup fails after an update from an earlier version of vCenter Server 7.x to vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1. In the applmgmt.log, you see an error message such as Failed to mount the remote storage. The issue occurs because of Linux kernel updates that run during the patch process. The issue does not occur on fresh installations of vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1.

    Workaround: Reboot the vCenter Server appliance after the update is complete.

  • Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) logins might fail after restoring a vCenter Server Appliance

    If you manually add a certificate to the vCenter Server JRE truststore or modify the /etc/hosts file when setting up ADFS, the changes are not preserved after restoring and might cause ADFS logins to fail.

    Workaround: Add the ADFS certificate to the vCenter Server JRE truststore after restoring your vCenter Server Appliance. For more information, see Import the Trusted Certificate of an External Identity Provider. Add the necessary host name mappings back to the /etc/hosts file after restoring your vCenter Server Appliance.

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