VMware – Read before upgrade to vSphere 6.5

Yesterday VMware announced the general availability of the brand new vSphere 6.5. They announced the new version at this years VMworld in Barcelona. But now you can download and install the bits. But there is a catch. Please make sure you read and understand all the important information before upgrading to vSphere 6.5 because there might be some limitation at the moment. Let me bring some light into the darkness.

Compatibility considerations

You should not upgrade to vSphere 6.5 if you are running one (or some / all) of these software components in your environment:

  • VMware NSX
  • VMware Integrated OpenStack
  • vCloud Director for Service Providers
  • vRealize Infrastructure Navigator
  • App Volumes
  • Horizon Air Hybrid-Mode
  • Integrated OpenStack
  • vCloud Networking and Security
  • vRealize Business for Cloud
  • vRealize Configuration Manager
  • vRealize Hyperic
  • vRealize Networking Insight

These components are not yet compatible with vSphere 6.5. But as we know VMware, they are already working for updates. Please check the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix for further information about updates to the products above.

  • If you have to revert a migration, please check VMware KB2146453 for reverting a vCenter Server to Appliance migration.
  • To roll back a vCenter Server Instance on Windows, please check the vSphere Upgrade Guide.

Upgrade Considerations

Before upgrading your environment, review these critical KB articles to make sure the upgrade will be successful.

vCenter Server

vCenter Server to vCenter Server Appliance

PSC High Availability

ESXi

NSX

vRealize Operations

vSphere Web Client

Known Issues

vCenter Server

vRealize Operations Manager

Security Considerations

TLS protocols

Encryption considerations

  • Running a encrypted KMS virtual machine can cause a loss of data in the event of a host failure.

More details in the VMware Knowledgebase (KB2147548):

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2147548

*** Update ***

Backup Considerations

There is one thing i missed to mention. If you are using Veeam Availability Suite v9.5 then you can’t do backups with vSphere 6.5 at the moment, because Veeam does not support this vSphere version yet. But also the guys at Veeam are working on an update, which will be (historically) release about two months after general availability of the new vSphere version.

So stay tuned!

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