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vCenter Server 8.0 Update 2 | 21 SEP 2023 | GA ISO Build 22385739

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

General Availability

This vCenter Server 8.0 Update 2 release is a General Availability (GA) designation. For more information on the vSphere 8.0 IA/GA Release Model of vSphere Update releases, see The vSphere 8 Release Model Evolves.

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.

For overview of the new features in vSphere 8.0 Update 2, see What's New in vSphere 8 Update 2 and the following release notes:

The list of new features and enhancements that follows adds some of the key highlights for vCenter systems in vSphere 8.0 Update 2:

vCenter and vSphere Client

  • Reduce upgrade downtime for a self-managed vCenter: vSphere 8.0 Update 2 introduces a migration-based approach for upgrading vCenter between major versions that reduces downtime to several minutes. Reduced downtime upgrade is only supported for single self-managed vCenter instances that have no vCenter HA and do not participate in Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM). For more information, see Reduced Downtime Upgrade and VMware knowledge base article 92659.

  • Automatic pre-update Logical Volume Manager (LVM) snapshots for quick and reliable rollback: Starting with vSphere 8.0 Update 2, the vCenter patching orchestrator automatically creates a LVM snapshot of the vCenter before performing a patch installation to allow safe roll back in case the update fails. You can use the rollback capability only for updates from vCenter 8.0 Update 2 to a later version. For more information, see Patching vCenter Server Using the vCenter Server Management Interface and Resilient vCenter Patching.

  • Detailed information about File lock owners and processes in vCenter: vSphere 8.0 Update 2 adds detailed information to file lock errors such as failed to lock the file to enable root cause analysis and troubleshooting. The new messages include details on which file is locked, which host owns the file lock and which process on that host is responsible for the file lock.

  • API for vSphere plug-ins to classify vCenter events: Moving vSphere plug-ins to a remote plug-in architecture, vSphere 8.0 deprecated support for local plug-ins and some vCenter alarms were only available in the local plug-ins. With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can view and manage alarms related to vCenter in the vSphere plug-in and no longer switch to the legacy local plug-ins.

  • Keep network configuration changes after a vCenter backup: With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, when you make changes to the network configuration or the vSphere Distributed Switch after a vCenter backup, such as adding or removing an ESXi host to VDS or an NSX port group, all changes persist when a vCenter is restored from backup.

  • Non-disruptive SSL certificate renewal and replacement for vCenter: With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can renew or replace the vCenter machine and trusted-root certificates with no restart of the vCenter services. For more information, see Non-disruptive Certificate Management.

  • vCenter support for identity federation with Microsoft Entra Active Directory (former Azure AD): vSphere 8 Update 2 adds Microsoft Entra Active Directory as an external identity provider to reduce the attack surface for vCenter. For more information, see Configure vCenter Server Identity Provider Federation for Azure AD.

  • Activate retreat mode for vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) from the vSphere Client: With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can activate retreat mode on a vCLS cluster by using the EDIT VCLS MODE button at Configure > vSphere Cluster Services > General.

GPU

Storage

  • Migration of persistent container volumes between datastores in the vSphere Cloud Native Storage: Starting with vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can migrate persistent container volumes between datastores in the vSphere Cloud Native Storage by using the vSphere Client. For more information, see Migrating Container Volumes in vSphere.

  • Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) Support for Asynchronous CNS Queries: vSphere 8.0 Update 2 adds asynchronous API support for QueryAssociatedProfiles, QueryAssociatedEntity, QueryAssociatedEntities, and FetchEntityHealthStatusExt to improve concurrency.

  • Container Storage Interface (CSI) snapshot support for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service: With vSphere 8 Update 2, you can take Persistent Volume snapshot directly with CSI in a standardized way, no need for third-party tools, to increase workload protection. For more information, see Creating Snapshots in a TKG Cluster in vSphere with Tanzu.

  • Offline consolidation improvement with VMFS SE Sparse: With vSphere 8 Update 2, you see faster offline consolidation, which leads to lower Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) with VMFS snapshot offline consolidation operations, without resulting in VMFS version change.

  • Extend online shared disks in clustered applications with vSphere Virtual Volumes:  With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can increase the size of shared disks, either physical bus sharing or multi-writer, without taking the application cluster offline and independent of raw device mapping (RDM). For Windows Server Failover Clusters (WSFC), only SCSI is supported. For Oracle RAC, both SCSI and NVMeoF (FC, TCP) are supported. For more information, see VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes Support for WSFC and You Can Hot Extend a Shared vVol Disk.

  • Support for NVMe in-band migration: With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can manage in-band migration of vSphere Virtual Volumes namespaces between Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA) groups to allow better balancing of I/O loads across protocol endpoints.

  • Support for third-party Multipathing Plug‐In (MPP) for vSphere Virtual Volumes: vSphere 8.0 Update 2 adds support to third-party MPPs for vSphere Virtual Volumes for NVMe over Fibre Channel and NVMe over TCP datastores.

