VMware

VMware Infrastructure 3 Release Notes

ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1 Installable | 10 APR 2008 | Build 82664

VMware Infrastructure Management Installer | 10 APR 2008 | Build 84782
VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 1 | 10 APR 2008 | Build 84767

VMware Consolidated Backup 1.1 | 10 DEC 2007 | Build 64559

Last Document Update: 30 APR 2008

Check frequently for additions and updates to these release notes.

 

These release notes cover the following topics:

Note: In many public documents, VMware ESX Server 3.5 is now known as VMware ESX 3.5 and VMware ESX Server 3i as VMware ESXi 3.5. These release notes will continue to use the previous convention to match the product interfaces and documentation. A future release will update the product names.

What's New

This release of VMware Infrastructure 3 offers the following improvements:

VMware High Availability (HA)

VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 1 extends support for VMware High Availability (HA) to ESX Server 3i hosts. See below for details.

Hardware Management

ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1 Installable provides the following:

  • Enhanced hardware monitoring and alerting support for CPU, system memory, fan, power supply, sensors, and base server. Hardware health information is consumed by third-party management products, such as HP Insight Manager 8.0.
  • Concurrent Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) support.
  • Updated Web Services for Management (WS-MAN) protocol support.

Hardware Enablement

Below are highlights of hardware enablement in ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1 Installable:

Support for Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS)

VMware ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1 Installable supports Microsoft Cluster Service.  Support is similar to ESX Server 3i version 3.5 with the following additions:

  • Both 64 bit and 32 bit Windows 2003 guests are supported with MSCS.
  • Boot from SAN for VMs using MSCS is now supported.
  • Majority Node Set clusters with application-level replication (for example, Exchange 2007 Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) is now supported.

For details regarding MSCS support, including important restrictions, see the document Setup for Microsoft Cluster Service.  For information concerning supported storage arrays, see the Storage/SAN Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i.

Backup Software Support

Additional supported backup software from third-party vendors include:

  • Tivoli Storage Manager 5.5
  • EMC (Legato) Networker 7.4.1

Guest Operating System Support

Newly supported guest operating systems include:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 6
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4
  • Ubuntu 7.10

Management Agents Support

Newly supported versions of management agents include:

  • Dell OpenManage 5.4
  • HP Insight Manager 8.0

Plug-ins Updates

This release of the VMware Infrastructure 3 software suite also includes:

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Prior Releases of VMware Infrastructure 3

Features and known issues from prior releases of VMware Infrastructure 3, which include ESX Server 3i version 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.x releases, are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for prior releases of VMware Infrastructure 3 components, click one of the following links:

ESX Server 3i Installable Releases

VirtualCenter Releases

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Before You Begin

ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and VMware Infrastructure Client Compatibility

The ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and VMware Infrastructure Client Compatibility Matrixes guide provides details on the compatibility of current and previous versions of VMware Infrastructure 3 components, including ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and the VI Client.

Configuration Notes for This Release

See the ESX Server Compatibility Guides before configuring ESX Server 3i and installing VirtualCenter software. You must verify that your server, I/O, storage, guest operating system, management agent, and backup software needs are compatible. These guides also address minimum requirements and scaling limits associated with this release.

  • Systems Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i (PDF)
  •  I/O Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i (PDF)
  • Storage/SAN Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i (PDF)
  • Backup Software Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.5 and ESX Server 3i (PDF)

Read the ESX Server 3i Installable Setup Guide for step-by-step guidance on configuring ESX Server 3i and VirtualCenter.

Upgrading or Migrating to VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 1

This release also supports upgrading from VirtualCenter 1.4.1, VirtualCenter 2.0.2 (including Update 1, Update 2 and Update 3), or VirtualCenter 2.5 to VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 1. Review the detailed upgrade and migration instructions and guidelines that are provided in the Upgrade Guide.

Upgrading or Migrating to ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1

This release supports migration of virtual machines from ESX Server 2.x (and later versions including ESX Server 3.0.x) to ESX Server 3i. For more information on more information on installation and upgrade methods, see the Upgrade Guide.

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Patches Contained in this Release

This release contains all patches for the ESX Server software that were released prior to the release date of this product. See the ESX Server 3i Patches download page for more information on the individual patches.

ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1 Installable contains the following patches:

Previously released bundles:

  • ESXe350-200802401-O-BG
  • ESXe350-200712401-O-BG

Bundle released with ESX Server 3i version 3.5 Update 1 Installable:

  • ESXe350-200803201-O-UG

See the documentation listed on the download page for more information on the contents of each patch.

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Known Issues

For any known issue that has a Knowledge Base article link, use this path to access the article:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/<knowledge_base_number>

The Known Issues are grouped as follows:

Upgrade and Installation Issues

Networking Issues

Storage Issues

Backup Issues

VMware High Availability (HA) Issues

Server Configuration Issues

VirtualCenter, VI Client, and Web Access Issues

Virtual Machine Management Issues

Migrating with VMotion Issues

Guest Operating System Issues

Remote Command Line Interface Issues

Configuration issues have been identified in the Remote Command Line Interface (Remote CLI) appliance released with ESX Server 3i version 3.5. The Remote CLI Virtual Appliance is provided as a convenient way to quickly deploy the product to test its capabilities.  VMware does not recommend the use of this appliance in a production environment.  Future releases of this appliance will be made production-ready. At this time, the Windows or Linux installable versions of the Remote Command Line Interface should be used for production environments.

