Today's new releases from VMware

VMware released a lot of updated software today. For simplicity, I've compiled the new releases and links to their Release Notes below. Enjoy!

VMware vSphere 6.0 U1

• Customer Experience Improvement Program: The Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) provides VMware with information that enables VMware to improve the VMware products and services and to fix problems. When you choose to participate in CEIP, VMware will collect technical information listed below about your use of the VMware products and services in CEIP reports on a regular basis. This information does not personally identify you. For more details, see the vSphere Documentation Center.


• Feature Enhancement: Suite UI is now enabled by default for the vSphere Web Client.


• Support for SSLv3: Support for SSLv3 has been disabled by default.


• vCSA Authentication for Active Directory: VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) has been modified to only support AES256-CTS/AES128-CTS/RC4-HMAC encryption for Kerberos authentication between vCSA and Active Directory.


• Installation and Upgrade using HTML 5 installer: The following installation and upgrade scenarios are supported for vCenter Server using HTML 5 installer:
  
  
  
  • Installation using HTML 5 installer and target as vCenter Server is supported
  
  
  • Upgrade using HTML 5 installer and target as vCenter Server is not supported
  
  
  • Upgrade using command line and target as vCenter Server is supported
  
  
  
  

VMware Integrated Stack 2.0
VMware Integrated OpenStack enables the rapid deployment of OpenStack on a VMware vSphere virtual platform. This release provides the following new features and enhancements.

VMware vSphere Update Manager 6.0 U1

• The Update Manager Web client is now available with full set of capabilities, that is required to perform both patch and version management for your vSphere inventory.


• The libxml that is bundled with Update Manager 6.0 Update 1 is upgraded to version 2.9.2.


• VMware vSphere Update Manager Database re-initializer option is available in Update Manager Utility under Database Settings.


• Additional database support: The Update Manager 6.0 Update 1 server and the UMDS 6.0 Update 1 are compatible with:
  
  
  
  • Microsoft SQL 2008 R2-SP3
  
  
  • Microsoft SQL 2012 SP2 (Standalone and Clustered)
  
  
  • Microsoft SQL 2014(Clustered)
  
  
  
  


• The Microsoft XML used by Update Manager is upgraded to version MSXML6.dll.


• The Oracle (Sun) JRE package is updated to 1.7.0_80. The update addresses multiple security issues that exist in the earlier releases of Oracle (Sun) JRE.


• OpenSSL is updated to 1.0.1m to resolve multiple security issues. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2015-0286, CVE-2015-0287, CVE-2015-0289, CVE-2015-0293, CVE-2015-0209, and CVE-2015-0288 to these issues.


• Support for SSLv3 is disabled in Update Manager 6.0 Update 1 by default.

VMware Horizon (with View) 5.3.5
VMware Horizon View 5.3.5 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues in the previous releases. For information about the issues that are resolved in this release, see Resolved Issues.

To improve security, Horizon View 5.3.5 does not support weak ciphers such as RC4 by default. On Windows XP machines, you must:

• Upgrade Horizon Client to version 3.2.1.


• Use Firefox or Chrome to access View Administrator or connect to desktops using HTML Access.

Care Systems Analytics for EPIC 1.0.4
VMware Care Systems Analytics for Epic 1.0.4 updates cover all major areas of the product including installation, migration, configuration, alerting, dashboards, and widgets.

This release adds support for vRealize Operations Manager version 6.0.3 and 6.1.0 and Epic System Pulse edition 2015.

VMware vRealize Automation (VRA) 6.2.3
This release of vRealize Automation contains the following enhancements:

• Added support for the Change Reservation operation to vCloud vApps to enable administrators to change the business group of a provisioned vApp.


• Added the ability to disable snapshot options for all users, including the business group manager and support user, if snapshot is not enabled on the blueprint.


• Added support for vCloud Government Service and Amazon Web Services GovCloud.


• Updated version support for the following endpoints:
  
  
  
  • OpenStack Juno
  
  
  • vCloud Director 5.5.3
  
  
  • vRealize Orchestrator 6.0.3
  
  
  • vSphere 5.5 Update 3
  
  
  • vSphere 6.0 Update 1
  
  
  
  


• Added support for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP2.


• Improved error logging for the Windows version of the guest agent.


• Enabled the Customer Experience Improvement Program by default.

For information about what's new in vRealize Orchestrator Plug-In, see the VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In for vCloud Automation Center 6.2 Release Notes.

VMware vRealize Business Adv/Ent 8.2.3
vRealize Business Advanced and Enterprise 8.2.3 is a maintenance release with the following enhancements:

• Upgraded Apache POI to 3.12
  Apache POI is upgraded to 3.12 in this release.


• Upgraded JRE to 1.8.0_51
  JRE package is upgraded to 1.8.0_51 in this release.

VMware vRealize Business Standard 6.2.3
This release of vRealize Business Standard contains following enhancements:

• Enables to view deleted virtual machine information. You can view the price or charge details of deleted virtual machines for the current month under Consumers List.


• Support for business unit mapping. Even if your vRealize Business Standard is categorized based on vRealize Automation, you can map the business units to Tenant Administrator and Business Management Controller users in a manner similar to vCloud Director or vCenter Server categorization.


• Upgraded JRE to 1.7 update 85. JRE has been upgraded to 1.7.0_85 in this release.


• Uses latest build of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP3. vRealize Business Standard uses the latest build of SLES11 SP3.


• Upgraded Pivotal tc Server from 2.9.8 to 3.1.0. vRealize Business Standard server runs on Pivotal tc server 3.1.0 version.

VMware vRealize Code Stream 1.2.0
vRealize Code Stream is a release automation product that enables an organization to deliver quality software while leveraging existing tools in the build, development, test, provisioning, and monitoring environments.