  • Directory Name Lookup Cache (DNLC) for NFS 4.1: With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can use DNLC for NFS 4.1 to facilitate searches, power on, or listing VMs on large datastores.

  • For more information on storage-related features, see What's New with vSphere 8 Core Storage.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager and Configuration Manager

  • Support for vSAN witness node desired state image independent of a vSAN cluster: With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can upgrade a vSAN witness node with a desired state image independent of the vSAN cluster. You no longer need a dedicated witness per vSAN cluster as shared witness deployments is supported. For more information, see vSphere Lifecycle Manager and the vSAN Witness Hosts.

  • vSphere Configuration Profiles Drafts: Starting with vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you can create a draft configuration and edit the configuration settings directly in the vSphere Client. For more information, see Create a Draft Configuration in vSphere Client.

Earlier Releases of vCenter Server 8.0

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 8.0 are:

For internationalization, compatibility, installation, upgrade, open source components and product support notices, see the VMware vSphere 8.0 Release Notes.

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

Product Support Notices

Removal of the Disable acceleration option from the Virtual Machine Edit Settings dialog: Starting with vCenter Server 8.0 Update 2, the option to Disable acceleration under the VM Options tab of the Virtual Machine Edit Settings dialog is removed and not supported.

Deprecation of ESX Agent Manager (EAM) VIB lifecycle API: vCenter Server 8.0 Update 2 supports EAM for managing the VIB lifecycle on clusters, but support will drop in a future vSphere release. Instead of creating EAM agents with VIB URLs, you can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager solutions to perform tasks on a cluster level such as installing, updating, and uninstalling a desired solution version on all hosts in a cluster. ESX Agent Manager agent Virtual Machines lifecycle API is not affected by this deprecation.

Patches Contained in This Release

Patch for VMware vCenter Server 8.0 Update 2

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-8.0.2.00000-22385739-patch-FP.iso

Build

22385739

Download Size

7856.1 MB

sha256checksum

b8ad59bd3e269011eb0e2f627608cb52fcd14eb8e36c760846a618fc44ac73e2

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-8.0.2.00000-22385739-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 and Updating vCenter Server 8.0 Deployments.

For more information on staging patches, see Upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance.

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.

Miscellaneous Issues

  • You cannot change SMTP credentials in vCenter

    As a side effect of vCenter security enhancements, the vpxd service might fail to modify a configuration file required to set SMTP credentials in a vCenter instance. When you populate the username field by using either the vSphere Client or the Virtualization Management Object Management Infrastructure (VMOMI), vCenter fails to edit the configuration values. As a result, you cannot change any of the following settings:

    • mail.smtp.server

    • mail.smtp.password

    • mail.smtp.username

    • mail.smtp.port

    This issue is resolved in this release.

vSphere Client and vCenter Issues

  • The Utilization view of resource pools and clusters might not automatically refresh when you change the object

    When you have already opened the Utilization view under the Monitor tab for a resource pool or a cluster and then you change the resource pool or cluster, the view might not automatically refresh. For example, when you open the Utilization view of one cluster and then select a different cluster, you might still see the statistics of the first cluster.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • If you load the vSphere virtual infrastructure to more than 90%, ESXi hosts might intermittently disconnect from vCenter Server

    In rare occasions, if the vSphere virtual infrastructure is continuously using more than 90% of its hardware capacity, some ESXi hosts might intermittently disconnect from the vCenter Server. Connection typically restores within a few seconds.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • In the vSphere Client, you do not see banner notifications for historical data imports

    Due to a backend issue, you do not see banner notifications for background migration of historical data in the vSphere Client.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Installation, Upgrade and Migration Issues

  • You cannot specify IP properties on virtual machines deployed by using a customized OVA on vCenter 8.0 Update 1

    While deploying virtual machines by using a customized OVA file on a vCenter 8.0 Update 1 system, the field to provide IP properties of the virtual machine might not appear and you must manually add IP properties after the deployment.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

  • If a vCenter Server Security Token Service (STS) refresh happens during upgrade to ESXi 8.0, the upgrade might fail

    In vSphere 8.0, vCenter Single Sign-On automatically renews a VMCA-generated STS signing certificate. The auto-renewal occurs before the STS signing certificate expires and before triggering the 90-day expiration alarm. However, in long-running upgrade or remediation tasks by using a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image on multiple ESXi hosts in a cluster, vSphere Lifecycle Manager might create a cache of STS certificates internally. In very rare cases, if an STS certificates refresh task starts in parallel with the long-running upgrade or remediation task, the upgrade task might fail as the STS certificates in the internal cache might be different from the refreshed certificates. After the upgrade task fails, some ESXi hosts might remain in maintenance mode.

    This issue is resolved in this release.

