Well June Has Just Arrived and we have got a Major Release on VMware Cloud Foundation . This is a major platform release which brings additional scalability, security and SDDC Manager ,Workload Domain Scaling enhancements and Direct Skip-level Upgrade supports from 4.3.x to 5.x and many more key enhancements that has address the requirements for cloud infrastructure as a service .
But vSAN Express Storage Architecture is not currently supported in VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0.
VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 is now integration of NSX 4.1.0 . Along with new release we have got some deprecations as well .
VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 Bill of materials looks like below
VMware vSphere 8.0u1a for workload management, VMware vSAN 8.0u1a for scale-out storage, VMware NSX 4.1 for networking and VMware vRealize LifeCycle Manager 8.10 (Aria) for cloud management. As one would expect with a major release, the payload for VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 is massive, much larger than can be reasonably included in a single blog post. To address this, we’re providing details and enhancements for the VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 release across 4 distinct blog posts:
VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0/SDDC Manager (this post)
What’s New in VMware vRealize Suite within VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0
In VCF 5.0 Planning and preparation deployment options Virtual Infrastructure (VI) Workload Domain: Deployment list below has got Excluded when compare to VCF 4.5 .
What's New :
In-place upgrade: VCF 4.3.x, VCF 4.4.x, VCF 4.5.x can upgrade to VCF 5.0 from SDDC Manager UI (with internet access) or using the Bundle Transfer Utility (without internet access).
Isolated Workload Domains: Create and manage workload domains that can each join the management domain's vCenter. Single Sign-On domain or a new vCenter Single Sign-On domain that is not used by any other workload domain.
BOM component interoperability data checks: Auto-checks of BOM component interoperability within SDDC Manager.
BOM product re-licensing: Ability to perform relicensing of VCF BOM components from SDDC Manager UI.
Licensing update: SDDC Manager license key is no longer required.
Improvements to upgrade prechecks: Upgrade prechecks now provides granular control over version-specific and individual component prechecks.
Improvements to Configuration Update workflow: Configuration Updates can be applied between upgrade applications or can be saved to be applied at a later time.
New upgrade option for ESXi Upgrade: If there are any powered-off virtual machines in the chosen cluster to be upgraded, they will only be evacuated during the upgrade process if this option is enabled. Otherwise, they will not be migrated specifically for the purpose of the upgrade.
Scaled support: Ability to upgrade 10 clusters (hosts) across 5 workload domains (5*10) simultaneously in ESXi, allowing for parallel upgrades to occur.
In-product feedback: SDDC Manager can prompt customers at random intervals to provide feedback related to VMware Cloud Foundation.
VMware NSX-T Data Center rebranding: Starting with version 4.0, VMware NSX-T Data Center is known as VMware NSX.
What is to Deprecate :
The VMware Imaging Appliance (VIA), included with the VMware Cloud Builder appliance to image ESXi servers, is deprecated in VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 and will be removed in a future release.
In a future release, the "Connect Workload Domains" option from the vRealize Operations card located in SDDC Manager > Administration > vRealize Suite section will be removed. Additionally, related VCF Public API options will also be deprecated. Starting with vRealize Operations 8.10, an improved functionality for connecting VCF Workload Domains to vRealize Operations is available directly from the vRealize Operations UI itself. Users are encouraged to use this method within the vRealize Operations UI for connecting VCF Workload Domains.
VMware Update Manager as the default option for management domain cluster will be deprecated in a subsequent release and vSphere Lifecycle Manager will become the default. This is to align with the vSphere deprecation of VMware Update Manager in future release as noted here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-703-release-notes.html
Upgrading to Cloud Foundation 5.0 :
Upgrade NSX for VMware Cloud Foundation for Management Workload:
[Conditional] If source NSX version is 3.1.3
Upgrade NSX to 3.2.1.2.0 using SDDC Manager
[Conditional] If NSX Federation is present, upgrade the NSX Local Manager in both VMware Cloud Foundation instances before proceeding
[Conditional] If source NSX version is 3.2.1.2.0
Upgrade NSX to 4.1.0.2.0 using SDDC Manager
[Conditional] If NSX Federation is present, upgrade the NSX Local Manager in both VMware Cloud Foundation instances before proceeding
[Conditional] If source NSX version is 3.1.3
[Conditional] If NSX Federation is present
Upgrade NSX Global Managers to 3.2.1.2.0 using the Global Manager UI
Upgrade standby global manager, followed by active global manager
[Conditional] If source NSX version is 3.2.1.2.0
[Conditional] If NSX Federation is present
Upgrade NSX Global Managers to 4.0.1.1 using the Global Manager UI
Upgrade standby global manager, followed by active global manager
Note:Note: Upgrading global managers to this interim build is required to maintain N±1 between local and global managers
VI Workload Domain Upgrade NSX for VMware Cloud Foundation :
[Conditional] If source NSX version is 3.1.3
Upgrade NSX from 3.1.3 to 3.2.1.2.0 using SDDC Manager
[Conditional] If NSX Federation is present, upgrade the local manager in both VMware Cloud Foundation instances before proceeding
[Conditional] If source NSX version is 3.2.1.2.0
Upgrade NSX from 3.2.1.2.0 to 4.1.0.2.0 using SDDC Manager
[Conditional] If NSX Federation is present, upgrade the local manager in both VMware Cloud Foundation instances before proceeding
It’s important to note that not all solutions are available for VCF 5.0 downloads immediately. For example, Dell VxRail support for VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 will be made available shortly. Also be advised that certain VCF 5.0 greenfield or upgrade scenarios may also be delayed until a later date, review the VCF 5.0 release notes, this KB article or contact your account team for additional information.
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