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vSphere 8 introduces DPU support for vSphere Lifecycle Manager to remediate automatically the ESXi installation on a DPU in lockstep with the host ESXi version. The staging of update/upgrade payloads, parallel remediation, and standalone host support combine to bring vLCM up to feature parity with Update Manager. Standalone hosts can be managed using vSphere Lifecycle Manager with APIs. The VMware Compatibility Guide details which vLCM features a Hardware Support Manager can support.
As the new alternative to VMware Host Profiles, VMware vSphere Configuration Profiles allow you to use the desired-state model for host configuration, attach the configuration profile to a cluster, and apply it. All hosts in the cluster have a consistent configuration applied. Configuration drift is monitored and notified to the Administrator. Instead of attaching a profile-level configuration to each ESXi host individually, the configuration for a cluster can now be defined and applied at the cluster level, including all child objects, such as ESXi hosts.
With vSphere 8 Update 1, vSphere Configuration Profiles is a fully supported feature and supports vSphere Distributed Switch configuration. Because host configuration needs to be specified in its entirety, placing an undue burden on administrators, vSphere Configuration Profiles is a great enhancement over the current Host Profiles technology, in its ability to manage host configurations. Simplifying this process, vSphere Configuration Profiles only requires the admin to define the changes to the default configuration. Existing vSphere clusters with Host Profiles attached can be transitioned to use vSphere Configuration Profiles.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager can stage update payloads to the hosts in advance of remediation. Staging can now be performed without maintenance mode. This reduces the time needed for the hosts to spend in maintenance mode. Stage all ESXi hosts within a cluster with one mouse click without having to put them into maintenance mode. Upgrading ESXi hosts in VMware vSphere will become faster, and you can decrease the management window.
vSphere Lifecycle Manager can remediate multiple hosts in parallel, dramatically reducing the overall time needed to remediate an entire cluster. Hosts placed into maintenance mode can be remediated in parallel. This makes remediating clusters faster, and significantly streamlines the process when a large cluster with many hosts needs to be upgraded. A vSphere administrator can choose to remediate all hosts in maintenance mode or define the number of parallel remediations to perform at a given time. Hosts not placed into maintenance mode are not remediated during this lifecycle operation.
The new approach is more effective because there is no need to update one host at a time. Lifecycle Manager can remediate all hosts in maintenance mode up to a configurable maximum (10 by default).
vSphere Lifecycle Manager for standalone hosts provides full vSphere client support for standalone ESXi hosts with vSphere 8 Update 1. Each lifecycle manager feature (such as compose desired image, remediate, staging, ESXi quick boot, check compliance, and many more that are performed on vSphere cluster) is now available for standalone hosts. For information about a Dell sponsored study of a couple of features of vSphere Lifecycle Manager, see Streamline operations with new and updated VMware vSphere 8.0 features on 16th Generation PowerEdge servers.