It’s pleasure to write this article as there is a new release of VMware vSphere and vCenter Server 6.7. VMware vSphere 6.7 is officially released and it comes with lots of enhancements. In this post I’d like you to walk you through the vCenter 6.7 features, deployment and the enhanced options.
VMware has officially announced that vCenter Server appliance is the default deployment of the vCenter server and Windows based vCenter Server will be discontinued in the next numbered release. But still, You can download the Windows based vCenter Server in this 6.7 release.
From the appearance point of view it introduced with Clarity Theme and it supports the Embedded PSC with Enhanced Linked Mode.
Upgrades and Migrations to the vCenter Server 6.7
Only vCenter Server 6.0 and 6.5 versions can be upgraded directly to vCenter Server 6.7 version and vCenter Server 5.5 is not possible to upgrade directly. vCenter Server 5.5 should me upgraded to 6.0 or 6.5 before upgrade to vCenter Server 6.7.
vCenter Server (6.0 or 6.5) which are managing ESXi 5.5 hosts cannot be upgraded or migrated to vCenter Server 6.7 directly and should be upgraded these hosts to 6.0 first.
These are the benefits of this deployment model:
- No load balancer required for high availability and fully supports native vCenter Server High Availability.
- SSO Site boundary removal provides flexibility of placement.
- Supports vSphere scale maximums.
- Allows for 15 deployments in a vSphere Single Sign-On Domain.
- Reduces the number of nodes to manage and maintain.
vCenter Server 6.7 Appliance Deployment
Let’s try to deploy the appliance and discuss the differences while we enjoying the deployment. Download the ISO and mount it to a one of the Server available to start the deployment. Actually it doesn’t have any differences with the vCenter Server 6.5. Go to “vcsa-ui-installer/win32” folder and run the installer
Similar to vCenter 6.5 this has two Stages to deployment and the Configuration of the vCenter Server
Stage 1 – vCenter Deployment
Installer GUI has completely changed and icons explain the procedures. To start the deployment click on the “Install” Option
Similar to 6.5 vCenter Server deployment it has two stages in the deployment wizard, This is the introduction screen anc Click on “Next” to proceed
Accept the End User License Agreement and Click “Next”
It has both the Options to install as an Embedded Deployment or Install with a Separate PSC, In this deployment I’m going to use the Embedded deployment.
Provide the target vCenter or the ESXi host, Port and the Root Credentials to the Appliance
Accept the Certificate Warning
Provide Virtual Machine name and the root Password
Select the Deployment and Storage Size
Provide the Network details
Review the Configuration and Click “FINISH” to start the Appliance Deployment
Wait until it Completes the appliance deployment
Once it completes the Stage 1 – Appliance deployment , Continue to the Stage 2 – vCenter Configuration
Stage 2 – vCenter Configuration
This is the Introduction of the Stage 2 , no configuration is there
NTP and SSH access configuration can be seen in this window
I got this Warning! , but I didn’t change the IP address of the vCenter Server, click OK as we do not change the IP address
Provide the Single Sign-On domain and administrator Credentials
If you wish to join the Customer Experience Improvement Program select the check box
Review the Configuration and hit “Finish” to start the vCenter Configuration
Wait for the completion of the Configuration
Once it completes the configuration click on the Getting Started page link to open the vCenter server on your browser (Google Chrome is recommended)
Getting Started page is different than the Previous version of the vCenter Servers and HTML5 option is highlighted
Allow the “vmware-cip-launcher.exe” and open the launcher
vCenter Server Management Interface Improvements
Appliance management can be accessed from the same url (https://<fqdn_of_vcenter>:5480), GUI is completely different
VAMI interface has given a completely different look, here the Summary tab of the appliance
Three Syslog Servers can be configured
File level Backups of the vCenter Server can be Configured and scheduled, this is one of the newly added great features. Previously, there was no scheduling option and we had to use typical cron jobs to automate the backing up the files of the vCenter Appliance. This is a great improvement
Scheduling option
vCenter Server Interface and Features
vCenter Server Interface has got some major improvements and it is much similar to a cloud console, complete summary can be seen in the vCenter Home. A great overview of the resource utilization
Platform Service Controller configuration can be seen under “Administration”
vRealize Operation integration also added to this and can be seen in the vCenter “Home“.
Update Manager has integrated to the vCenter similar to the vCenter server 6.5 and has a different appearance in this release and added with a different icon
There are couple of posts on the way and stay tuned!
References:
If you found this post as useful please rate the post and share it!
