vSphere Lifecycle

Understanding the vCenter Server Converge Tool

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Announced in November 2018, the External Platform Services Controller (PSC) is being deprecated. Previously, many customers have deployed the External PSC to take advantage of features such as Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM) or PSC HA. With the removal of the External PSC, VMware has provided a Converge Tool to be able to migrate from an Read more...

Using the VMware Update Manager Download Service (UMDS)

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The VMware Update Manager Download Service (UMDS) has been around for some time, but as I speak with customers most have not been familiar with it. Within this post I will cover a few topics such as why and how to utilize the UMDS in your environment.   What is the Update Manager Download Service Read more...
VMware Tools

Configuring a VMware Tools Repository in vSphere 6.7U1

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As you upgrade your vSphere hosts we generally recommend that you also upgrade VMware Tools in your virtual machines. This can get tricky to manage, especially if you have hosts at different versions of ESXi. To help mitigate this we allow you to store the files on a centralised repository and point the hosts to Read more...

Upgrading to vCenter Server 6.7 – New Feature Walkthroughs Available

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We are proud to announce we have two new feature walkthroughs available which cover the vCenter Server upgrade from vSphere 6.5 to vSphere 6.7. Introduction Located on our vSphere Central site we have created two new feature walkthroughs focused on upgrading your vCenter Server from version 6.5 to version 6.7.   The first walkthrough covers Upgrading Read more...

The vSphere Upgrade Blog Series (Wrap-Up)

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The vSphere Upgrade Blog Series began in July and ran through September 2018. It provided customers with screen-by-screen guidance from start to finish of a vSphere Upgrade in a six part blog series. Since each part of the blog series was posted over a few months, it’s common for steps or posts to be missed Read more...

Now Available – Upgrading to VMware vSphere 6.7 eBook

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I am proud to announce availability of the new VMware vSphere eBook Upgrading to VMware vSphere 6.7, authored by Nigel Hickey and David Stamen. This is a free resource to assist customers upgrading to vSphere 6.7. The eBook further builds on the foundational guide Upgrading to VMware vSphere 6.5 by Emad Younis which has been widely adopted when Read more...

vSphere Update Manager Enhancements in vSphere 6.7 Update 1

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vSphere 6.7 Update 1 is now out, and with that the vSphere Client is now Fully Featured for your vSphere Environment. With the addition of vSphere Update Manager in the vSphere Client we have quite a few new workflows compared to the old vSphere Web Client. Let’s highlight some of these new improvements. We have Read more...

Announcing vSphere Upgrade on vSphere Central

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vSphere Central has always been a great resource to find content, but it has previously been grouped by product such as vCenter Server, Security, ESXi and Virtual Machine, and other categories. When trying to share content on vSphere Upgrade it overlaps all of these categories. We have created a new consolidated vSphere Upgrade section that will Read more...
vSphere 6.5 PWT launch

Announcing the vSphere 6.7 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool

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As part of vSphere Central we previously had a Topology and Upgrade planning tool for vSphere 6.5. It focused on common upgrade and migration paths from vSphere 5.5 and 6.0 to vSphere 6.5. With the support for Enhanced Linked Mode with Embedded vCenter Server deployments in vSphere 6.5 Update 2 and vSphere 6.7 there have been Read more...

vCenter Server Licensing Options

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UPDATED (October 18th, 2018): The vCenter Server features by licensing chart has been updated to reflect that the vCenter Server Migration Tool is included in the ISO and is available to use with all vCenter Server licensed versions.   vCenter Server allows virtualization administrators to centrally manage and monitor their vSphere environments. Lately I’ve received several questions from Read more...