Announcing VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 Delivers Key Platform Enhancements

9-Feb 2021 Update: VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 is now Generally Available!  See links below for release notes and additional information.

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 introduces several new features and enhancements to further help customers deliver developer-ready infrastructure, scale their infrastructure without compromise and boost security. 

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 includes: 

• vSAN Data Persistence platform – VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 supports new partner integrations on the vSAN Data Persistence platform.  With this new integration with VMware Cloud Foundation, customers can manage new S3-compatible object storage for unstructured data with the industry-leading HCI platform, via support for partner offerings from Cloudian and MinIO.  Read more about the partner integrations on the Virtual Blocks blog here.
• vSAN HCI Mesh– Announced with vSAN 7.0U1 and now supported within VMware Cloud Foundation, HCI Mesh delivers a unique software-based approach for disaggregation of compute and storage resources. HCI Mesh helps customers reduce CAPEX by sharing capacity across vSAN clusters while lowering OPEX as they reduce the amount of storage resources managed by scaling efficiently.  

Figure 1: vSAN HCI Mesh

• NSX-T 3.1 Federation – Delivered as part of NSX-T 3.1 and now supported with VCF 4.2, NSX-T Federation provides a cloud-like operating model for network administrators by simplifying the consumption of networking and security constructs. Delivered in VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 via prescriptive guidance, NSX-T Federation includes centralized management, consistent networking and security policy configuration with enforcement and synchronized operational state across large scale federated NSX-T deployments. With NSX-T Federation, VCF customers can leverage stretched networks and unified security policies across multi-region VCF deployments providing workload mobility and simplified disaster recovery.  Read this blog for additional details on NSX-T Federation in VCF. 

Figure 2: NSX-T 3.1 Federation 

• vRealize Automation support for VMware Cloud Foundation: SDDC Manager and VCF workload domains with VMware Cloud Assembly as VMware Cloud Foundation cloud accounts. A VMware Cloud Foundation cloud account can help you facilitate a comprehensive hybrid cloud management solution. For more information, see vRealize Automation 8.2 Release Notes.
• Static IP Pool for NSX-T TEPs: VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 introduces additional flexibility to leverage static IP pools for NSX-T Host Overlay (TEP) networks as an alternative to DHCP. This applies to the management domain and VI workload domains with uniform L2 clusters.
• Release Versions UI: SDDC Manager UI includes a Release Versions page with information on the Bill Of Materials, new features, and end of general support dates for each available VMware Cloud Foundation release. This page can help you in upgrade planning.
• Enhanced skip upgrade experience: You can filter available upgrade bundles by the target release you want to skip to using SDDC Manager UI or public APIs.
• Improvements to upgrade resiliency: VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 includes pre-checks for password validation, API performance optimization, and improvements to ESXi error reporting.
• Advanced Security Add-on for VMware Cloud Foundation: The Advanced Security Add-on for VMware Cloud Foundation now includes advanced threat protection, workload and endpoint security providing the following capabilities*:
  • Carbon Black Workload Advanced: Next Generation Anti Virus, Workload Audit/Remediation, Workload EDR.
  • Advanced Threat Prevention Add-on for NSX Data Center Advanced and Enterprise Plus editions which includes NSX Firewall, NSX Distributed IDS/IPS, NSX Intelligence, and Advanced Threat Prevention
  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Web Application Firewall

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 is now Generally Available as of February 9, 2021.

Additional Resources

• Introducing the vSAN Data Persistence Platform
• VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 Release Notes
• vRealize 8.2 Release Notes
• NSX-T Federation in VMware Cloud Foundation Blog
• VMware Validated Design 6.2 Release Notes

*Note: Advanced Security Add-on is independent from the VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 BOM.