VMware 6.5 or 6.7 Suggestions

[shepcon]

All, I'm about to deploy a new VMware environment using a few new Dell PE 740 servers. I'm retiring about a dozen older physical servers that will be P2Ved and will use the new servers for the environment. I have purchased VMware Essentials Plus for 3 servers with 2 CPUs each. I also have Veeam B&R Essentials for backups. My question is which version of VMware should I use: 6.5 or 6.7? I'm licensed for both and because it's a new environment and not upgrading legacy hosts, I can pick whichever I choose. I know that Veeam 9.5 3a added 6.7 support, but I've also read quite a few bug issues with 6.7 as it relates to Veeam and other Microsoft technologies.


Any input or suggestion is appreciated.

Ken

[Frosty]

We deployed 3 x brand new Dell R740 hosts back in January 2018 and built new VMware infrastructure. We chose a VCSA v6.5 appliance and put vSphere 6.5 U1 (not U2) on the hosts. Has been rock solid. We have delayed deploying any major upgrades, so not v6.5 U2 and not v6.7 because we're not convinced of their stability in all scenarios. I've always been cautious about upgrading, have never desired to be on the bleeding edge, and have never regretted doing so. Others may well have a different view. There are some nice features in 6.7 that we'd enjoy using, however they can wait until next year. 8^)

[shepcon]

Thanks for the input.

[foggy]

Correct, 6.5 U1 is considered to be stable. You can check the following threads for more details on vSphere 6.5 U2 and vSphere 6.7.

[evilaedmin]

Aaaand, 6.7 update 1 is GA. Is there a recommended process for waiting-on-Veeam to either certify or "bless" a new release? We are really looking forward to the resolution of PR 2165537: Backup proxy virtual machines might go to invalid state during backup which affects 6.5 U2.

[evilaedmin]

Looks like Gostev stickied the bad news.

[shepcon]

Because there's a "workaround" for vSphere 6.7 u1 with Veeam 9.5 3a by changing HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication, I presume it's better to start with 6.7 u1 instead of 6.5 u2. I guess Veeam 9.5 4 will solve both versions, but no knowledge when that will ship. It's a brand new vSphere setup on all new hosts, so I have the freedom of choice at the beginning of the project.

Value: VMwareOverrideApiVersion
Type: Multi-String Value (REG_MULTI_SZ)
Data: 6.7.1 = 6.7

Thanks.
Ken

[jingalls]

I've been reading all of the related threads and am still not perfectly clear about the vsphere 6.5U2 status as of 11/14/18...
Can someone please answer both of these specific questions?
1. Is there still (as of Nov 2018) an unresolved VMware issue (from a Veeam point of view) concerning a full vcenter and ESXi 6.5U2.latest environment, as indicated above?
2. If yes, then has it been determined that the real cause for concern lies with the ESXi hosts? In other words, could I upgrade vcenter to the latest (6.5U2c) but keep my ESXi hosts at 6.5U1 and have a stable and fully supported Veeam/VMware environment?
Thanks everyone!

[foggy]

Hi John, please refer to this article for an up-to-date status of vSphere releases support. According to this thread, people do not see issues if only vCenter Server is upgraded to 6.5U2.

[Borg]

I am sticking with 6.5 for now due to the many problems with various patched that broke things in newer versions.
Unless there is an absolute additional feature need that makes you want to implement 6.7, you should stay with 6.5 for now.