We are excited to announce the availability of VMware vSphere Supervisor 9.0.0.0100 — the first Supervisor release decoupled from vCenter. This milestone empowers you to upgrade your Supervisor independently, simplifying Kubernetes lifecycle on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).
What is vSphere Supervisor?
vSphere Supervisor transforms VMware Cloud Foundation into a unified platform for deploying traditional VM workloads or modern container workloads using a declarative API. It empowers cloud administrators to define resource boundaries, manage the platform with policies, governance, and standardization, while offering consistent self-service access to cloud services. (Refer to the vSphere Supervisor documentation)
Managing Kubernetes Lifecycle on VCF is now very easy
This release marks an important milestone in our journey to simplify the lifecycle of Kubernetes on VCF. In June 2024, we introduced the decoupling of vSphere Kubernetes Service from Supervisor. This allowed administrators to upgrade vSphere Kubernetes Service, without having to upgrade vSphere Supervisor. We have received an overwhelming feedback from our customers on how this simplified uptake of the newer Kubernetes release for them. With this release, the journey to simplify the Kubernetes lifecycle continues.
- You no longer need to always upgrade vCenter to get the latest Supervisor binaries – And now, vSphere Supervisor is decoupled from vCenter, allowing us the ability to deliver the Supervisor bits independently without using vCenter as a vehicle. We are continuing to work on making it easier for you to manage and deploy Kubernetes on your VCF deployments.
- Easily upgrade your Supervisor – Since Supervisor is delivered independent of vCenter, you can now download and upgrade to a newer version of vSphere Supervisor Service from a content library upgrading vCenter everytime. You need to initiate the update to the new Supervisor version from your existing vCenter.
- Run more versions of Kubernetes with each Supervisor – Each Supervisor version generally supports multiple vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) versions. This allows for the deployment of vSphere Kubernetes Service Clusters with Kubernetes minor versions that fall within the range supported by the VKS list for a given Supervisor version.
Secure the Supervisor Service framework
To enhance platform integrity and protect the vSphere Supervisor environment, starting with Supervisor Kubernetes version v1.30.10+vmware.1-fips-vsc9.0.0.0100, VCF introduces signed Supervisor Service artifacts and enforced access control protections within the Supervisor platform. This capability ensures that all Broadcom-authored services are verified with signed certificates, and opens the platform to third-party services which will be subject to signature validation and runtime policy enforcement.
Introducing Argo CD Service
vSphere Supervisor 9.0.0.0100 introduces ArgoCD Service, a leading GitOps continuous delivery tool, as a Supervisor Service. ArgoCD helps you automate application deployment and lifecycle management using a declarative, version-controlled approach with Git as the single source of truth. Once you define the desired state of an application and/or infrastructure in a Git repository, ArgoCD actively monitors it for any drift. Whenever there is a drift from the desired state, ArgoCD automatically takes corrective action to bring the environment back to the desired state. Because ArgoCD pulls changes from within the deployed cluster, it promotes a secure deployment model. Since the changes are tracked in Git, every change has an audit trail and supports rollback.
Argo CD Service is aimed at enabling you to achieve faster release cycles and improving deployment reliability. It helps you embrace and implement GitOps best practices for modern infrastructure and application delivery. Read the Argo CD Service Documentation to know how to access and enable the Argo CD Service in your platform.
Resources
- Release notes
- How to configure vSphere Supervisor Content Library
- How to upgrade vSphere Kubernetes Service without upgrading Supervisor?
- GitOps for VCF: Broadcom Argo CD Operator Now Available
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