VMware vSphere 7 has been announced. Make sure to check our vSphere 7.0 WordPress page where we centralize all the articles about vSphere 7. vCenter Server 7 Multihoming capability means that you will be able to have configured vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) with multiple NICs.
Some organizations need to configure vCenter server with multiple NICs. This is due to the fact that they may have a dedicated backup network or they want to access the management through a jump host which is on the public side of a DMZ. Also, they may have some 3rd party monitoring which requires a separate network.
Where previously vCenter server wasn't supported with multiple NICs, except for vCenter High Availability (HA), starting vSphere 7, this multi-homing configuration is now fully supported. The maximum NICs in vCenter server 7 is four. You might be adding more than 4 but the four is a maximum supported.
However, when you first add another NIC to vCSA (vCSA is deployed with a single nic by default), this will be the NIC 1. And this nic will be automatically tagged as reserved for VCHA architecture.
Even if vCenter HA is not activated, the NIC 1 is reserved for vCenter HA.
Configuration Maximums of vCenter server 7
If we going to compare with previous release (vCenter 6.7) we can see that the vCenter server is more robust and supports more ESXi hosts connected either in standalone mode or via Enhanced Linked Mode (ELM).
We have also some metrics showing latency between vCenter servers and vCenter server to ESXi.
There are 2500 ESXi hosts which can now be connected in standalone mode with up to 30 thousands VMs…
Screenshot from VMware
There is also a difference when you connect to the vCenter server via vSphere Web client. You'll notice that the Flash-based client is completely gone. -:).
CMSSO Utility Changes
CMSSO utility which was usually used to repointing between PSCs is no longer there. Now you will only be able to do unregister and domain-repoint via this utility.
vCenter server has new upgrade workflows where external PSCs can be now consolidated into embedded architecture during the upgrade process itself instead of doing it via the converge utility which is completely gone.
We'll do an upgrade post workflow when we'll have the RTM code available because I think it is interesting to see the different options we might get depending on the architecture you'll be upgrading.
But before upgrading, remember, it will take some time for your backup vendors while they update their software to support vSphere 7.0 so there is no rush.
vCenter Server now on Photon OS 3.0
Lastly, the vCenter server appliance (VCSA) now runs the Photon Linux 3.0 version. It's been a while since VMware uses Photon OS Linux for their appliances. Just a reminder that VMware has first started using SUSE Linux enterprise server, but the security management and updates/patches weren't “in-house” so VMware has completely moved off that solution to use Photon OS since several years.
Also, you might notice (when the product will be released) that there is no longer an option to install the vCenter Server on Windows. This is also not new since VMware has hinted us since several vCenter server releases that the vCenter server on Windows is phasing out.
vCenter Server and its architecture got simpler as external PSCs are no longer supported so if you have a remote site where you want to install vCenter, the only option you'll have is to deploy vCenter Server with embedded PSC there.
The management of vCSA is dead easy, including the patching and upgrades. The only thing you must watch is to configure VCSA backup (file-level backup of the config) which can be done via many protocols including FTPS, HTTPS, SFTP, FTP, NFS, SMB and HTTP. You can also go a regular backup of the VM with your backup software.
More about vSphere 7.0
- vSphere 7.0 WordPress page
- VMware vCenter Server 7.0 Profiles
- VMware vSphere 7.0 Announced – vCenter Server Details
- What is vCenter Server Multi-Homing? [This post]
- VMware vSphere 7.0 – VM Template Check-in and Check-out and versioning
- What is vCenter Server Update Planner? – vSphere 7.0
- VMware vSphere 7.0 DRS Improvements – What's New?
You might want to check our Free Tools page where you can find VMware utilities, but also utilities for Microsoft systems or other “Swiss Knife” software there.
More from ESX Virtualization
- Better Windows Shell and Terminal Emulator – Cmder
- ESXi Free vs Paid – What are the differences?
- What is VMware vCenter Convergence Tool?
- ESXi Free vs Paid – What are the differences?
- How To Reset ESXi Root Password via Microsoft AD
- How to Patch VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 6.7 Offline
- How To do a Dry Run of an esxcli Installation or Upgrade on VMware ESXi
- Veeam Availability Console Released (VAC)
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