vSphere 7.0 U2 Support

[MAA]

Is version 7.0U2 supported?

[TL;DR] Supported starting from build 11.0.0.837 P20210507

Caveats:
1. No CDP support yet due to the issue on VMware side. [UPDATE] CDP is supported starting from build 11.0.0.837 P20210525
2. NBD/NBDSSL transport in 7.0U2 is slower (the issue is on VMware side).

[Gostev]

Is version 7.0U2 released?

[MAA]

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2021/0 ... lease.html

"We are excited to share that today VMware is releasing vSphere 7 Update 2."

[Gostev]

Sounds good, we will download once the bits are published, and perform the full regression testing.

[jtwaddle]

Great! Thanks!

[MSc]

Just got the first warning after upgrading the VCSA to 7.0U2 last night:

"Your vCenter Server API version is higher than the version this product build has been tested against, which may cause issues with some functionality. Please refer to Veeam KB2443 for vSphere version support information. This warning will not be logged again."

Okay... will wait for the Veeam sign-off before moving to the server side of things...

[andrie]

Apart from missing support from Veeam, there are already a few VMware issues when updating to 7.0 U2. I would expect a few patches coming soon to fix those problems.
ESX Hosts: https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comment ... oken_boot/
vCenter: https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2021/03 ... phase.html

[svenh]

The ESX upgrade issue seems to come from using a patch baseline instead of an upgrade baseline using the ISO: https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2021/03 ... 4-efi.html

[jamerson]

Just got the first warning after upgrading the VCSA to 7.0U2 last night:

"Your vCenter Server API version is higher than the version this product build has been tested against, which may cause issues with some functionality. Please refer to Veeam KB2443 for vSphere version support information. This warning will not be logged again."

Okay... will wait for the Veeam sign-off before moving to the server side of things...

just curious.
when it says "Your vCenter Server API version is higher than the version this product build has been tested against" and even its backup. means the backup are clean or not to be trusted?

[Gostev]

It means that the backup job has met an alien it never saw before, so the results of this encounter are totally unpredictable. And in our experience so far, hugs are rare.

[mkretzer]

And in our experience so far, hugs are rare.

Indeed Gostev, especially during the pandemic

What if we upgrade just VC - things like CBT in done on the ESX host correct? We have some bugs in VC 7U1 which we still have no solution for...

[Gostev]

Tracking is done by ESXi host I/O stack, but access to the data is through the vSphere API on vCenter. I would not advise upgrading vCenter Server in light of changed API version prior to official support from Veeam. vSphere updates have long stopped to be just bug fix builds, VMware treats them as proper release vehicles and feels it can make significant changes in them (like adding new API version). So you should treat them accordingly too, which means upgrading on a first day is a risky endeavor.

[MSc]

Hmm, a rollback of the VCSA is not really what I was longing for... is there any planned timeframe for the 7.0U2 acceptance testing?! So far all backup were completed w/o any errors/warnings.

[Mildur]

Veeams Policy is to support new versions in 90 days after GA Release. For vsphere 7.0 U2, this means:
Release date this week + 90 days.
It can take until june 2021 for official support by veeam.

Don‘t patch a software without checking compatiblity first with other products in your enviroment.

[MAA]

Why you can not negotiate with the VMware on the early access to the pre-release software?

[Gostev]

We do have the early access to pre-release vSphere builds and are testing them. However, historically speaking, significant changes in GA builds comparing to RC builds were not uncommon. Which is why our policy is to perform the full regression cycle on the GA build before declaring official support.

is there any planned timeframe for the 7.0U2 acceptance testing?!

Full regression testing cycle takes about 2 weeks, based on its results we can determine a time frame for the official support (depending on the amount of code changes required on our side).

90 days after GA to support new platform versions is our target as opposed to a policy, since it does not depend solely on Veeam. For example, official vSphere 6.5 U2 support was declared only half a year after its GA because of the API reliability bug on VMware side (we only started to officially support 6.5 U2 from the patch level ESXi650-201811002).

[MSc]

Thanks! For years I've been fighting for NOT updating stuff ad hoc... this time I ran straight into that mine... mental lapse. Oh well... I expected minor bug fixes from VMware w. U2, not something which can potentially break the backup system. Bummer. Again, lesson re-learned. Check and double-check... not just do!

