VMware vSphere 6.0 support

[mxx]

For someone like me, who doesn't have access to any fancy vmware features as it's only vsphere essentials, the only interesting part of VSphere 6 is the new VCA with the hopefully improved performance and GUI of the web client.
I really HATE that webclient and I use the c# client as much as possible. I guess I'm not alone with this

Someone mentioned that the main issue regarding interoperability with VCenter Server v6 was that it no longer supports sslv3 which the vddk used by Veeam needs.
As I wouldn't upgrade the hosts just yet, only the VCenter Server, is there a chance for a workaround?
Enabling sslv3 (if that's possible) in VCenter Server 6 (while staying on esxi 5.5)?

Or something else. Is it possible to upgrade the VDDK Veeam uses to the latest 5.5 version?
"This issue is resolved in the VDDK 5.5.4 release by enabling support for and requesting Transport Layer Security version 1 (TLSv1)".

Thank you!

[Gostev]

SSLv3 is not the only issue anyway.

But no, it is not possible to simply replace VDDK modules, because there are some tie ups between our code and VDDK modules on binary level, allowing us to handle certain VDDK issues and limitations transparently for enhanced reliability. Just replacing the modules to different ones will cause unpredictable results, and more importantly will render your deployment unsupported by Veeam.

Besides, consider if it is even a good idea to jump a major release of any software just a few days after it has been released. It is always a better idea to let someone else run into the initial wave of bugs. Most companies have the "SP1 rule" for any new releases, and I am totally with them on this.

[mxx]

Yes, that's why I won't update the hosts just yet. VCenter Server I only need for Veeam and rarely for VUM so I would have risked it. But now that's out of the question obviously.
Thanks Gostev for clearing that up and thanks for answering all those annoying questions

[Gostev]

No problems at all, I've been doing this every year for the past 8 years

By the way, the official blog post is now live > VMware vSphere 6 support coming soon
Should be helpful in case you need to send someone the summary of this topic.

[DaveBristolIT]

I might have been a bit over-enthusiastic and also upgraded my onsite vCentre to 6.0

I upgraded two hosts, one which runs the Veeam backup VM (only) and one that doesn't currently run any VMs.

The rest are still on 5.5U2.

Luckily, somehow, all of my Veeam backup and replication jobs are still working.

Not saying go ahead and upgrade Vcentre... but in our case, we got lucky

[Hydargos]

Not saying go ahead and upgrade Vcentre... but in our case, we got lucky

Helo,

Did you try to restore a VM ? I updated my vcenter and my backup jobs works fine. It just fail to restore vms.

[dellock6]

"just"....
The final goal of any backup is the restore, so please please be careful in updating your environments to unsupported versions of any hypervisor...

[DaveBristolIT]

Helo,

Did you try to restore a VM ? I updated my vcenter and my backup jobs works fine. It just fail to restore vms.

I haven't yet, but after seeing this, I probably should try!

FYI: My Offsite Veeam that connects into this local vCentre started failing with bad username/password. I rescanned the host under backup infrastructure and everything was detected fine, and have now retried the job and it appears to be running correctly.

[DaveBristolIT]

All good on the restore:

[Marc.H]

Like everyone I might have been a bit too enthusiastic. Upgraded my vcenter and some of my hosts to the last release and so far everything worked fine until I noticed that the backups were taking unusually way longer.
In the Veeam 8 action screen I see for all vm’s I am backing up “xx/xx/xxxx xx:xx:xx :: CBT data is invalid, failing over to legacy incremental backup. No action is required, next job run should start using CBT again. If CBT data remains invalid, follow KB1113 to perform CBT reset. Usual cause is power loss.” Resulting in full pass for all vm’s.
Tried resetting the cbt as per the kb but doesn’t seem to help.
Is this a known issue with vsphere 6 that should keep away people from upgrading ? Of course the hosts that haven't been upgraded are still backed up at the same speed.

Tkx for any input

I have exactly the same behavior. Backup runs fine, but always failing over to legacy - no CBT support at the moment,.

