VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Release Notes

What's in the Release Notes

• What's New
• Installation
• Open Source Components for vCenter Configuration Manager
• Upgrades for This Release
• Earlier Releases of VMware vCenter Configuration Manager
• Resolved Issues
• Known Issues

What's New

With this release, VCM provides additional platform support, additional dashboards and reports, and provides you with the ability to create alerts based on the results of your scheduled runs of virtual environments compliance. This release also resolves some functionality issues and provides an updated version of the vCenter Configuration Manager Installation Guide.

Managed Machines Platform Support

VCM 5.5.1 adds support for the following VMware vSphere platforms:

• vSphere 5.1
• vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1a and 5.1
• ESXi 5.1
• vCloud Director 5.1
• vShield 5.1

VCM 5.5.1 adds support for the following Linux platforms:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 and 6.3

Additional Reports and Dashboards

Reports from the VCM 5.5.0 Report Pack 1 are now included in VCM 5.5.1. Use the new reports to manage your VMware Cloud and Virtualization Infrastructure.

• Understand your vCenter Server and vCloud Director permissions by user and group using the Virtual Environments Permissions report.
• Analyze your configuration compliance data for Host Profiles and the vSphere Hardening Guide using the enhanced Virtual Environments Host Summary dashboard.

Virtual Environment Compliance Alerts

Using configured virtual environment alerts, you can create an alert for each of your virtual environment compliance templates. The alert is triggered when your selected compliance templates report non-compliant results. Based on how you configure the alert, the alert appears in the VCM console, you receive an email message, create an SNMP trap, run a remote command, or write an entry to the event log. When you combine the alerts with scheduled virtual environment compliance checks, you further automate the management of your virtual environment objects.

Resolved Issues

This release delivers a number of bug fixes that are documented in the Resolved Issues section and the VMware Knowledge Base.

Updated Documentation

The vCenter Configuration Manager Installation Guide is updated with an improved and streamlined single-tier, two-tier, and three-tier workflow.

Installation

The vCenter Configuration Manager Installation Guide provides detailed system configuration and installation instructions for single-tier, two-tier, and three-tier installation deployment models. The vCenter Configuration Manager Administration Guide describes the steps for configuring VCM to collect and manage data from your virtual and physical environments. Documentation can be downloaded from the VMware vCenter Configuration Manager documentation page.

Consult the VMware Knowledge Base when installing and upgrading VCM to view all issues related to the current release.

Open Source Components for vCenter Configuration Manager

The copyright statements and licenses applicable to the open source software components distributed in vCenter Configuration Manager 5.5.1 are available at Download VMware vCenter Configuration Manager, on the Open Source tab. You can also download the source files for any GPL, LGPL, or other similar licenses that require the source code or modifications to source code to be made available for the most recent generally available release of vSphere.

Upgrades for This Release

To upgrade your version of VCM to the current version, you must have VCM 5.4.0 or 5.4.1. To migrate your environment to the current version of VCM, you must have version 4.11.1 or later installed and running. You can migrate your version to VCM 5.5.1 from earlier versions including VMware VCM 5.3, EMC Ionix SCM 5.0 or later, and Configuresoft ECM 4.11.1 or later.

An upgrade installs the new version of VCM on the 64-bit Windows machines in your single-tier, two-tier, or three-tier installation deployment models.

A migration to VCM 5.5.1 requires you to install VCM in a 64-bit environment and migrate your 32-bit database to the 64-bit database. Before you perform the migration, update your environment to include the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, SQL Server 2008 R2, and SQL Server Reporting Services, and then migrate your existing VCM, SCM, or ECM data to the 64-bit environment.

Earlier Releases of VMware vCenter Configuration Manager

Features and known issues from earlier releases of vCenter Configuration Manager are described in the release notes for each release.

Resolved Issues

The following issues are resolved in the VCM 5.5.1 release.

• The Check compliance alerts for this machine group option is available in the Virtual Environment Compliance Run Template wizard, but the action does not check for alerts
  The Virtual Environment Compliance Run Template wizard includes the Check compliance alerts for this machine group option. Alerts for Virtual Environment Compliance are not implemented in this release. The template runs as if no alerts are configured, regardless of whether this option is selected.

• Large patch deployments deploy only 24 bulletins when more bulletins are passed to be deployed
  Large UNIX patch deployments deploy only 24 bulletins even when more bulletins are set to be deployed.

• As a prerequisite to install VCM 5.5.1, you must install a specific version of SQL XML 4.0.
  During VCM 5.5 installation, the following error appears in the SQL XML system prerequisites check during VCM installation: The Required Product is not installed. Please ensure that the Required Product is installed to continue. Click here for more information SQL XML 4.0 with Service Pack 1. SQL XML 4.0 SP1 might not be installed, or an earlier version of SQL XML (earlier than version 10.0.1600.60, 4.0 SP1) might be installed.

• An unhandled exception error appears when you use the Import/Export Tool or the Content Wizard Tool
  After upgrading to VCM 5.5, an unhandled exception error appears when you use the Import/Export Tool or the Content Wizard Tool.

Known Issues

The following known issues were discovered through rigorous testing and will help you understand some behavior you might encounter in this release. This list of issues pertains to this release of VCM 5.5.1 only. Some known issues from earlier releases might also apply to this release. If you encounter an issue that is not provided in this list of known issues, you can review the known issues from earlier releases, search the VMware Knowledge Base, or let us know by providing feedback.

The following issues are known to occur in the VCM 5.5.1 release.

• An error appears when you import Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) benchmark bundles into VCM
  To import the benchmark bundles, you work directly on the Collector. You must copy the bundles to the specified folder on the Collector and run the import processes in VCM. If you do not run VCM as an administrator when you run the import procedure in VCM, you receive one or more errors:
  

  • Error occured during bundle import caused by: Access to the path 'some xccdf.xml' is denied.
  • The bundle you are attempting to import already exists. If you continue the import it will overwrite this bundle and erase all previous results.
  You might also see that your previously populated assessment results are no longer available when you add a new benchmark.
  Workaround: Run Internet Explorer as an administrator when importing SCAP bundles into VCM.
  
  1. Close the current instance of Internet Explorer.
  2. Press Ctrl and right-click Internet Explorer in the Start menu.
  3. Select Run as administrator.
  4. Type the address of your VCM Collector in the Internet Explorer address bar.
     For example, machine name or IP address/vcm.
  5. Click Login on the VMware vCenter Configuration Manager login page.
  6. Import the SCAP benchmark bundles.