New Certification - VMware vSAN 2017 Specialist

The VMware vSAN 2017 Specialist badge holder is a technical professional who understands the vSAN 6.6 architecture and its complete feature set, knows how to conduct a vSAN design and deployment exercise, can implement a live vSAN hyper-converged infrastructure environment based on certified hardware/software components and best practices, and can administer/operate a vSAN cluster properly.

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New Certification - VMware vRealize Operations 2017 Specialist

The VMware vRealize Operations 2017 Specialist is a technical professional who plans, manages and helps scale software-defined data center (SDDC) and multi-cloud environments through unified monitoring, automated performance management, cloud planning and capacity optimization. The badge holder helps organizations streamline and automate IT operations from applications to infrastructure across physical, virtual and cloud environments. 

This badge and associated requirements cover vRealize Operations 6.2 through vRealize Operations 6.5


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Unsupported & Supported Functionality for the vsphere web client 6.5

Unsupported Functionality


The following table documents the vSphere Web Client workflow functionality not currently supported in the vSphere Client.

Supported Functionality

The following table documents the vSphere Web Client workflow functionality added in releases after VMware vSphere 6.5.

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vSphere 6.5 Update 1 Released

vSphere 6.5 Update 1 is now available and it has some great enhancements. While we have seen 5 patch releases so far, 6.5 Update 1 rolls all of those updates together as well as includes some long awaited functionality.

General Updates and Enhancements

vSphere 6.5 Update 1 allows customers who are currently on vSphere 6.0 Update 3 to upgrade to vSphere 6.5 Update 1. All of the security and bug fixes that were part of 6.0 U3 are now included in 6.5 U1 whereas before, upgrading from 6.0 U3 to 6.5 prior to U1 would have put customers in a more risky position due to the timing of the releases. That concern is a thing of the past now, though, and we anticipate even more customers will begin their upgrade journeys.

It is important to note that customers who are still on vSphere 5.5 will need to be on at least vSphere 5.5 U3b in order to upgrade to vSphere 6.5 U1. This may mean a two-step process for some customers to get to vSphere 6.5 U1 but this is necessary in order to ensure the best possible outcome for the upgrade.

vCenter Server 

vSphere 6.5 Update 1 we’re increasing some of the maximums configuration.

• Maximum vCenter Servers per vSphere Domain: 15 (increased from 10)
• Maximum ESXi Hosts per vSphere Domain: 5000 (increased from 4000)
• Maximum Powered On VMs per vSphere Domain: 50,000 (increased from 30,000)
• Maximum Registered VMs per vSphere Domain: 70,000 (increased from 50,000)

With the increasing use of hybrid and private clouds, the increase in capacity comes at a crucial time.

vSphere Client

vSphere Client can be accessed via https://<vcenterfqdn>/ui and it is completely built on HTML5, requires no plugins, and it lightning fast. If you’ve been following along with the Fling version, the version in vSphere 6.5 Update 1 is roughly equivalent (actually a bit newer) than the bits in v3.15 of the Fling. You can view the items that we’re still working on getting into the vSphere Client.

vSAN 6.6.1

• vSphere Update Manager (VUM) Integration: The manual process of checking the VMware Compatibility Guide to ensure the upgraded version was supported with the specific hardware has been automated with a completely new Update Manager workflow.
• Performance Diagnostics: The vSAN Cloud Analytics capabilities have been improved with a proactive Performance Diagnostics feature that analyzes the performance of a given vSAN cluster against previously executed benchmarks.
• vSAN Licensing for ROBO and VDI: VDI and ROBO licensing editions are expanded with an Enterprise model that allows encryption and stretched clusters.

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VMware Announces General Availability of vSphere 6.5 Update 1

VMware is excited to announce the general availability of vSphere 6.5 Update 1. This is the first major update to the well-received vSphere 6.5.With this update release, VMware builds upon the already robust industry-leading virtualization platform and further improves the IT experience for its customers. Many customers,have already benefited from upgrading to vSphere 6.5 to help address the challenges of digital transformation. For customers who have yet to upgrade, vSphere 6.5 Update 1 serves as a validation milestone signaling to them product stability and that now the right time to upgrade.

vSphere 6.5 focuses on 4 areas of innovation directly targeted at the challenges customers face as they digitally transform their businesses.

Simplified customer experience – Re-architected vCenter Server Appliance, streamlined HTML5-based GUI, and simple rest-based APIs for automation.

Comprehensive Built in Security – Policy-driven security at scale to secure data, infrastructure, and access.

Universal App Platform – A single platform to support any application, anywhere.

Proactive Data Center Management – Predictive analytics to address potential issues before they become serious problem.

vSphere 6.5 Update 1 further refines vSphere 6.5 while also adding key additional support and enhancements including:

vSphere Client Now Supports 90% of General Workflows

The HTML5-based vSphere Client now can support up to 90% of general workflows.  This is welcomed news as VMware pushes towards 100% parity between the various clients.

vCenter Server Foundation Now Support 4 Hosts

In discussions with customers with smaller environments, VMware has received feedback that 3 host environments were too small in many cases.  If VMware vCenter Server Foundation could just support 1 additional host that would make all the difference.  This is why with vSphere 6.5 Update 1 VMware is now increasing the number of hosts that vCenter Server Foundation will support from 3 host to 4.

vSphere Support and Interoperability Across Ecosystems

VMware prides itself on having one of the broadest ecosystems across any industry.  As with any new product, at initial release, some partners were not ready with compatible versions of their products.  Many of these incompatibilities are now a thing of the past, as we have worked with our partners to test and ensure interoperability.  Furthermore, the ecosystem is also expanding as we forge new alliances to add vendor support for things such as Security Key Management and Proactive HA, to name a few.

vSphere 6.5 General Support Has Been Extended

VMware understands that upgrading infrastructure can be a lengthy process.   One consideration for whether or not to upgrade is how long the new product will be supported.  VMware wants to make the customer’s decision to upgrade easier by extending general support for vSphere 6.5 for a full 5 years.  This means that support for vSphere 6.5 will now end November 15, 2021.

Upgrade from vSphere 6.0 Update 3 Now Supported

Customers who are on vSphere 6.0 Update 3 now have a supported upgrade path to vSphere 6.5.

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