Regards
Marc

[nubishosting]

Greetings,

I recently upgraded to vCenter v6.0 in a production environment, and I have one IBM host running ESXi v6.0, and Veeam is working GREAT, as usual !! I did a guest O/S file restore, no problem. So I will be upgrading the other hosts (currently running 5.x) in the next couple of weeks.


-Kevin C.

[Gostev]

Hi, Kevin. Before proceeding with the upgrade, please also consider that upgrading to vSphere 6 at this time will render your B&R deployment unsupported by Veeam Customer Support. In other words, you will be on your own in case of any backup or restore issues. Thanks!

[nubishosting]

Hi Gostev,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Given this, I will NOT upgrade other hosts to 6.0 until Veeam is officially supporting it. As long as Veeam Tech Support will support me using vCenter 6.0 with ESXi 5.x hosts, we are good for now.


-Kevin C.

[marco.horstmann]

At the moment we are NOT supporting vSphere 6.0. This includes ESXi 6.0 and vCenter 6.0.

As mentioned from Gostev you need to wait for Update 2 to get a supported solution. Please always take a look in our system requirements.

[jamerson]

unfortunately had to update today one of my customers to ESXI 6.0 because of bug and Vmware advised to update it.
in the mean while the back up stops working of course. hopefully we will get the update 2 soon.

[Vitaliy S.]

Julien, what vSphere bug were you trying to fix this way?

[jamerson]

Julien, what vSphere bug were you trying to fix this way?

its was a Certificate and vSAN,
Vmware advised to update to 6.0

[Gostev]

Well, the good news is that VSAN 2.0 support is coming as a part of our Update 2 as well.

[jamerson]

Well, the good news is that VSAN 2.0 support is coming as a part of our Update 2 as well.

i've read it somewhere.
can't wait for the update
in the mean while we have to update running .
so keep the fingers across.

i've understand the update 2 will be available by the end of this month ? is this true ?

[Gostev]

That is correct. Limited availability next week, followed by general availability by the end of this month.

[jamerson]

is fast guys !
You work hard !

keep up the good work

[SyNtAxx]

That is correct. Limited availability next week, followed by general availability by the end of this month.

What does limited availability mean? Users with cases logged get access? I have several issues in tier 3 support.

-Nick

[Gostev]

That is correct, Nick. And, I am sure you will be one of the first to get it (I am aware of that issue you have with the two overlapping hot fixes required). Thanks!

[SyNtAxx]

That is correct, Nick. And, I am sure you will be one of the first to get it (I am aware of that issue you have with the two overlapping hot fixes required). Thanks!

Thank you. I appreciate your looking into my situation. I am eager to put the patch into place and see what happens

-NIck

[mysidia]

unfortunately had to update today one of my customers to ESXI 6.0 because of bug and Vmware advised to update it.
in the mean while the back up stops working of course. hopefully we will get the update 2 soon.

I am confused by that particular one... latest versions of ESXi 5.0 and 5.5 releases are not End of Support,
and ESXi5 still gets updates; going from 5 to 6 is a major upgrade.... not an update or simple patch.

Seems like someone at VMware owes you a proper fix for whichever major release was being used,
since not all your applications are compatible with ESXi6 yet.

[jamerson]

the issue is we had 5.1, and to go to 5.5 we had to buy the licenses twice.
was twice cheaper to update to 6.0 than to 5.5
the customer knows the updates will be down for two weeks atleast.

thank you

[jamerson]

sorry can't edit the post.
somehow Veeam is working even on version 6.0 !
this time had to add the vCenter not the vSphere.
everything works smootly as supposed to.
run twice a back up today off site too.

why it does works , dont ask me

[Marc.H]

Hi,

any news on the Update? Is there any chance to get the limited version?

Regards
Marc

[veremin]

We're still aiming at end of April. Thanks.

[SyNtAxx]

We're still aiming at end of April. Thanks.

I have to be honest, I'm not sure I can wait until end of April. I feel like i'm being strung along for patch 2 to resolve issues. I have situations, where the hotfix itself needs to be 'hotfixed' and am running into more issues by the day. Tape jobs now fail to dump because of .vbk synthesize and date errors. I've already altered the time format as suggested for the work around. No go.