VMware: 5.5 Update 1

Earlier in the month VMware released 5.5 Update 1 for vCloud Director, vCenter Server, and VMware ESXi. Here is a summary of some new features they have made available:

– VMWare VSAN is now available.
– vCenter Server is now supported with Windows Server 2012 R2.
– The vCloud Hybrid Service plugin has been added to the vSphere Web Client.
– Additional supported guest operating systems and customisations are now available with vCloud Director (for more details on these, see the vCloud Director release notes below).

One downside is that a 5.5.1 update to vCNS has not been released as yet, which means no updates to the vShield Manager or vShield Edge. I’ve been advised by VMware that this is due to be released in the coming months.

As detailed in KB 2057795 (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2057795) the normal upgrade sequence for the vCloud Director stack would be as follows:

1. vCloud Director
2. vShield Manager
3. vCenter Server
4. ESXi

VMware advised that missing out the vSM from the sequence will not cause any problems, and I can confirm that these updates have been rolled out to the Cloudhelix platform with no issues to report.

vCloud Director 5.5.1 Release Notes

https://www.vmware.com/support/vcd/doc/rel_notes_vcloud_director_551.html
Build: 1654672

vCenter Server 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes

https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-vcenter-server-55u1-release-notes.html
Build: 1623101

VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes

https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u1-release-notes.html
Build: 1623387