Known Issues

Installation, Upgrade, and Migration Issues

  • A reduced downtime upgrade (RDU) on a vCenter system might fail when you use Update Planner

    During RDU, if you use Update Planner, in the vSphere Client you might see an error such as: Update 8.0.2.00000 for component vlcm is not found.

    Workaround: For more information, see VMware knowledge base articles 94779 and 92659.

  • You see a security warning for the ESX Agent Manager configuration during the pre-check phase of a vCenter upgrade

    During the pre-check phase of a vCenter update or upgrade, in the vSphere Client and logs, you might see an error such as:

    Source ESX Agent Manager Configuration contains URLs that are not trusted by the System! Verify following URLs and their respective statuses and follow KB 93526.

    Workaround: For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 93526.

  • You see vCenter update status as failed although it completes successfully

    A rare race condition might cause vCenter to report a successful update as failed. The issue occurs if during vCenter reboot /storage/core unmounts before the system acknowledges the Installation complete status. As a result, the update fails with an error such as No such file or directory: '/storage/core/software-update/install_operation'. In the software-packages.logs, you see errors such as:

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]DEBUG:vmware.appliance.update.update_state:In State._get using state file /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]INFO:vmware.appliance.update.update_state:Found operation in progress /storage/core/software-update/install_operation

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]ERROR:vmware.appliance.update.update_functions:Can't read JSON file /storage/core/software-update/install_operation [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/storage/core/software-update/install_operation'

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]DEBUG:vmware.appliance.update.update_state:Operation in progress is orphaned

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]DEBUG:vmware.appliance.update.update_state:Operation in progress is finished

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]DEBUG:vmware.appliance.update.update_state:Writing to state file from State._get

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]DEBUG:vmware.appliance.update.update_state:In State._writeInfo writing to state file /etc/applmgmt/appliance/software_update_state.conf

    2023-08-17T10:57:59.229 [15033]INFO:vmware.vherd.base.software_update:Installation failed. Please collect the VC support bundle.

    Workaround: Check if vCenter restarts successfully and the vCenter health status is green, and ignore the failure report.

  • Patching to vCenter 8.0 Update 2 fails in IPv6 environments with no DNS server and hostname

    When you update your vCenter system to 8.0 Update 2 from an earlier version of 8.x, if your system uses an IPv6 network without a hostname, such as PNID, and a DNS server, in the VMware Appliance Management Interface you might see an error such as Data conversion/Post install hook failed.

    Workaround: Manually update the /etc/hosts file with the missing IPv6 loopback entry: ::1 localhost ipv6-localhost ipv6-loopback and reboot the system.

    See this example:

    root@localhost []# cat /etc/hosts

    # Begin /etc/hosts (network card version)

    127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain

    127.0.0.1 localhost

    ::1 localhost ipv6-localhost ipv6-loopback

  • During a reduced downtime upgrade (RDU), when configuring Target VM network settings, you see no network portgroups

    In very rare cases, during a reduced downtime upgrade of a single self-managed vCenter instance that uses a migration-based method, when a source vCenter VM has thin disk provisioning and the target vCenter cluster does not have enough storage to accommodate the required space for the default thick disk mode selected by the validation process, you might see no network portgroups in the Target VM deployment wizard. In the vSphere Client, if you select Same Configuration in the Deployment type step of the Target VM deployment wizard, you see an empty error message in the Network Settings screen and no portgroups available.

    Workaround: In the Deployment type step of the Target VM deployment wizard, select Detailed Configuration.

  • URL-based patching or file-based backup of vCenter 8.0 Update 2 might fail due to OpenSSL noncompliance to Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)

    With vCenter 8.0 Update 2, OpenSSL works only with Diffie-Hellman parameters compliant to NIST SP 800-56A and FIPS 140-2. For URL-based patching or file-based backup of vCenter 8.0 Update 2 systems, FTPS servers in your environment must support the following ciphers:

    OpenSSL Cipher Suite

    Name AT-TLS Cipher Suite Name

    Hexadecimal Value

    DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA

    TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

    39

    DHE-DSS-AES256-SHA

    TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

    38

    AES256-SHA

    TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA

    35

    EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA

    TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

    16

    EDH-DSS-DES-CBC3-SHA

    TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

    13

    DES-CBC3-SHA

    TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

    0A

    DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA

    TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

    33

    DHE-DSS-AES128-SHA

    TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

    32

    AES128-SHA

    TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

    2F

    Workaround: Make sure your file servers are FIPS compliant.

Miscellaneous Issues

  • You see incorrect Maximum Size value for thin-provisioned virtual disks

    In the vSphere Client, when you look at the settings of a VM with a thin-provisioned virtual disk, you might see the Maximum Size value for the disk larger than the capacity of the datastore where the disk is located. For example, if a datastore capacity is 100GB of which 90GB are available, and a thin-provisioned virtual disk has 50GB capacity, of which only 10GB are utilized, you might see a Maximum Size value of 140 GB, adding the available datastore capacity to the overall disk capacity, not its actual utilization.

