vSphere 6.7 – Whats new

Yes, new version of VMware vSphere was recently announced! There are many changes but from my perspective the biggest change is, that HTML5 interface is almost done. According to VMware you should be able to perform like 95% of tasks using this new interface. Finally, we can get rid of that slow Flex client!

So, what are the new function of this release? Let’s have a look at the summary

• vSphere Client (HTML-5) is about 95% feature complete
• Improved vCenter Appliance monitoring
• Improved vCenter Backup Management
• ESXi Single Reboot Upgrades
• ESXi Quick Boot
• 4K Native Drive Support
• Max Virtual Disks increase from 60 to 256
• Max ESXi number of Devices from 512 to 1024
• Max ESXi paths to Devices from 2048 to 4096
• Support for RDMA
• vSphere Persistent Memory
• DRS initial placement improvements

As said, from my point of we the new HTML5 interface is just great! I have tried to work with it in the past since version 6.5 and I have to say I LOVE IT!

Let’s have a look at few screens from HTML5 interface

Another improvement is about management of VCSA itself. Many people are asking about scheduled backups of VCSA. Until now, you have to dig inside of the VCSA and script it all. Not anymore! You can easily configure backups and schedule directly from UI of VCSA.

Also, you can easily restart any VCSA service from UI. No more services xxx restart from ssh.

I don’t think it is really necessary to talk about increased maximums for numerous objects. Shortly, with vSphere 6.7 you can go larger in many ways

What I do like is the improvements of reboots and upgrades of ESXi.

Depending on your hardware setup the reboot of ESXi host can take dozens of minutes. I remember when I was working on one project where we have used HP blade servers and Emulex OneConnect converged adapters. It takes literally 10 minutes just to get ESXi booting.

With ESXi Quick Boot function you can bypass the actual reboot of the hardware and just reboot the ESXi server. Of course, there needs to be support on the hardware level but if you are looking for new servers that might be one of the things on your checklist.

Currently following hardware platforms are supported:

[root@esxi1:~] cat /usr/lib/vmware/loadesx/platforms.txt
# Supported platforms list for LoadESX
#
# This file lists the set of supported platforms for loadESX.
#
# Unauthorized modifications to this file are not supported.
#
# A valid entry should start at a new line and specify two things
# separated by a ":" =>  Vendor Name:Product Name
#
# Please note that this list is case sensitive.
#

# Dell
Dell Inc.:PowerEdge R630
Dell Inc.:PowerEdge R640
Dell Inc.:PowerEdge R730
Dell Inc.:PowerEdge R730xd
Dell Inc.:PowerEdge R740
Dell Inc.:PowerEdge R740xd

# HP
HP:ProLiant DL360 Gen9
HPE:ProLiant DL360 Gen9
HPE:ProLiant DL360 Gen10
HP:ProLiant DL380 Gen9
HPE:ProLiant DL380 Gen9
HPE:ProLiant DL380 Gen10

# Nested
VMware, Inc.:VMware Virtual Platform

Second functionality connected to faster reboot times is Single Reboot Upgrades. Shortly it means, that you need just single reboot between major upgrades of ESXi.

Pretty nice, no?
Lastly, I would like to mention vSphere Persistent Memory.

This is cool feature for those of you requiring really fast non-violating storage. From my perspective, NVDIMM devices will become new Tier 1 storage devices.

Those devices have extremely low latency – we are talking about 1 microsecond and much more IO performance compared to classic SSD disks.

But be aware that your guestOS needs to support NVDIMM also. There is new virtual device – NVDIMM device that can be connected to your virtual machine, but support from guestOS is mandatory.

I have found this comparison table on Dell site, so you can get the idea about how fast the NVDIMM is.

• 15K SAS Disk ~ 6,000,000 ns
• SATA SSD ~ 120,000 ns
• NVMe SSD ~ 60,000 ns
• DDR4 NVDIMM-N ~ 150 ns

So that is for today and stay tuned for more information related to VMware vSphere 6.7, VSAN and other products!