[Gostev]

Well, the good news is that we did not see any issues with the last RC build of 7.0 U2.

However, that build is from 1.5 months ago, so there was a significant gap before GA when many changes could have been made. In fact, this particular vSphere release is a bit more "dangerous" than usual in that sense, because there was what looked like some major last-minute issue in the code that caused the RTM build to slip significantly. And from my own experience at Veeam, I know how risky those last minute fixes of major issues could be.

[Regnor]

It means that the backup job has met an alien it never saw before, so the results of this encounter are totally unpredictable. And in our experience so far, hugs are rare.

Indeed Gostev, especially during the pandemic

That's true...virtual hugs to everyone

From my experience, I wouldn't rush to install new VMware updates; especially major releases.
And it doesn't hurt to wait a few weeks or for Veeam QC to give an OK. (in case of feature releases, not super critical security fixes)

[jamerson]

It means that the backup job has met an alien it never saw before, so the results of this encounter are totally unpredictable. And in our experience so far, hugs are rare.

Thank you for your answer. ive got the alien part. if the ESXI are updated and vCenter not.
the backups are configured to use the vCenter would this impact the alien backup

[MSc]

First stage is always the VCSA update... you can't admin higher version ESXi with a lower version VCSA, AFAIK....

[STGdb]

I received the same error from the API, but the backups seem to still be working (only upgraded the VCSA for one of our vSphere clusters, not the hosts). Leaving the other clusters alone for now

Wanted to take a look at the new Native Key Provider (NKP) for vTPM implementation versus using 3rd party (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphe ... 9DF97.html).

Curious to see if VEEAM will end up supporting backups of the new NKP feature. The new NKV requires a backup before it will work and throws an alarm every 24 hours if a backup hasn't been completed in the past 24 hours (https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphe ... A039D.html).

Cheers!!

[Stupots]

A few issues with 7.0 U2

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/83063

"As of March 12th, VMware has removed the ESXi 7.0 U2 offline depot from all sites as a result of this failure, For more information, please see KB 83107
VMware is currently working on building a new Patch to resolve this issue.
As a result VMware recommends to NOT upgrade to 7.0 U2 until this patch is available."

[Gostev]

Looks like the online depot has also been removed.

[TeamInd]

Is support for vCenter 7.0 U2 going to be added to B&R 10? I can't upgrade to B&R 11 until my cloud provider for backup copy jobs upgrades to version 11 and I'm not sure when that will be.

[Regnor]

I don't think so; v10 is now in the End of Fix phase, which means it won't receive any updates/hotfixes/patches anymore.
https://www.veeam.com/kb1530

[tjurgens]

First stage is always the VCSA update... you can't admin higher version ESXi with a lower version VCSA, AFAIK....

Well, sometimes you can, but its against VMware best practices and it usually ends up a bad idea.

The usual steps are:
1) VMware Products (vROPS, NSX, etc)
1a) Additional vendor products such as Veeam
2) VCSA
3) ESXi Hosts

Checking the interoperability matrix before of course.

[jsprinkleisg]

Thanks! For years I've been fighting for NOT updating stuff ad hoc... this time I ran straight into that mine... mental lapse. Oh well... I expected minor bug fixes from VMware w. U2, not something which can potentially break the backup system. Bummer. Again, lesson re-learned. Check and double-check... not just do!

I'm sure that mental lapses like yours are even more likely right now, with the new feature of the blue bar at the top every time you log into the vSphere Client notifying you that a vCenter update is available! AFAIK there's currently no way to acknowledge or disable that notification.

First stage is always the VCSA update... you can't admin higher version ESXi with a lower version VCSA, AFAIK....

In general, VMware does support vCenter managing newer ESXi build, as long as the major version is the same. E.g., vCenter 7.0GA can manage ESXi 7.0U1. However, even though the Interop Matrix says it's supported, I have (rarely) seen issues with this in the past. I would always recommend patching vCenter before patching the ESXi hosts.

[george.jame]

Can support vSphere 7u2 with veeam Backup and Replication 10.0.1.4854 ?

[Stupots]

No George, Regnor answered this just a few posts above... Veeam BR 10 has reached End of Fix. https://www.veeam.com/kb1530