In case you haven’t heard there’s been an update to vSphere and the components that make up the vCloud Suite (such as vCD and vCNS) and many of the components upon which they are dependent. The update address an number of issues including ones connected with SSO (Single-Sign On) as well as critically adding support for View 5.1 for vSphere5.1.1. It was only at last week “Virtual Machine User Group” in Leeds that I was cornered by two guys asking me when the support would be delivered. To be honest, I knew that this new update was on its way, but I didn’t know that it was going to able View 5.1 support – nor did I know it was going to come the next day.
The upgrade to vCenter 5.1.0a was a relatively trival affair. In fact I had the Virtual Center Server Appliance set to automatically update itself. Not perhaps the right configuration for a production environment. But the more I can automate in my lab environment the better – as I frequently find I don’t have time to keep everything on the latest releases.
Note: You’ll notice that this is just an update hence 5.1.0a and the lastest version of ESX is 5.1.0 838463
When comparing that to the Windows based vCenter I think that is pretty favourable. To update the Windows based vCenter I would have to download a 2GB ISO, and run a setup program as well as remember the passwords for all the databases. I must say I really like the VCSA but there is one gotcha which has come with adopting it. That’s the fact that some of the ‘server-side” plug-ins I would have installed to vCenter in the past, cannot be installed to it. Yet. So if I want VMware Update Manager – I need a copy of Windows (as well as MS-SQL instance, SQL Express might be an option). I’m hoping to get an update to my NetApp 2040 this week, and new copy of their “Virtual Storage Console” 4.1. That’s a Windows technology, so I need a Windows instance to run that. I’m thinking of having a “win-legacy-mgmt” VM just for this components until such time there’s a native VCSA version. Much depends on how the vendor/partner has implemented their extensions to vCenter – so for example I might be alright with the Dell Integration Tools for VMware (DIT-VE) that I can use against my Dell Equallogics. It runs a virtual appliance that registers with vCenter and View. In the past I questioned whether a VA model for vCenter was a good approach (given how easy it is to run a setup.exe inside Windows), but now I’m beginning to see the benefits.
The other component I updated was the vShield Manager (now called VMware vCloud Network and Security) or vCNS 5.1.1. As well as new .OVA file for clean deployments there is a patch bundle that can be uploaded and installed. This requires a reboot to apply, so may require maintenance mode based on your configuration.
My other virtual appliance that is need of an update is vSphere Replication. It does have an update feature and understand that there will be an “offline” and online update soon. At the moment manifest-latest.xml isn’t available.
The next big component that was in need of an update was vCloud Director. If you been following my “vCloud Journey Journal” series you’ll know that I have been using the vCD Virtual Appliance instead of the fully featured version which is distributed as .bin and installed into supported editions of Linux. Remember the vCD VA is for quick eval/demo’s only and is not intended for a production environments. Sadly, the appliance does not have an update tab that you see in many other VMware appliances.
That left me with an challenge and number of choices:
- Try to use vCD .bin inside the VA and do a manual update myself
- Abandon the vCD VA and opt for the installable version with DB backend
- “Uninstall” vCD (by removing my Provider vDC’s, Uninstalling the vCloud Agent, and redeploy the vCD VA
I asked on our online SocialCast what option 1 would be like. I was told it could be complicated (especially as I’d used an internal Oracle XE database). If I’d used an external DB with the virtual appliance I would have been able to just copy over the response files and throw the existing vCD VA away. Without an external DB this process is complicated… Time is bit pressing so I decided to opt for 3 again for a rapid deployment – it didn’t take too long to remove and redeploy the VA… But in the long term I think I will be opting for the installable version until such time the VA has an update feature like the other VAs I run.
This morning I start working through the official course materials on vCD that came a week or so go!