vSphere 7.0 U2 Support

[mkretzer]

I know its only 3 days - but since now of "VCenter crashing" issue might also benefit from U2 may i ask again: are there any news about the patch?

[Gostev]

No.

And I'm also not sure if it addresses your issue anyway, since the selection of bugs it fixes was done quite a while ago, and based on the number of support cases.

However, the world does not end with the next patch: we can always build a hot fix on top of it, and there will be other patches and updates in the future where new common issues can be addressed.

[mkretzer]

Yes, VMware told me that Veeam is the culpit here, still they also told me after i mentioned that they cannot only blame you for this that VMware did some optimisations with U2 which "might" help. But this is something for another thread.

[jamerson]

Hi Guys,
it's been almost 2 month sinds U2 has been release, is there a indication of the fix?
we havent updated our productions yet, but some customer they had to update some of their clusters because VMware has advised to do so to fix some drivers issues.
Thank you

[Mildur]

From Antons Newsletter this week:

We have finished the implementation of the next big cumulative patch for Veeam Backup & Replication 11 which brings vSphere 7.0 U2 support and have the release candidate build ready, however ran into a couple of unexpected issues with the code signing. One of them is actually quite interesting: our digital code signing provider suddenly dropped support for SHA-1 signatures, which we used in addition to SHA-256 signatures to ensure continued support for legacy OS which cannot process SHA-256 signatures. And it's hard to be mad at them since SHA-1 time has long passed, but now we need to make some unplanned build process changes. This also makes a good point for the recent topic of dropping support for legacy platform versions: even if we try our best to keep supporting them for as long as reasonably possible, the industry train as a whole cannot be stopped.

[KiwiBruce]

Hi Guys,
it's been almost 2 month sinds U2 has been release, is there a indication of the fix?
we havent updated our productions yet, but some customer they had to update some of their clusters because VMware has advised to do so to fix some drivers issues.
Thank you

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

[HannesK]

Veeams Policy is to support new versions in 90 days after GA Release.

let's slightly re-phrase that to: "historically we were able to deliver support within 90 days, with only a few exceptions. But sometimes there are 3rd party changes that prevent support within that timeframe (for example Linux kernels 5.8 and later for VAL)".

The goal is to deliver before June as stated above.

[fdegueldre]

Hello Guys,

We have to push vSphere 7.0U2 to production soon (June i guess) and i wanted to validate this upgrade in our LAB including Veeam Upgrade, is there any way to get our hand on an RC or Beta release even with this signing issue? Like asking to support?
If not i will have to wait for some more time.

Thx you in advance for your help.

[HannesK]

Hello,
yes, please be patient, there is no beta program for patches.

Best regards,
Hannes

[janro]

Veeam R&D Forums Digest (in May 3) said that:

"We have finished the implementation of the next big cumulative patch for Veeam Backup & Replication 11 which brings vSphere 7.0 U2 support and have the release candidate build ready, however ran into a couple of unexpected issues with the code signing. One of them is actually quite interesting: our digital code signing provider suddenly dropped support for SHA-1 signatures, which we used in addition to SHA-256 signatures to ensure continued support for legacy OS which cannot process SHA-256 signatures."

I really hope we will get the patch in first half on May.

[Gostev]

We have resolved the code signing issue described above, but the other one still remains open. That issue is on the VMware side and it prevents the signing of our CDP I/O filter driver, which was updated to provide vSphere 7.0 U2 support. They have confirmed a bug on their side and are working to fix it, but specific timelines are unknown.

[dcomovanguard]

Thanks Anton for continuing to keep everyone up to date with the latest information! Hopefully the patch will be released within the next few weeks!

[tjurgens]

We have resolved the code signing issue described above, but the other one still remains open. That issue is on the VMware side and it prevents the signing of our CDP I/O filter driver, which was updated to provide vSphere 7.0 U2 support. They have confirmed a bug on their side and are working to fix it, but specific timelines are unknown.

Which looks to mean that for proper 7.0 U2 support, vSphere will need to be updated as well in addition to the patch from Veeam.

