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mrmmcglone
Contributor
Contributor

Update Manager - Is it necessary?

I started with a new company and I have a question about Update Manager. This may sound dumb.  It flies in the face of how I have administered vCenter and ESXi over the years.

What is the value of keeping vCenter and its components patched with Update Manager?  In my new environment vCenter Server 4.1.0.258905 and ESXi 4.1.988178 are in use.  It would appear ESXi has been upgraded manually to this version and patches going back forever have never been applied. The view here is that vCenter and ESXi are stable where they are at.  Why patch and update if it could cause an issue with a stable environment?

Its hard to argue with that.  Not sure how to answer it.  Any ideas?

Thanks

6 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

If there's no requirement (e.g. compliance, security, ...) and the features of the current version as well as the guest OS support is sufficient, and the environment (storage, backup, ...) is still supported, then it's indeed hard to find good arguments. I do have customers who are running 4.x environments with more than 1,000 days uptime and are happy with it.

One reason to consider upgrading may be the End of General Support for version 4.x on May 21, 2014 (see https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/support/Product-Lifecycle-Matrix.pdf)

André

lakey81
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Security and compliance.

mrmmcglone
Contributor
Contributor

When you a trial version of ESXi 5.5 can I continue to use ESXi after the trial has expired?

Thanks

Matt

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

After installing vCenter Server as well as ESXi, they will run in evaluation mode for 60 days. After that time you have to enter a valid license key. For standalone hosts this can even be a free Hypervisor key. However keep in mind that the free Hypervisor has a restricted API, so that e.g. most commercial VM based backup applications won't work.

André

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CedricAnto
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

If you are running a production environment, it is a mandate to keep you environment up-to date.

Bear in mind that

  • Environment need to be free of the latest vulnerabilities. You do not want an environment prone to heartbleed :slightly_smiling_face:
  • Latest updates are enhanced,optimized and has several bug fixes
  • Push the limits of virtualization, for the innovator that VMware is... amazing things are added every other day.

Update manager makes these tasks fairly automated, you can orchestrate and update an entire cluster of hosts with zero downtime to your virtual machines.

This does go against the traditional quote of administrators to not change anything if its working..

Well there is a significant trade off to resist change :slightly_smiling_face:

Cedric http://in.linkedin.com/in/cedricrajendran/ http://virtualknightz.com/
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bayupw
Leadership
Leadership

Agree with André, lakey, and Cedric.

VMware will recommend to keep current with the latest VMware product versions and patches.

If problems are encountered, VMware Support is best positioned to assist with and troubleshoot current software versions.

I found it same for Hardware Vendor as well. When customer encounter a problem, Hardware Vendor Support (e.g. Server) would ask the customer to upgrade their BIOS or firmware before the support engineer can continue to assist or troubleshoot.


Thanks,

Bayu

Bayu Wibowo | VCIX6-DCV/NV
Author of VMware NSX Cookbook http://bit.ly/NSXCookbook
https://github.com/bayupw/PowerNSX-Scripts
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/bayupw | twitter @bayupw