Welcome to November!  For those of us in the midwest this means a

nearly endless need to rake and bag leaves.    The first round isn’t so bad.  When you get to the 5th round or later – not as fun ?  Wherever you are – I hope you are well!  Please send me a kind thought as I prepare for my 6th round of leaf duty.  On to more interesting topics – this month’s newsletter contains a number of links that will help you start to prepare for vSphere 8

If you haven’t upgraded to vSphere 7 yet – there is still time. While vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 have left End of General Support and are now in Technical Guidance, VMware will still do their best to help you if you upgrade.    Take a look at these upgrade planning tips and get started!

Hot Topics

• OpenSSL 3.0 vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-3602 and CVE-2022-3786) – Read the VMware Response
• If you haven’t signed up for the VMware Security Advisories mailing list – take a moment to do so.  Sign up is on this page – right next to the RSS Feed link.
• VMware Converter is back!  Version 6.3 is ready for download!

Upcoming Events

Virtual VMUG – What’s new in vSphere 8
Date: Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022
Time: 2pm EST

Join the Cincinnati VMUG in a virtual session on Zoom to see what’s new in vSphere 8 and to get your questions around it answered – including vSphere+

Register

Toledo VMUG –  What’s new with vSphere 8 and vSAN
Date: November 16th, 2022
Time: 11:30am Eastern

Join the Toledo VMUG on this virtual Lunch-n-Learn to review what is new in vSphere and vSAN for version 8!

Register

Cincinnati VMUG UserCON
December 8th 2022
8am – 4:30pm
In-person at the Sharonville Convention Center
The Cincinnati VMUG community welcomes you back to the Sharonville Convention Center to network and engage in face-to-face conversations with your peers at the Cincinnati VMUG UserCon. Learn about the latest in IT innovations to help you stay on the cutting edge of technology. Advance your knowledge, become a better IT professional and grow as a strategic leader for your organization.

Register at MY.VMUG.COM

Product Support Watch

The following products are nearing the End of General Support.  You can find the full list on the VMware Lifecycle Product Matrix.

vSphere – vCenter and ESXi

• General support for versions 6.5 and 6.7 has ended.  You can still upgrade to Version 7

VMware Tools

• Tools 10.2.x – 12/14/22

NSX 

• NSX-V (all versions) – General Support ended January 16, 2022 – Customers should migrate to NSX-T.  Support no longer available after 1/16/23.
• NSX Advanced Load Balancer 20.1.x – 1/31/23

Disaster Recovery

• Site Recovery Manager 8.3, 8.4 – 4/1/23
• vSphere Replication 8.3, 8.4 – 4/1/23

Horizon View / Workspace ONE

• Horizon 7.13 – 4/30/23
• Dynamic Environment Manager 10/2103 – 3/23/23
• App Volumes 4 2009 – 10/15/22
  • App Volumes 4 2012 – 1/7/23
  • App Volumes 4 2013 – 3/23/23
• Identity Manager 3.3.5 – 11/20/22
• Workspace ONE UEM Console 2105 – 1/15/23
• Workspace ONE UEM Console 2107 (SaaS only) – 2/8/23
• Workspace ONE UEM Cloud 2206 – 1/26/23

vRealize

• vRealize Automation – 8.6.2 – 1/18/23
• vRealize Automation – 8.7 – 3/22/23
• vRealize Automation – 8.8 – 4/28/23
• vRealize Orchestrator – 8.6.1 – 11/19/22
• vRealize Orchestrator – 8.6.2 – 1/18/23
• vRealize Orchestrator – 8.7 – 3/22/23
• vRealize Orchestrator – 8.8 – 4/28/23
• vRealize Lifecycle Manager 8.7 – 3/22/23
• vRealize Lifecycle Manager 8.8 – 4/28/23

Notes from the Field

VMware High School Immersion Program – If you know of a High School student interested in software development – check this out!  This program provides students interested in programming with opportunities to expand their technical knowledge, prepare to apply for internships, and develop professional skills.

vSphere 8 – new feature information is starting to appear in blog articles.  Here are a few you might find interesting…

• vSphere 8 will have a new release model – Change in release process (IA vs GA)
• vSphere 8 has been released to Initial Availability
• vSAN 8 has been released to Initial Availability
• Master List of vSphere 8 KBs and important Links – KB 89756

As you begin to look at vSphere 8, there are some items to review as you prepare:

• Integrated Windows Authentication has been deprecated in vSphere 7 (deprecated means still working but will no longer be supported in the near future).   Active Directory is still supported for authentication – KB 78506 provides the steps you need to prepare to adopt.
• Devices that are deprecated in ESXi 7.0 – KB 77304
• Deprecation of Legacy BIOS Support  – KB 84233
  • All new server support certifications will need to use UEFI
  • Any existing servers already certified using BIOS remain fully supported
  • UEFI offers a number of advantages (Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, etc)
• Plan for CPU Support Discontinuation in Future Major vSphere Releases – Most of these CPUs are already at End of Support or End of Life.  They continue to work for vSphere 7; but will not be supported in 8.x and beyond – KB 82794
• ESXi Hosts booting from SD Cards. – The recommendation is to move away from SD Cards and USB Sticks to boot ESX hosts.  This was announced in 2021.
  • KB 85685 has the full details
  • A TAM Customer webinar in December 2021 covered this extensively. If you were unable to attend the webinar live, you can watch the recording
  • A VMware engineer has written a blog article on how to move from booting ESX from SD-Cards to using locally attached  SSDs
  • KB 83376 – discusses the issues that can arise when the SD card boot device has exhausted its write capability

If you have bookmarked a particular VMware Hands-On Lab but haven’t had time to take it you might want to make some time soon as a number of HOLs are being retired in December 2022.