[Gostev]

No, definitely not. The issue is strictly with their infrastructure that implements code signing for ISVs, so they only need to fix the issue there and that's it.

By the way, since the issue affects CDP only, and their progress has not been promising so far, we're now thinking to just ship vSphere 7.0 U2 support patch w/out support for CDP as a first step. Then follow up with another patch and included the updated CDP I/O filter driver there.

[tjurgens]

Thanks for clarifying!

[mkretzer]

@Gostev I just wanted to ask if you could not just release without CDP support - we badly need U2 support as this is currently our only hope for non-VCenter crashing backups!

[mkretzer]

Its there! Thank you very much!
https://www.veeam.com/kb4126

[Gostev]

I hope it helps you! From going through the complete list of bug fixes in TFS, I'm not sure I saw anything related to your issue. But in any case, you will need this patch installed for any following hot fixes around U2 support.

[mkretzer]

VMware told me they did some optimizations in U2. That's what I mainly hope for as long as the Veeam analysis is still ongoing.

[Gostev]

Ah, got it. Thanks for clarifying!

[jamerson]

a Questions, is this release 11.0.0.837 P20210507 support U2 only or also it does fix the CDP?

[Mildur]

It‘s only the Support for U2 without fixes the CDP Issues from U2.
The release notes tells us, that CDP with U2 isn‘t supported yet because of signing issues on vmwares side.

https://www.veeam.com/kb4126

Added VMware vSphere 7.0 U2 support including new vSphere API version awareness and virtual hardware version 19 compatibility. Note: CDP functionality is not yet supported with vSphere 7.0 U2 due to the I/O filter drivers signing infrastructure issue at VMware, support will be added in the next cumulative patch.

[Gostev]

Not all is lost while at least Veeam Legends are still reading the release documentation before posting

Just to update on this, VMware has fixed the signing issue and we're done smoke testing the signed I/O filter bundle, so those of you using CDP and needing to upgrade to vSphere 7.0 U2 ASAP can now contact our support to get the U2-compatible filter. Otherwise you can wait for the next patch, however we plan on waiting out for a couple of weeks to ensure nothing else needs to be included there (just in case P20210507 breaks something, because it is a fairly big patch).

[chris_lalala]

Thanks for bringing the U2 Support before all Features are working! We came into an update dilemma. We are on ESXi 6.7 U3 and vCenter 7U1. So we could not Patch the ESXi 6.7 to latest because vCenter Build is older than the new ESXi Version. But we could not Update vCenter to U2 causing the Veeam Support. I'm thankful you bringing U2 Support. Maybe for the future I would appreciate if you release Patches for vCenter Support much earlier than full vSphere Support with all features.

[leonelferreyra]

Silly question, is 7.0 U2a support included on last veeam Patch from last week?

[Mildur]

a, b, c Updates should be supported everytime.
There a minor steps, more like hotfix packages.

[FrancWest]

Hi,

We are in kind of a dilemma: there are some CVE’s found in the vSphere 7 html 5 client which are fixed today in U2b. However, since our service provider is still at Veeam V10, we can’t upgrade to Veeam V11 in order to have vSphere 7U2 support. I know that vSphere 7U2 isn’t officially supported by Veeam V10, but is it working fine though?

[Gostev]

Yes, you should not have any terrible issues as long as you avoid U2-specific feature like VMs with the new virtual hardware version.

[FrancWest]

Ok, thanks. Then we will go ahead and update to u2b.

[rleon]

Hi Gostev, just want to double-check.
Veeam 11 P20210507 (build 11.0.0.837 P20210507), supports vSphere 7.0 U2. According to your public KB: https://www.veeam.com/kb2443
That's Ok.

But, does it also support vSphere 7.0 U2b?
I was told all "hotfixes a,b,c,d..." letters added at the end of a vSphere "update number" is implied to be supported by default.
Which means, e.g.: 7.0 U2c will also be automatically supported by Veeam 11 P20210507 (build 11.0.0.837 P20210507), when VMware releases it.
If this arrangement is indeed true, is there a place I can find this statement somewhere, like in a document or a KB?
Thanks.