vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.0 w/ ESXi 6.0U2

[vipclubber]

Can I run vCenter Server Appliance 6.5.0 with ESXi 6.0U2?

Is it recommended and is 6.5.0 Appliance is stable enough to run with ESXi 6.0U2 or should I install vCenter 6.0U2 instead?

Thanks in advance and please advise.

[Mattallford]

Hi there,

vCenter Server 6.5 can manage ESXi 5.5, 6.0 and 6.5 hosts, so you are OK to run VCSA 6.5 and leave your hosts at 6.0u2.

Is there a reason you don't want to or can't upgrade ESXi on the hosts (compatability, etc)?

Cheers, Matt.

[jhague]

‌You can use the interoperability matrix to determine whether your configuration is supported - as long as it's on there you're good. It doesn't have to necessarily be on the same version as Matt has advised, though of course it is preferable where possible 🙂

VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes

[vipclubber]

The reason for my question is to find out how stable new 6.5 version is? Usually it is not recommended to go to new version without proper updates. There has been no updates released and I am not sure if I want to risk running ESXi 6.5 without Updates or proper patches. I learn from 5.5 mistakes when I ran into so many bugs including purple screens. So I feel running ESXi 6.0U2 is stable platform and good decision but vCenter could probably go up to 6.5 if I can get a response how stable its been.

Has anyone actually ran this configuration? Any reports?

[jhague]

‌But by the same logic vCenter 6.5 would also be buggy 😉

If you're going down the 6.0 route, for info Update 3 was released yesterday - VMware ESXi 6.0 Update 3 Release Notes

[Mattallford]

‌

Usually it is not recommended to go to new version without proper updates.

A Product having updates after GA should not be a reason to wait and move to it. 6.5 is a pretty good release from VMware, at least compared to 6.0. Each of the releases have known issues, even 6.0u3.

Also, 6.5a has been released. Build a is usually a patch to resolve any critical issues identified in the GA build.

Do you have any business requirements to deploy 6.5? Are there features in 6.5 that the business needs and would it be a show stopper if you deployed 6.0? If not and you still have hesitations about 6.5, just go ahead and deploy vCenter 6.0 and keep your ESXi hosts on 6.0 as well.

Cheers, Matt.

[vipclubber]

If vCenter 6.5 buggy I can circumvent and log in directly to host if need be by bypassing vCenter.

As for update 3, that's great news, but in my case Im running on HP DL360p Gen8 server and would need a custom HP image which won't be ready for some time.

Also do they have vCenter as HP custom image or not?

Has there been any major known issues with ESXi or vCenter 6.5?

[jhague]

‌Possibly for some things but a lot of vCenter stuff can't be configured at the host level.

No there aren't any custom images of vCenter.

vSphere 6.5 has been out for around 4 months now with only 1 follow up release which addressed 1 bug and support for NSX 6.3. If it's something you're concerned about (which is not unreasonable) I'd be inclined to keep vCenter/ESXi versions consistent until such a time as you're comfortable with upgrading.

[vipclubber]

The issue is using OEM custom HP image.

I do not have any business requirements for any specific version. However following bad experience with 5.5 I'd like to install a stable release. I agree keeping versions of ESXi and vCenter consistent. In your opinion, if you had to make the decision would you stay with 6.0 with updates or go with ESXi/vCenter 6.5?

Here is OEM warning:

Anyone installing this should be careful of the current issues this build is having with HP servers and Vmware 6.5 ( It's purple screen of deathing ) per below and others!

https://communities.vmware.com/message/2632536

https://communities.vmware.com/message/2633912

[srwsol]

The one thing that is buggy about ESXi 6.5 is the USB support with the new driver.   If you are going to use ESXi 6.5 and have host USB devices that VMs use, I'd strongly suggest that you disable the new USB driver per this kb article:

https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=21476...

Here's a thread discussing the issues:

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/547408?start=0&tstart=0

[ycheung]

I know this thread is over 8 months old but does anyone else have issue with vCetner 6.5 with 6.0 host? I have a fresh setup of VCSA 6.5 with 6.0 hosts. Everything are working properly except that I cannot deploy OVA. To work around this issue, I had to create a nested 6.5 host within the 6.0 host to deploy the OVA. After the OVA is deployed then I migrate it from the nested host to the 6.0 host.