End of General Support for vSphere 6.0 and planning your vSphere upgrade

Hi all, it’s been a while since I last posted.  You know how it is, time flies when you’re having fun, which we always are of course working at VMware.

I wanted to quickly highlight that vSphere 6.0 goes end of general support on the 12th of March 2020.  That might seem some ways away but as a TAM, I’ve been assisting my customers to plan their upgrades for a while now.  If you’re not planning your upgrade, I highly suggest you get the ball rolling now to upgrade to vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 to remain in support and unlock the latest features and improvements.

Planning an upgrade can be a daunting task, but VMware are here to support you through it.  If you have a Technical Account Manager, I insist that you reach out to them and ask them to get involved, they’d love to help.  If not you can reach out to your wider VMware account team or contact VMware directly.

In addition to looking at your vSphere environment, there are a number of other areas that you need to consider, such as hardware.  Can your hardware support vSphere?  We have a Hardware Compatibility List that you can check here.  If you have other software investments, do they need to be upgraded?  SRM, vROPs, vRA etc may also need an uplift as part of a vSphere upgrade.  You can check interoperability here.  Many of my customers are facing a multi hop upgrade, moving to 6.0u3 before going to 6.5 and 6.7 to ensure we remain compatible with their current versions of SRM for instance.

VMware put out a ton of free material to help you plan your upgrades, including workshops that we run for our customers, all for free.  I’d highly recommend that you visit the vSphere upgrade center website here.

Look for your nearest vMUG.  VMware Tech Marketing SME’s and non VMware employee’s will be giving public presentations on the best ways to upgrade I guarantee it.  I’d always recommend you attend a local vMUG anyway to get involved, build up your network and stay on top of advances in all things virtual.  Link here.

VMworld has loads of vSphere upgrade talks and if you’re a TAM customer, even better.  You will get access to VMware TAM day, an exclusive day just for TAM customers the day before VMworld.  You’ll also get access to TAM Central.  A chilled out place where you can have a coffee and a session with the likes of David Stamens, Kev Johnson and Emad Younis, all experts in the vSphere world.  Read more here.  I’ll be doing a VMworld post shortly as it’s that time of year already!  Barcelona feels like it was last month where I worked at TAM central!

If you need help with licensing you should contact your VMware account team or alternatively use the Contact Support button here.

You can read the official KB from VMware here.

If you have any questions post one below and I’ll get back to you