    Workaround: None

  • You cannot customize firewall rule configuration with the option 'Only allow connections from the following networks' on ESXi hosts

    Starting with vSphere 8.0 Update 2, you cannot customize firewall rule configuration with the option Only allow connections from the following networks on ESXi hosts. For example, in the VMware Host Client, when you navigate to Networking > Firewall rules, select DHCP client, provide an IP and check Only allow connections from the following networks, the operation fails with an error such as Operation failed, diagnostics report: Invalid operation requested: Can not change allowed ip list this ruleset, it is owned by system service.. This is expected behavior.

    Workaround: None

vSphere Client and vCenter Issues

  • VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager might fail to load latest certificates and cannot complete a range of tasks

    VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager might fail to load the latest certificates when you opt for a non-disruptive certificate renewal in vCenter 8.0 Update 2. As a result, any functionality relying on vCenter Lifecycle Manager, which provides the underlying VMware vCenter Orchestration platform, such as the Update Planner, vSphere+ vCenter Lifecycle Management Service, and reduced downtime upgrade for vCenter, might fail.

    Workaround: Restart the vCenter Lifecycle Manager to get the latest certificates. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 2109887.

  • You do not see the option to push root certificates to vCenter hosts

    In the Add Trusted Root Certificate screen under the Certificate Management tab in the vSphere Client, you do not see the option Start Root certificate push to vCenter Hosts.

    Workaround: This change in the Add Trusted Root Certificate screen is related to the non-disruptive certificate management capability introduced with vCenter 8.0 Update 2 and is expected. For more information, see Non-disruptive Certificate Management.

  • A scheduled task fails and doesn't schedule further runs

    With vSphere 8.0 Update 2, if a vCenter user is unauthorized or unauthenticated, all scheduled tasks they own fail and cannot be scheduled until the user privileges are restored or a different vSphere user takes over the scheduled tasks. In the vSphere Client, you see messages for failed tasks and reasons for the failure.

    Workaround: Any vSphere user with sufficient privileges to edit scheduled tasks, including the current task owner with restored privileges, can click Edit and submit the scheduled task, without actually changing the scheduled task. For more information, see Scheduling vSphere Tasks.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager Issues

  • You do not see a warning or error when entering non-numeric values for a desired cluster configuration setting in the vSphere Client that requires numbers

    When you edit the host settings of the draft configuration for a cluster that uses vSphere Configuration Profiles, you can enter non-numeric values in a field that expects only numbers and you see no error or warning. For example, if you set non-numeric characters in the setting for syslog rotations, esx/syslog/global_settings/rotations, which expects a number, the Edit dialog box closes without an error and seems to save the value, but the setting actually keeps the previous valid value.

    Workaround: Use numeric values in fields that expect numbers.

  • Manually applied security advanced options on a vCenter system might not persist across vSphere Lifecycle Manager operations

    Some of all manually applied security advanced options on a vCenter system might not persist across vSphere Lifecycle Manager operations, such as upgrade, update, backup, or restore.

    Workaround: Re-apply the manual settings after the vSphere Lifecycle Manager task completes.

  • You see an authentication error on the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home view in one of several linked vCenter instances

    After an update of a linked vCenter system, access to the vSphere Lifecycle Manager home page in the vSphere Client from one of the linked vCenter instances might fail. When you select Menu > Lifecycle Manager, you see the error Authentication failed, Lifecycle Manager server could not be contacted. The issue also affects vSphere Lifecycle Manager baseline pages and workflows. Workflows with vSphere Lifecycle Manager images are not affected.

    Workaround: Log in to the vSphere Client from another vCenter instance in the linked environment or restart the vsphere-ui service to resolve the issue.

Virtual Machine Management

  • In a mixed vCenter environment, when you clone a VM with First Class Disk (FCD) attached and delete it, the attached FCD in the cloned VM is also deleted

    In a mixed vCenter environment, where vCenter is on version 8.0 Update 2 or later and ESXi is on version 7.0 Update 3 or earlier, when you clone a VM with FCD, the parameter KeepAfterDeleteVM is set to FALSE by default. As a result, if the cloned VM is deleted, the attached cloned FCD is also deleted.

    Workaround: In a mixed vCenter environment, where vCenter is of version 8.0 Update 2 or later and ESXi is on version 7.0 Update 3 or earlier, set the KeepAfterDeleteVM parameter to TRUE by using the FCD API : setVStorageObjectControlFlags. You can invoke the FCD API at https://<VC_IP>/mob/?moid=VStorageObjectManager&method=setVStorageObjectControlFlags and pass the control flag : KeepAfterDeleteVM.

Security Issues

  • You cannot encrypt virtual machines when connected to a vCenter version earlier than 8.0 Update 1

    When you use the vSphere Client to connect to a vCenter system of version 7.x or earlier than 8.0 Update 1, and try to encrypt a VM either in the New Virtual Machine wizard or in the Edit Settings dialog of an existing VM, you see errors such as Operation failed! RuntimeFault.Summary and A general runtime error occurred. Key /default KMS cluster not found. The task completes successfully when you use the vSphere Client to log in to a vCenter system of version 8.0 Update 1 or later.

