We are delighted to announce that VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 is now Generally Available as of November 24, 2022.

It combines several new features that complement the vSphere DR and migration, simplify the management, and improve the functionality of the product. 

Enhancements to vSphere DR and Migration

Similarly to the previous release, the primary focus of VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 is again vSphere DR and Migration. It brings in several enhancements as:

• A new pairing mechanism between On-premises to Cloud vCenter Replication and vCenter Replication Management through a reverse tunnel that makes it a one-step process that no longer requires the on-premises site to have a public endpoint for a successful pairing with the Cloud.
• Ability to specify the replication settings in advance instead of doing it during the actual replication.
• VM Storage Policy selection.
• Improved scalability at the cloud site by registering additional Cloud Replicator appliances. 
• Possibility to replicate encrypted VMs.

Note: Due to the new pairing, please keep in mind that both the Cloud (vCenter Replication Management) and On-Premises (On-premises to Cloud vCenter Replication) appliances should be upgraded to 4.5. If the On-premises to Cloud vCenter Replication remains running 4.4, all the currently configured replications will remain active and will function properly, but no new replications can be configured.

Provider Focused Features

The backup and restore can now be automated along with the existing manual generation process. From a new menu called Scheduled Backup Archives, you can define schedules when the backups will be created and also specify an SFTP server where the encrypted archives will be uploaded. The minimum backup interval is 30 minutes, while the maximum is 1 week.

For easier creation and maintenance, the replication policies can now be cloned and also include a new setting that allows or disallows migrations from the cloud to the on-premises data center.

Another new capability of 4.5 is the utilization of the VMware Cloud Director Advisories to push notifications to their tenants that are visible in the VMware Cloud Director Availability portal, too. 

Additional Features and Operational Improvements

Another area of significant improvement in VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 is the recovery settings. They come in a new menu which offers a more intuitive and handy way of configuring them. 

The network selection and adapter settings, such as IP address and MAC reset, are still there, but there is a major extension to the list of available guest customization actions. All the properties available in VMware Cloud Director can be customized for each replication, including the option to add a script to be executed. 

Another new feature is the VM sizing policy selection in the replication configuration menu under VDC policy settings. It extends the already existing placement policy selection included in the previous releases.

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 also introduces a new view-only user role that can be used for several purposes with no risk of doing any harm to the system and the configured replications.

And last – the System health view of all cloud and on-premises appliances gets enriched and now contains information about the service and appliance uptime.

Upgrade

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 supports direct upgrades from 4.3.x and 4.4.x. For the exact upgrade steps or in case you need to upgrade from an older version, please refer to the upgrade documentation.

Reference

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 Release notes

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.5 Interoperability Matrix

VMware Cloud Director Availability YouTube Playlist

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