This week VMware released version 5.5 Update 2 of two of its flagship products, ESXi and vCenter Server, updates that were announced at VMworld 2014 in San Francisco.
Among the things to consider updating to this release we noticed that the vSphere Web Client, based on Adobe Flash, no longer supports Linux OSes (because the lack of support from Flash itself), Windows XP and Windows Vista and that vCenter Server removes the support for IBM DB2 as the vCenter Server database.
VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 introduces in this release the following new features:
- Support for hosts with 6TB of RAM – vSphere 5.5 Update 2 starts to support hosts with 6TB of RAM.
- VMware vShield Endpoint Thin Agent is renamed as VMware Tools Guest Introspection plugin – The vShield Endpoint driver bundled with VMware Tools is now called Guest Introspection.
- Resolved Issues – This release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 introduces in this release the following new features:
- vCenter Server database support: vCenter Server now supports the following external databases:
- Oracle 12c. Important: For pre-requisite requirements, see KB 2079443.
- Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1
- Microsoft SQL Server 2014
- vCloud Hybrid Service: The vCloud Hybrid Service (vCHS) introduces a new container, Hybrid Cloud Service, on the vSphere Web Client home page. The Hybrid Cloud Service container contains the vCHS installer and the new vCloud Connector installer.
- Customer Experience Improvement Program: The vSphere customer experience improvement program is introduced to collect configuration data for vSphere and transmit weekly to VMware for analysis in understanding the usage and improving the product. For more details, see the vSphere Documentation Center.
- Resolved Issues – This release of vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 addresses issues that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.