    Workaround: Use the vSphere Client from the vCenter instance of version earlier than 8.0 Update 1 to encrypt the VM. Alternatively, you can enable VM encryption on another vCenter instance of version 8.0 Update 1 and later, and migrate the already encrypted VM to the vCenter instance of earlier version.

Known Issues from Previous Releases

Installation, Upgrade, and Migration Issues

  • You see an error Failed to get ceip status in the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) during update to vCenter Server 8.0 Update 1

    During an update, vCenter stops and restarts the VMDir service and within this interval, if you try to log in to the VAMI, you might see an error such as Failed to get ceip status. This is expected and does not indicate an actual issue with the vCenter system.

    Workaround: Wait for the VMDir service to restart and refresh the Virtual Appliance Management Interface.

  • Failed parallel remediation by using vSphere Lifecycle Manager on one ESXi host might cause other hosts to remain in a pending reboot state

    An accidental loss of network connectivity during a parallel remediation by using vSphere Lifecycle Manager might cause the operation to fail on one of the ESXi hosts. Remediation on other hosts continues, but the hosts cannot reboot to complete the task.

    Workaround: If an ESXi host consistently fails remediation attempts, manually trigger a reboot. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 91260.

  • Firmware compliance details are missing from a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image compliance report for an ESXi standalone host

    Firmware compliance details might be missing from a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image compliance report for an ESXi standalone host in two cases:

    1. You run a compliance report against a standalone host managed with a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image from vSphere Client and then navigate away before the compliance report gets generated.

    2. You trigger a page refresh after the image compliance reports are generated.

    In such cases, even when you have the firmware package available in the Desired State, the firmware compliance section remains empty when you revisit or refresh the vSphere Client browsing session. If you use GET image compliance API, then firmware compliance details are missing from the response.

    Workaround: Invoke the image compliance scan for a standalone host managed with a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image by using the vSphere Client and do not navigate away or refresh the browser. For API, use the Check image compliance API for fetching the firmware details as apposed to GET image compliance.

  • If you apply a host profile using a software FCoE configuration to an ESXi 8.0 host, the operation fails with a validation error

    Starting from vSphere 7.0, software FCoE is deprecated, and in vSphere 8.0 software FCoE profiles are not supported. If you try to apply a host profile from an earlier version to an ESXi 8.0 host, for example to edit the host customization, the operation fails. In the vSphere Client, you see an error such as Host Customizations validation error.

    Workaround: Disable the Software FCoE Configuration subprofile in the host profile.

  • You cannot use ESXi hosts of version 8.0 as a reference host for existing host profiles of earlier ESXi versions

    Validation of existing host profiles for ESXi versions 7.x, 6.7.x and 6.5.x fails when only an 8.0 reference host is available in the inventory.

    Workaround: Make sure you have a reference host of the respective version in the inventory. For example, use an ESXi 7.0 Update 2 reference host to update or edit an ESXi 7.0 Update 2 host profile.

  • VMNICs might be down after an upgrade to ESXi 8.0

    If the peer physical switch of a VMNIC does not support the auto negotiate option, or the option is not active, and the VMNIC link is set down and then up, the link remains down after upgrade to or installation of ESXi 8.0.

    Workaround: Use either of these 2 options:

    1. Enable the option media-auto-detect in the BIOS settings by navigating to System Setup Main Menu, usually by pressing F2 or opening a virtual console, and then Device Settings > <specific broadcom NIC> > Device Configuration Menu > Media Auto Detect. Reboot the host.

    2. Alternatively, use an ESXCLI command similar to: esxcli network nic set -S <your speed> -D full -n <your nic>. With this option, you also set a fixed speed to the link, and it does not require a reboot.

  • After upgrade to ESXi 8.0, you might lose some nmlx5_core driver module settings due to obsolete parameters

    Some module parameters for the nmlx5_core driver, such as device_rss, drss and rss, are deprecated in ESXi 8.0 and any custom values, different from the default values, are not kept after an upgrade to ESXi 8.0.

    Workaround: Replace the values of the device_rss, drss and rss parameters as follows:

    • device_rss: Use the DRSS parameter.

    • drss: Use the DRSS parameter.

    • rss: Use the RSS parameter.

  • Second stage of vCenter Server restore procedure freezes at 90%

    When you use the vCenter Server GUI installer or the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) to restore a vCenter from a file-based backup, the restore workflow might freeze at 90% with an error 401 Unable to authenticate user, even though the task completes successfully in the backend. The issue occurs if the deployed machine has a different time than the NTP server, which requires a time sync. As a result of the time sync, clock skew might fail the running session of the GUI or VAMI.

