New Content – vSphere 6.5
Upgrade/Migration & VMware Posters Links!
Many VMware customers tend to wait to upgrade to the next version for several reasons. Some of these are no time to do the upgrade, scared of issues that may arise during the upgrade process especially from vSphere 5.x versions, or wanting to wait until the first update is out so that all the fixes have been addressed. These are all valid concerns in which I can appreciate due to my operation experience and background supporting vSphere environments!
On July 21, 2017, VMware released vSphere 6.5 Update 1 which has many enhancements. Once of the enhancements that most are excited about is the fact that the new HTML5-based vSphere Web Client is now at approximately 90% feature parity to the old Java-based vSphere Web Client which was know for being slow and clunky. Hopefully, by the next update of vSphere, the HTML5 client will be at full feature parity. At which time, VMware will retire the old Java-based client.
The HTML5 client enhancements are just one of numerous reasons why you should consider updating to vSphere 6.5. Another primary reason is that there are many new featured within the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) like embedded Backup/Restore Tool, vSphere Update Manager is embedded, and the new vCenter Server Appliance High Availability (HA) configuration option. So there are some great enhancements that should encourage you to upgrade to the latest version of vSphere and vCenter server!
VMware has created a Migration Assistance Tool to help migrate your vSphere 5.5/6.x environments to the new vSphere 6.5. Even if you are currently running a Windows based version of vCenter in the older version, the tool can migrate the vCenter database, performance data and metrics, etc. to the new vCenter Server Appliance 6.5. There are several supported migration options based on your vCenter server, Single-Sign-On (SSO), or Platform Service Controller (PSC) architectures you may be currently running.
So take a look at my Useful Links page on this site to see the links to below resources that can help you migrate to the new vSphere 6.5!
- Top Reasons to Upgrade to vSphere 6.5 Infographic
- vSphere 6.5 Upgrade Considerations – Part 1
- vSphere 6.5 Upgrade Considerations – Part 2
- Announcing the vSphere 6.5 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool
- vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 Migration Walkthrough
- VMware Doc’s – Migration Assistance Tool
- vSphere 6.5 – Upgrade Guide
- VMware vCenter Server Appliance Poster
- Platform Services Controller Topology Decision Tree Poster
