The much anticipated first update for VMware vSphere 4.0 is upon us. I’ve been awaiting this update with eager anticipation since we’ve uncovered some issues with 4.0 in our deployment. If you want to read the release notes for update 1, you can check them out here.
If you have already deployed 4.0 and just want to download the ESX/i update, you can find them here. You should also download vCenter 4.0 update 1, which you can find here. That same link has the full ESX/i installable CD ISO images. Remote CLI 4.0 Update 1 is here. And finally, PowerCLI 4.0 Update 1 is here. Whew!
If you are doing a fresh install of ESXi on HP, Dell or IBM hardware then I’d suggest you wait for the vendor to release their custom version with the hardware heatlh monitor providers built-in. HP usually has quick turnaround on releases, so I’d expect them to have an updated ESXi installable CD in the next two weeks, maybe less.
I’m going to do some testing this weekend and see if the major issues we’ve run into have been resolved. Look for an updated blog post in a couple of days.
Major features of Update 1 include:
- Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 guest OS suppport. vSphere client can now be installed on these systems as well.
- Enhanced Clustering support for Microsoft Clusters – MSCS VMs can now be a part of a DRS/HA cluster if the MSCS VMs have HA/DRS disabled.
- Paravirtualized SCSI controller is now supported for the boot volume of Server 2003/2008.
- Improved vNetwork Distributed Switch performance.
- Support for VMware View 4.0
The list of bug fixes is monumentally long, so I won’t post them here. My major issues with 4.0 were with SSL certificates, lockdown mode, and Windows 7 support.