    Workaround: If you use the GUI installer, you can get the restore status by using the restore.job.get command from the appliancesh shell. If you use VAMI, refresh your browser.

Miscellaneous Issues

  • In Hybrid Linked Mode, the cloud vCenter is not able to discover plug-ins deployed on an on-prem vCenter

    Hybrid Linked Mode allows you to link your cloud vCenter Server instance with an on-premises vCenter Single Sign-On domain, but the cloud vCenter might not be able to discover plug-ins deployed on the on-prem instance because it does not have the necessary permissions.

    Workaround: Install the vCenter Cloud Gateway in your on-premises environment and either browse the plug-ins deployed on the on-prem instance from the VMware Cloud Console or directly from the vSphere Client on the on-prem vCenter.

  • In a vCenter Server system with DPUs, if IPv6 is disabled, you cannot manage DPUs

    Although the vSphere Client allows the operation, if you disable IPv6 on an ESXi host with DPUs, you cannot use the DPUs, because the internal communication between the host and the devices depends on IPv6. The issue affects only ESXi hosts with DPUs.

    Workaround: Make sure IPv6 is enabled on ESXi hosts with DPUs.

  • You might see 10 min delay in rebooting an ESXi host on HPE server with pre-installed Pensando DPU

    In rare cases, HPE servers with pre-installed Pensando DPU might take more than 10 minutes to reboot in case of a failure of the DPU. As a result, ESXi hosts might fail with a purple diagnostic screen and the default wait time is 10 minutes.

    Workaround: None.

  • If you have an USB interface enabled in a remote management application that you use to install ESXi 8.0, you see an additional standard switch vSwitchBMC with uplink vusb0

    Starting with vSphere 8.0, in both Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) and HP Integrated Lights Out (ILO), when you have an USB interface enabled, vUSB or vNIC respectively, an additional standard switch vSwitchBMC with uplink vusb0 gets created on the ESXi host. This is expected, in view of the introduction of data processing units (DPUs) on some servers but might cause the VMware Cloud Foundation Bring-Up process to fail.

    Workaround: Before vSphere 8.0 installation, disable the USB interface in the remote management application that you use by following vendor documentation.

    After vSphere 8.0 installation, use the ESXCLI command esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/BMCNetworkEnable to prevent the creation of a virtual switch vSwitchBMC and associated portgroups on the next reboot of host.

    See this script as an example:

    ~# esxcfg-advcfg -s 0 /Net/BMCNetworkEnable

    The value of BMCNetworkEnable is 0 and the service is disabled.

    ~# reboot

    On host reboot, no virtual switch, PortGroup and VMKNIC are created in the host related to remote management application network.

  • If an NVIDIA BlueField DPU is in hardware offload mode disabled, virtual machines with configured SR-IOV virtual function cannot power on

    NVIDIA BlueField DPUs must be in hardware offload mode enabled to allow virtual machines with configured SR-IOV virtual function to power on and operate.

    Workaround: Always use the default hardware offload mode enabled for NVIDIA BlueField DPUs when you have VMs with configured SR-IOV virtual function connected to a virtual switch.

  • In the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI), you see a warning message during the pre-upgrade stage

    Moving vSphere plug-ins to a remote plug-in architecture, vSphere 8.0 deprecates support for local plug-ins. If your 8.0 vSphere environment has local plug-ins, some breaking changes for such plug-ins might cause the pre-upgrade check by using VAMI to fail.

    In the Pre-Update Check Results screen, you see an error such as:

    Warning message: The compatibility of plug-in package(s) %s with the new vCenter Server version cannot be validated. They may not function properly after vCenter Server upgrade.

    Resolution: Please contact the plug-in vendor and make sure the package is compatible with the new vCenter Server version.

    Workaround: Refer to the VMware Compatibility Guide and VMware Product Interoperability Matrix or contact the plug-in vendors for recommendations to make sure local plug-ins in your environment are compatible with vCenter Server 8.0 before you continue with the upgrade. For more information, see the blog Deprecating the Local Plugins :- The Next Step in vSphere Client Extensibility Evolution and VMware knowledge base article 87880.

  • You cannot remove a PCI passthrough device assigned to a virtual Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) node from a virtual machine with CPU Hot Add enabled

    Although by default when you enable CPU Hot Add to allow the addition of vCPUs to a running virtual machine, virtual NUMA topology is deactivated, if you have a PCI passthrough device assigned to a NUMA node, attempts to remove the device end with an error. In the vSphere Client, you see messages such as Invalid virtual machine configuration. Virtual NUMA cannot be configured when CPU hotadd is enabled.

    Workaround: See VMware knowledge base article 89638.

Networking Issues

  • Overlapping hot-add and hot-remove operations for DirectPath I/O devices might fail

    With vSphere 8.0 Update 1, by using vSphere API you can add or remove a DirectPath I/O device without powering off VMs. However, if you run several operations at the same time, some of the overlapping tasks might fail.

