VMware released vSphere 6.0 Update 1 on September 10th, 2015 and Update 1b on January 7th, 2016. In this post i’ll go through how to upgrade VCSA 6.0 to Update 1 & 1b.
In my environment I have the Platform Services Controller [PSC] embedded with the VCSA. If you deployed an external PSC separately from vCenter then this post will still work for you! The upgrade procedure is the exact same on both the vCenter and PSC just upgrade the PSC first before vCenter.
vCenter Server Appliance 6.o Update 1 Release Notes:
- Customer Experience Improvement Program: The Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) provides VMware with information that enables VMware to improve the VMware products and services and to fix problems. When you choose to participate in CEIP, VMware will collect technical information listed below about your use of the VMware products and services in CEIP reports on a regular basis. This information does not personally identify you. For more details, see the vSphere Documentation Center.
- Feature Enhancement: Suite UI is now enabled by default for the vSphere Web Client.
- Support for SSLv3: Support for SSLv3 has been disabled by default.
- vCSA Authentication for Active Directory: VMware vCenter Server Virtual Appliance (vCSA) has been modified to only support AES256-CTS/AES128-CTS/RC4-HMAC encryption for Kerberos authentication between vCSA and Active Directory.
- Hybrid Cloud Manager: Hybrid Cloud Manager has been updated for vSphere, and can be accessed directly from the home page of vSphere Web Client.
- FT-vSAN Interoperability: vSAN and FT work together.
- Appliance Management user interface: Appliance Management has a new user interface, written in HTML5.
- Backup and Restore with external PSC: vCenter Server deployments with external PSC, also called MxN have support for backup and restore.
- Platform Services Controller UI: The Platform Services Controller now provides UI option to view, renew and replace certificates. For more details see Explore Certificate Stores from the Platform Services Controller Web Interface
- Installation and Upgrade using HTML 5 installer: The following installation and upgrade scenarios are supported for vCenter Server using HTML 5 installer:
- Installation using HTML 5 installer and target as vCenter Server is supported
- Upgrade using HTML 5 installer and target as vCenter Server is not supported
- Upgrade using command line and target as vCenter Server is supported
- Resolved Issues: This release of vCenter Server 6.0 Update 1 addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.
- Full release notes can be found here
vCenter Server Appliance 6.o Update 1b Release Notes:
- ESXi 6.0 Update 1b enables support for TLS versions 1.1 and 1.2 for most of the vSphere components without breaking the previously supported compatibility/interoperability. Some of the vSphere components that still support only TLS version 1.0 are listed here:
- vSphere Client
- Virtual SAN Observer on vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA)
- Syslog on vCSA
- Auto Deploy on vCSA
- Auto Deploy/iPXE
The ESXi 6.0 Update 1b now supports all TLS versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 with the exceptions listed above. See Knowledge base article 2136185 for the list of supported TLS protocols.
- Support for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 128/256-bit key length is added for RPC header authentication in the NFS 4.1 Client.
Note: See resolved Security Issues section for more information. - This release of ESXi 6.0 Update 1b addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.
- Full release notes can be found here
