Announcing General Availability of VCF 3.10.0.1 on VxRail 4.7.511
Mon, 21 Sep 2020 14:08:45 -0000
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Improved automated lifecycle management and new hardware options
Today (7/2), Dell Technologies is announcing General Availability of VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10.0.1 on VxRail 4.7.511.
Why we are releasing 3.10.0.1?
Because we’ve been notified about an upcoming important patch for the Cloud Foundation version 3.10 from VMware, and we wanted to incorporate it in a GA version on VxRail for the best experience for our customers.
What’s New?
This new release introduces VCF enhancements and VxRail enhancements.
VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10.0.1 enhancements:
- ESXi Cluster-Level and Parallel Upgrades - Enables customers to update the ESXi software on multiple clusters in the management domain or in a workload domain in parallel. Parallel upgrades reduce the overall time required to upgrade the VCF environment.
Figure 1. ESXi Cluster-Level and Parallel Upgrades
- NSX-T Data Center Cluster-Level and Parallel Upgrades - Enables customers to upgrade all edge clusters in parallel, and then all host clusters in parallel. Again, parallel upgrades reduce the overall time required to upgrade the VCF environment. There’s also a possibility to select specific clusters to upgrade, using multiple upgrade windows, so that there’s no requirement for all clusters to be available at a given time.
Figure 2. NSX-T Cluster-Level and Parallel Upgrades
- Skip Level Upgrades - Enables customers to upgrade to VMware Cloud Foundation on Dell EMC VxRail 3.10 from versions 3.7 and later. Note: in case of VCF on VxRail, this must be performed by Dell EMC Customer Support at this time – customer enabled skip level upgrades will be supported when the feature is available in the GUI. Customers with active support contracts should open a Service Request with Dell EMC Customer Support to schedule the skip level upgrade activity.
Option to disable Application Virtual Networks (AVNs) during Bring-up - AVNs deploy vRealize Suite components on NSX overlay networks. We recommend using this option during bring-up. Customers can now disable this feature, for instance, if they are not planning to use vRealize Suite components.
- Support for multiple NSX-T Transport Zones - Some customers require this option due to their architecture/security standards, for even better separation of the network traffic. It’s now available as a Day 2 configuration option that can be enabled by customers or VMware Professional Services.
- BOM Updates - Updated Bill of Materials with new product versions. For an updated BOM, please consult the release notes.
VxRail 4.7.511 enhancements:
- VCF on VxRail login using RSA SecurID two-factor authentication - Allows customers to implement more secure, two-factor authentication for VCF on VxRail using the RSA SecurID solution.
- Support for new hardware options - Please check this blog post and the press release for more details on VxRail 4.7.510 platform features:
- Intel Optane Persistent Memory
- VxRail D560 / D560F – ruggedized VxRail nodes
- VxRail E665/F/N – AMD-based VxRail nodes
Summary
VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10.0.1 on VxRail 4.7.511 provides several features that allow existing customers to upgrade their platform more efficiently than ever before. The updated LCM capabilities offer not only more efficiency (with parallelism), but more flexibility in terms of handling the maintenance windows. With skip level upgrade, available in this version as a professional service, it’s also possible to get to this latest release much faster. This increases security, and allows customers to get the most benefit from their existing investments in the platform. New customers will benefit from the broader spectrum of hardware options, including ruggedized (D-series) and AMD-based nodes.
Additional resources:
Blog post about VCF 4.0 on VxRail 7.0: The Dell Technologies Cloud Platform – Smaller in Size, Big on Features
Press release: Dell Technologies Brings IT Infrastructure and Cloud Capabilities to Edge Environments
Blog post about new features in VxRail 4.7.510: VxRail brings key features with the release of 4.7.510
VCF on VxRail technical whitepaper
VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10 on Dell EMC VxRail Release Notes from VMware
Blog post about VCF 3.10 from VMware: Introducing VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10
Author: Karol Boguniewicz, Senior Principal Engineer, VxRail Technical Marketing
Twitter: @cl0udguide