vSphere is introduced with another service for which we were all been waiting, vSphere Lifecycle Manager vSphere Lifecycle Manager, which will ease off the task which an IT administrator has to do to plan an upgrade for the environment.

vSphere 7.0 introduces the vSphere Lifecycle Manager service.

vSphere Lifecycle Manager is a unified platform for managing key aspects of ESXi hosts and clusters:

• Deployment
• Update
• Configuration

In vSphere 7.0, you can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to handle full-stack updates of ESXi hosts, including the following elements:

• New releases
• Major upgrades
• Patches
• Drivers
• Firmware

Note: In vSphere 7.0, vSphere Lifecycle Manager and vSphere Update Manager coexist. vSphere Update Manager is deprecated in later vSphere versions.

Application:

You can use vSphere Lifecycle Manager to perform the following operations:

• Validate hardware compatibility with a target vSphere version
• Define a cluster image to drive uniformity.
• Detect host deviation from the image in a cluster.
• Update ESXi hosts using only valid components.
• View detailed reports of remediation steps.

Overview of vSphere Lifecycle Manager Update Planner

In vSphere 7.0, vSphere Lifecycle Manager is a new service hosted on the vCenter Server Appliance. vSphere Lifecycle Manager uses an update planner to facilitate different steps of vCenter Server updates.

The update planner automates the following steps of an update plan:

• Discovering the current vSphere version and environment details
• Verifying compatibility against the target vCenter Server version
• Verifying interoperability of the target version with other products
• Recommending an update sequence
• Creating an update plan
• Testing the update process

Update Planner handles updates, patches, and upgrades in the same interface.

Update Planner View in the vSphere Client

When new vCenter Server updates are released, the vSphere Client shows a notification in the Summary tab. Clicking the notification directs you to the Updates tab.

The Updates tab has a new Update Planner page. The Update Planner page shows a list of vCenter Server versions that you can select. Different columns show release date, version, build, and other details of each vCenter Server version available. If multiple versions appear, the recommended version is pre-selected. The Type column tells you if the released item is an update, an upgrade, or a patch. All three types appear on the same page.

CEIP must be accepted to generate reports. If CEIP is not accepted, a prompt describing CEIP appears. If discarded, reports are not generated.

After selecting a vCenter Server version from the list, you can generate Product Interoperability reports and Pre update reports.

Interoperability View in the vSphere Client

CEIP must be accepted to generate an interoperability report. In the vSphere Client, the new Interoperability page appears on the Monitor tab of vCenter Server. This page displays VMware products currently registered with vCenter Server.Columns show the name, current version, compatible version, and release notes of each detected product.

If the Discovery module fails to detect registered VMware products, the user can manually modify the list and add their names and versions.

Exporting Report Results

You can export report results in CSV format and use the report as a guide to prepare for an upgrade or update.

Both Product Interoperability and Pre update reports can be exported.

ESXi Health Perspectives

ESXi Health Perspectives (EHP) determines whether an ESXi host action is safe to perform. For example, when determining whether a host can safely be removed from a cluster, EHP queries vSAN Health. vSAN Health checks whether all data is evacuated from the host.

ESXi Health Perspectives automatically checks host health before the update and upgrade tasks. Each health perspective determines whether it is safe to transition an ESXi host to a target state.

Used Case:

With each health perspective, a predefined list of health checks is performed.

• Before a host is ready to receive workloads, EHP checks reports from several providers:
  • vSphere High Availability reports on ESXi version compatibility in the cluster.
  • vSAN reports on successfully applied disk configuration.
• Before entering maintenance mode, EHP looks for conditions that might prevent the transition:
  • A host in the vSAN cluster is in maintenance mode, which might leave insufficient resources.
  • A vCenter Server Appliance is running on the host and DRS is not in Fully Automated mode.
• Before a host in a vSAN cluster can exit maintenance mode, EHP checks the overall health status of the cluster.

Troubleshooting:

You can find multiple new log files created at the below location which can be used for troubleshooting: 

/var/log/vmware/vlcm 

For More information on the What’s New in vSphere 7.0 Please Visit:  https://knowitlikepro.com/category/vmware/whats-new-in-vsphere-7-0/