    Workaround: Plan for 20 seconds processing time between each hot-add or hot-remove operation for DirectPath I/O devices.

  • Hot adding and removing of DirectPath I/O devices is not automatically enabled on virtual machines

    With vSphere 8.0 Update 1, by using vSphere API you can add or remove a DirectPath I/O device without powering off VMs. When you enable the hotplug functionality that allows you to hot add and remove DirectPath I/O devices to a VM, if you use such a VM to create an OVF and deploy a new VM, the new VM might not have the hotplug functionality automatically enabled.

    Workaround: Enable the hotplug functionality as described in Hot-add and Hot-remove support for VMDirectPath I/O Devices.

  • You cannot set the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) on a VMware vSphere Distributed Switch to a value larger than 9174 on a Pensando DPU

    If you have the vSphere Distributed Services Engine feature with a Pensando DPU enabled on your ESXi 8.0 system, you cannot set the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) on a vSphere Distributed Switch to a value larger than 9174.

    Workaround: None.

  • You see link flapping on NICs that use the ntg3 driver of version 4.1.3 and later

    When two NICs that use the ntg3 driver of versions 4.1.3 and later are connected directly, not to a physical switch port, link flapping might occur. The issue does not occur on ntg3 drivers of versions earlier than 4.1.3 or the tg3 driver. This issue is not related to the occasional Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) link flapping on such NICs. The fix for the EEE issue is to use a ntg3 driver of version 4.1.7 or later, or disable EEE on physical switch ports.

    Workaround: Upgrade the ntg3 driver to version 4.1.8 and set the new module parameter noPhyStateSet to 1. The noPhyStateSet parameter defaults to 0 and is not required in most environments, except they face the issue.

  • You cannot use Mellanox ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6 cards Model 1 Level 2 and Model 2 for Enhanced Network Stack (ENS) mode in vSphere 8.0

    Due to hardware limitations, Model 1 Level 2, and Model 2 for Enhanced Network Stack (ENS) mode in vSphere 8.0 is not supported in ConnectX-5 and ConnectX-6 adapter cards.

    Workaround: Use Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx and ConnectX-6 Dx or later cards that support ENS Model 1 Level 2, and Model 2A.

  • Pensando DPUs do not support Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) on physical switch ports of ESXi hosts

    When you enable LLDP on an ESXi host with a DPU, the host cannot receive LLDP packets.

    Workaround: None.

Storage Issues

  • VASA API version does not automatically refresh after upgrade to vCenter Server 8.0

    vCenter Server 8.0 supports VASA API version 4.0. However, after you upgrade your vCenter Server system to version 8.0, the VASA API version might not automatically change to 4.0. You see the issue in 2 cases:

    1. If a VASA provider that supports VASA API version 4.0 is registered with a previous version of VMware vCenter, the VASA API version remains unchanged after you upgrade to VMware vCenter 8.0. For example, if you upgrade a VMware vCenter system of version 7.x with a registered VASA provider that supports both VASA API versions 3.5 and 4.0, the VASA API version does not automatically change to 4.0, even though the VASA provider supports VASA API version 4.0. After the upgrade, when you navigate to vCenter Server > Configure > Storage Providers and expand the General tab of the registered VASA provider, you still see VASA API version 3.5.

    2. If you register a VASA provider that supports VASA API version 3.5 with a VMware vCenter 8.0 system and upgrade the VASA API version to 4.0, even after the upgrade, you still see VASA API version 3.5.

    Workaround: Unregister and re-register the VASA provider on the VMware vCenter 8.0 system.

  • vSphere Storage vMotion operations might fail in a vSAN environment due to an unauthenticated session of the Network File Copy (NFC) manager

    Migrations to a vSAN datastore by using vSphere Storage vMotion of virtual machines that have at least one snapshot and more than one virtual disk with different storage policy might fail. The issue occurs due to an unauthenticated session of the NFC manager because the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) body exceeds the allowed size.

    Workaround: First migrate the VM home namespace and just one of the virtual disks. After the operation completes, perform a disk only migration of the remaining 2 disks.

  • You cannot create snapshots of virtual machines due to an error in the Content Based Read Cache (CBRC) that a digest operation has failed

    A rare race condition when assigning a content ID during the update of the CBRC digest file might cause a discrepancy between the content ID in the data disk and the digest disk. As a result, you cannot create virtual machine snapshots. You see an error such as An error occurred while saving the snapshot: A digest operation has failed in the backtrace. The snapshot creation task completes upon retry.

    Workaround: Retry the snapshot creation task.

vCenter Server and vSphere Client Issues

  • You see an error for Cloud Native Storage (CNS) block volumes created by using API in a mixed vCenter environment

    If your environment has vCenter Server systems of version 8.0 and 7.x, creating Cloud Native Storage (CNS) block volume by using API is successful, but you might see an error in the vSphere Client, when you navigate to see the CNS volume details. You see an error such as Failed to extract the requested data. Check vSphere Client logs for details. + TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'cluster'). The issue occurs only if you review volumes managed by the 7.x vCenter Server by using the vSphere Client of an 8.0 vCenter Server.

