vCD810_release_4
Earlier this morning VMware released vCloud Director SP 8.10 Build 3879706. This is a significant release for vCloud Director as its the first release that contains the long overdue UI features that where previously only accessible via API calls. The vCD Service Provider community had been asking for this since the first release of the SP code stream and as had been well documented in this blog, VMware have gone back and forth in finally committing to vCDs future which meant a commitment back in December to start introducing the new API features into the UI and commit to further development and UI improvements in future builds.

I’ll dedicate a couple of blogs over the next few weeks to the new features in this release but I’ve summarized the main features and improvements below. There is also some very important news around support for vCNS (below) and also around NSX interoprability as well as a requirement to upgrade to an 8.0.x build before being able to upgrade to 8.10.

New Feature Highlights:

  • Expanded UI Access to Features Many operations that were previously accessible only from the vCloud API are now accessible in the vCloud Director Web Console. I’ll cover most of these in the next few weeks, but this is obviously the standout new feature.
  • Object Extensibility A new Object Extensibility feature has been introduced. vCloud Director object extensions are external applications that can participate in, influence, or override the logic that vCloud Director applies to complex operations like vApp instantiation and placement.
  • Expanded Hardware Version and Guest OS support The system now supports Hardware Version 11 and Windows 10. This allows full support of those running ESXi 6.0 and above.
  • Browser Support It looks as though most…if not all browsers are supported in this release except Microsoft Edge. The release notes state that all browsers on the MAC are officially supported as well and we still have to put up with Flash support…for the medium term anyways 😉
  • Guest OS Support  Still no Windows Server 2016 support, but hopefully that will come not long after it’s GA’ed. Check the release notes for a full list.

Upgradeability:

There is no support for upgrades from any 5.5.x or 5.6.x versions meaning that you needs to upgrade to at least 8.0.1 before upgrading to the 8.10 binaries. If you try to upgrade you will get the warning message below so continue at your own risk.

vCD810_release_1

There is also a recommendation in the release notes to increase the resources of your vCD Cells to a minimum of 6GB of RAM…though in the installer is quotes 5GB of RAM.

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vCNS and NSX:

No Support for vShield Manager
This release of vCloud Director does not support integration with VMware vShield Manager. Existing installations that are using vShield Manager must migrate their vShield Manager installations to VMware NSX Manager before upgrading to vCloud Director 8.10. Legacy vShield Manager Edge appliances are still supported in this release, but we recommend upgrading those Edges to NSX Edges as soon as possible.

As people on the BETA for 8.10 found out this release officially ends support for vCloud Networking and Security which is no surprise given its being EOL’ed later in the year but what it will do is hasten any vCD SP that’s still not upgraded to NSX who want to deploy this and any future build of vCloud Director. I also assume that if all VSE’s are to be upgraded to installed NSX Edge versions the Edge Service Configuration is 100% compatible with the NSX Edges and you only configure whats presented to you from the vCD UI even through other services are available on the Edge…this obvious paves the way for the Advanced Networking Services which is set for release later in the year.

Below is the official supportability matrix for all vCD SP release and NSX-v…as shown below, 8.10 is good with NSX 6.2.2, 6.1.5 and 6.1.6.

vCD810_release_2

For those with the correct entitlements…download here.

#LongLivevCD

References:

http://pubs.vmware.com/Release_Notes/en/vcd/8-10/rel_notes_vcloud_director_8-10.html