Miscellaneous Issues

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Resolved Issues

This release fixes the issues described in the knowledge base article Resolved Issues in ESX Server 3.5 Update 1 and ESX Server 3i Update 1 (Embedded and Installable) (KB 1004689), the issues described in the documentation for the patches, and all of the following issues:

Upgrade and Installation Issues

Networking Issues

VirtualCenter, VI Client, and Web Access Issues

  • ESX Server Hosts Disconnecting From VirtualCenter Server Due to Socket-Related Errors (KB 1004300)
  • When enabling iSCSI, the iSCSI port on the firewall is not automatically configured
    In previous releases, when using the VI Client to enable iSCSI, the ESX Server firewall was not automatically configured to allow iSCSI communication. In this release, when iSCSI is enabled from the VI Client, the ESX Server firewall will be automatically configured to allow iSCSI communication.

  • Unable to add ESX Server 3.0.2. Update 1 hosts to VirtualCenter 2.5
    In the previous release, addition of ESX Server 3.0.2 Update 1 hosts would fail and would report the error "Unable to access specified host...". The issue has been addressed in this release and ESX Server 3.0.2 Update 1 hosts can be successfully added to VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 1.

  • VirtualCenter becomes unresponsive or hosts are disconnected from VirtualCenter when connection to the License Server is lost
    This release resolves an issue found in the previous release, where a loss of connectivity between the License Server and VirtualCenter could cause VirtualCenter Server to become unresponsive or to disconnect ESX Server hosts when the VirtualCenter Server Service was restarted. To work around this issue in earlier releases, restart the License Server.

Virtual Machine Management Issues

Migration with VMotion Issues

 

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Known Internationalization Issues

This release of VMware Infrastructure 3 includes enhancements and fixes that help support languages other than English. This section describes some of the known issues with supporting non English locales.

Non-ASCII Character Entry Limitations

  • The name of the computer on which Virtual Infrastructure 3 or any of its components are installed must not contain non-ASCII characters.
  • The name of the computer or virtual machine where VirtualCenter Server is installed must not have a non-ASCII computer name or the installation of VirtualCenter Server will fail.
  • Use the default installation path names specified in the installer for all the components. Do not change the install path, because the installer does not support installation path names containing non-ASCII characters.
  • Do not enter non-ASCII characters in the name field for Virtual Machine Rule under Edit Settings for DRS Clusters. This prevents the VirtualCenter Server from starting.
  • Do not enter non-ASCII characters in any field for Advanced Options under Edit Settings for DRS Clusters. This prevents the VirtualCenter Server from starting.
  • Datastore names, Virtual Network names, and Image file names (CD, DVD, and floppy drive) are restricted to ASCII characters only.
  • Message of the Day must use only ASCII characters.
  • Logging in to the VirtualCenter server is supported for user names with ASCII characters only (login account name on Windows).
  • Image customization might fail if non-ASCII characters are used. (beta limitation)
  • Custom attribute names and values must use only ASCII characters.
  • To conform to the general Internet practice and protocols, the following cannot contain non-ASCII characters: host names, workgroup names, domain names, URLs, email addresses, SMTP server names, and SNMP community string.
  • Guest operating system customizations using ASCII encoding are supported but customizations using UTF-8 encoded native characters of Japanese, Chinese, or German have limited support. For customizations with non-ASCII owner, organization, username, or password, VirtualCenter and the sysprep tool needs to be hosted in the same locale as that of the Guest OS. This includes the scenario to use UTF-8 encoded answer file.

Non-ASCII Characters Display Limitations

  • When managing a VirtualCenter Server with the VI Client running on different languages of Windows, you might see some characters garbled because of the difference in language-specific support on Windows.
  • If an error message includes log locations or user names containing non-ASCII characters, it will not display correctly in the localized environment.
  • The date and time format is sometimes inconsistent with the current locale, when you use the Import Wizard of VMware Converter.
  • Unicode characters are displayed as '???' under the Status column and the Task Details of the Task View tab in the Japanese locale.
  • The Commands section on the Summary tab is not displayed properly.
  • Non-ASCII Datastore pathnames are not supported and will not be displayed correctly using the default encodings. However, you can view some non-ASCII pathnames by manually changing the web browser's decoding to UTF-8.

Guided Consolidation Limitations

The Guided Consolidation tab is available only in the en_US locale.

Translation Issues

The following are known issues with translation in this release:

  • The Upgrade wizard is not translated.
  • Some messages originating from the ESX Server host are not translated.
  • Some localized interface layouts are not yet completed.

Other Internationalization Issues

The following additional issues have been identified:

  • Values used in the Run a Script action for an alarm might not display properly after restarting VirtualCenter server if the Virtual Infrastructure Client host OS language and VirtualCenter Server/Database host OS languages are different.
  • In the Simplified Chinese version of VI Web Access, the Cancel button does not have the correct text and the text on the button is garbled.

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