VMware vRealize Log Insight 3.0.0
VMware vRealize Log Insight 3.0 delivers the best real-time log management for VMware environments. Machine learning-based Intelligent Grouping and high performance search enables faster troubleshooting across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. vRealize Log Insight can analyze terabytes of logs, discover structure in unstructured data, and deliver enterprise-wide visibility using a modern Web interface.

VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.3
vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.3 updates cover all major areas of the product including installation, migration, configuration, licensing, alerting, dashboards, reports, and policies. There are no new features in this release.

VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.1
vRealize Operations Manager 6.1 is the latest release of VMware's integrated operations suite. Updates cover all major areas of the product including installation, configuration, licensing, alerting, dashboards, reports, and policies. This release introduces the following enhancements.

VMware vRealize Orchestrator 6.0.3
vRealize Orchestrator 6.0.3 is a patch release that introduces a number of improvements and bug fixes.

VMware vCenter Orchestrator Plug-in for VRA 6.2.3
This release of the vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In for vCloud Automation Center introduces the following new functionality:

• vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In for vCloud Automation Center 6.2.3 works with vRealize Automation 6.2, 6.2.1, 6.2.2, and 6.2.3 and vRealize Orchestrator 6.0.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, and 6.0.3.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 6.1
VMware Site Recovery Manager 6.1 provides the following new features:

• Support for VMware vSphere 6.0 update 1.


• Storage policy based protection of virtual machines.


• Support for stretched storage when using storage policy protection groups in enhanced linked mode.


• Support for auto-mapping of stretched NSX networks.


• Enhancements to mappings for test networks.

VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6.1
Virtual SAN 6.1 introduces the following new features and enhancements:

• Stretched clusters: Virtual SAN 6.1 supports stretched clusters that span two geographic locations to protect data from site failures or loss of network connection.


• The VMware Virtual SAN Witness Appliance 6.1 is a virtual witness host packaged as a virtual appliance. It functions as an ESXi host configured as a witness host for a Virtual SAN stretched cluster. You can download the Virtual SAN Witness Appliance 6.1 OVA from the VMware Virtual SAN download Web site.


• New on-disk format. Virtual SAN 6.1 supports upgrades to new on-disk virtual file format 2.0 through the vSphere Web Client. This log-based file system, based on Virsto technology, provides highly scalable snapshot and clone management support per Virtual SAN cluster.


• Hybrid and all-flash configurations. Virtual SAN 6.1 supports both hybrid and all-flash clusters. To configure an all-flash cluster, click Create a new disk group under Virtual SAN Disk Management (Manage > Settings), and select Flash as the Capacity type. When claiming disk groups, you can select flash devices for both capacity and cache.


• Improved upgrade process. Upgrade supports direct upgrades from Virtual SAN 5.5 and 6.0 to Virtual SAN 6.1.


• Virtual SAN 6.1 includes an integrated Health Service that monitors the cluster health and enables you to diagnose and fix issues with the Virtual SAN cluster. The Virtual SAN Health Service provides several checks on hardware compatibility, networking configuration and operations, advanced configuration options, storage device health, and Virtual SAN object health. If the Health Service detects any health issues, it triggers vCenter events and alarms. To view the health checks for a Virtual SAN cluster, click Monitor > Virtual SAN > Health.


• Virtual SAN monitors solid state drive and magnetic disk drive health and proactively isolates unhealthy devices by unmounting them. It detects gradual failure of a Virtual SAN disk and isolates the device before congestion builds up within the affected host and the entire Virtual SAN cluster. An alarm is generated from each host whenever an unhealthy device is detected and an event is generated if an unhealthy device is automatically unmounted.

VMware vSphere Replication 6.1
The following features are new for this release:

• 5 minute Recovery Point Objective (RPO) for replication between Virtual SAN data stores – This version of vSphere Replication allows customers to replicate virtual machine workloads with an RPO setting as low as 5 minutes between Virtual SAN data stores.


• Support for NFS v 4.1 – This release introduces support for NFS v 4.1 data stores. It allows customers to protect and recover virtual machines that are provisioned onto NFS v 4.1 environments using vSphere Replication.


• UI Enhancements - the RPO settings in the Configure Replication wizard are simplified and provide more granular options of predefined RPO settings.

vRealize Orchestrator Plug-in for vSphere Replication 6.1
The VMware vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vSphere Replication allows VMware administrators to simplify the management of their vSphere Replication infrastructure by leveraging the robust workflow automation platform of vRealize Orchestrator. The vRealize Orchestrator plug-in for vSphere Replication extends automation capabilities for certain vSphere Replication operations by including them in vRealize Orchestrator workflows.
The plug-in also delivers pre-built out-of-the-box building blocks and complete workflows that cover certain existing vSphere Replication actions.

vCloud Director 8.0 for Service Providers

• vSphere 6.0 support: vCloud Director for Service Providers 8.0 adds support for vSphere 6.0 in backward compatibility mode.


• NSX support: vCloud Director for Service Providers 8.0 adds support for NSX 6.1.4 in backward compatibility mode. This means that tenants' consumption capability is unchanged and remains at the vCloud Networking and Security feature level of vCloud Director 5.6.


• Organization virtual data center templates: Allows system administrators to create organization virtual data center templates, including resource delegation, that organization users can deploy to create new organization virtual data centers.


• vApp enhancements: Enhancements to vApp functionality, including the ability to reconfigure virtual machines within a vApp, and network connectivity and virtual machine capability during vApp instantiation.


• OAuth support for identity sources: Support added for OAuth2 tokens.


• Tenant throttling: : Prevents a single tenant from consuming all of the resources for a single instance of vCloud Director and ensures fairness of execution and scheduling among tenants.

vSphere Data Protection (VDP) 6.1