VMware vSphere 5.5 U3 Released – Last Big Update?

VMware vSphere 5.5 U3 has been released. Perhaps last big update for vSphere 5.5 has been released by VMware. Both vCenter server and VCSA are updated, supporting new guest OS (CentOS 7.0, Oracle Linux 7.0, Ubuntu 14.10, Windows 10, RHEL 6.6, RHEL 7 .1, CentOS 7.1, Oracle Linux 7.1) and also the possibility to access logs via vSphere Web client or vSphere client.

One week ago there was another big update – a VMware vSphere 6.0 U1 which brought new (4th) release of VSAN 6.1 allowing to configure stretched clusters or ROBO environments with only 2 hosts at remote site and witness host on separate site. Also other products of the suite had been updated, like SRM 6.1, vSphere Data Protection 6.1, vSphere Replication 6.1, VMware vRealize Orchestrator Appliance 6.0.3, VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.1.0 or vCloud Director 8.0.

Let's get back to vSphere 5.5 u3 which is probably one of the last (if not the last) updates for this version of vSphere.

What's new in vSphere 5.5 U3?

• ESXi 5.5 U3: Build 3029944 | Release Notes | Download Page
• vCenter Server 5.5 U3: Build 3000346 | Release Notes | Download Page

This release of VMware ESXi contains the following enhancements:

• Log Rotation Enablement – Log rotation for vmx files allows you to reduce the log file sizes by specifying the size of each log and the number of previous logs to keep.
• Certification of PVSCSI Adapter – PVSCSI adapter is certified for use with MSCS, core clustering and applications including SQL and Exchange. This creates performance gains when moving from LSI Logic SAS to PVSCSI.
• Support for Next Generation Processors – In this release we will continue our support for next generation processors from Intel and AMD. Please see the VMware Compatibility Guide for more info.
• ESXi Authentication for Active Directory – ESXi is modified to only support AES256-CTS/AES128-CTS/RC4-HMAC encryption for Kerberos communication between ESXi and Active Directory.

What’s New in vCenter Server:

• vCenter Server database support: vCenter Server now supports the following external databases: Oracle 12c R1 P2 (12.1.0.2), Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 3
• Increased guest operating system support: vCenter Server has added support for the following guest operating systems: CentOS 7.0,
  Oracle Linux 7.0, Ubuntu 14.10, Windows 10, RHEL 6.6, RHEL 7 .1, CentOS 7.1, Oracle Linux 7.1
• Features Added: Log information of files uploaded and downloaded from a host using vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client are stored. For more details see KB 2117341