    Workaround: Log in to vSphere Client on a vCenter Server system of version 7.x to review the volume properties.

  • ESXi hosts might become unresponsive, and you see a vpxa dump file due to a rare condition of insufficient file descriptors for the request queue on vpxa

    In rare cases, when requests to the vpxa service take long, for example waiting for access to a slow datastore, the request queue on vpxa might exceed the limit of file descriptors. As a result, ESXi hosts might briefly become unresponsive, and you see a vpxa-zdump.00* file in the /var/core directory. The vpxa logs contain the line Too many open files.

    Workaround: None. The vpxa service automatically restarts and corrects the issue.

  • If you use custom update repository with untrusted certificates, vCenter Server upgrade or update by using vCenter Lifecycle Manager workflows to vSphere 8.0 might fail

    If you use a custom update repository with self-signed certificates that the VMware Certificate Authority (VMCA) does not trust, vCenter Lifecycle Manager fails to download files from such a repository. As a result, vCenter Server upgrade or update operations by using vCenter Lifecycle Manager workflows fail with the error Failed to load the repository manifest data for the configured upgrade.

    Workaround: Use CLI, the GUI installer, or the Virtual Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) to perform the upgrade. For more information, see VMware knowledge base article 89493.

Virtual Machine Management Issues

  • When you add an existing virtual hard disk to a new virtual machine, you might see an error that the VM configuration is rejected

    When you add an existing virtual hard disk to a new virtual machine by using the VMware Host Client, the operation might fail with an error such as The VM configuration was rejected. Please see browser Console. The issue occurs because the VMware Host Client might fail to get some properties, such as the hard disk controller.

    Workaround: After you select a hard disk and go to the Ready to complete page, do not click Finish. Instead, return one step back, wait for the page to load, and then click Next > Finish.

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.

  • If a parallel remediation task fails, you do not see the correct number of ESXi hosts that passed or skipped the operation

    With vSphere 8.0, you can enable vSphere Lifecycle Manager to remediate all hosts that are in maintenance mode in parallel instead of in sequence. However, if a parallel remediation task fails, in the vSphere Client you might not see the correct number of hosts that passed, failed, or skipped the operation, or even not see such counts at all. The issue does not affect the vSphere Lifecycle Manager functionality, but only the reporting in the vSphere Client.

    Workaround: None.

  • You see error messages when try to stage vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images on ESXi hosts of version earlier than 8.0

    ESXi 8.0 introduces the option to explicitly stage desired state images, which is the process of downloading depot components from the vSphere Lifecycle Manager depot to the ESXi hosts without applying the software and firmware updates immediately. However, staging of images is only supported on an ESXi 8.0 or later hosts. Attempting to stage a vSphere Lifecycle Manager image on ESXi hosts of version earlier than 8.0 results in messages that the staging of such hosts fails, and the hosts are skipped. This is expected behavior and does not indicate any failed functionality as all ESXi 8.0 or later hosts are staged with the specified desired image.

    Workaround: None. After you confirm that the affected ESXi hosts are of version earlier than 8.0, ignore the errors.

  • A remediation task by using vSphere Lifecycle Manager might intermittently fail on ESXi hosts with DPUs

    When you start a vSphere Lifecycle Manager remediation on an ESXi hosts with DPUs, the host upgrades and reboots as expected, but after the reboot, before completing the remediation task, you might see an error such as:

    A general system error occurred: After host … remediation completed, compliance check reported host as 'non-compliant'. The image on the host does not match the image set for the cluster. Retry the cluster remediation operation.

    This is a rare issue, caused by an intermittent timeout of the post-remediation scan on the DPU.

    Workaround: Reboot the ESXi host and re-run the vSphere Lifecycle Manager compliance check operation, which includes the post-remediation scan.

VMware Host Client Issues

  • VMware Host Client might display incorrect descriptions for severity event states

    When you look in the VMware Host Client to see the descriptions of the severity event states of an ESXi host, they might differ from the descriptions you see by using Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) or Lenovo XClarity Controller (XCC). For example, in the VMware Host Client, the description of the severity event state for the PSU Sensors might be Transition to Non-critical from OK, while in the XCC and IPMI, the description is Transition to OK.

    Workaround: Verify the descriptions for severity event states by using the ESXCLI command esxcli hardware ipmi sdr list and Lenovo XCC.

Security Features Issues

  • If you use an RSA key size smaller than 2048 bits, RSA signature generation fails

    Starting from vSphere 8.0, ESXi uses the OpenSSL 3.0 FIPS provider. As part of the FIPS 186-4 requirement, the RSA key size must be at least 2048 bits for any signature generation, and signature generation with SHA1 is not supported.

    Workaround: Use RSA key size larger than 2048.

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