VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7 is here and while you might want to wait before you upgrade your production, it's time to explore the new features in your Homelab. I've received a few questions on whether it is safe to upgrade.
Short answer
ESXi 6.7 will run on 5th, 6th and 6th Gen NUCs just as ESXi 6.5
Long answer...
In vSphere 6.7 the command line interface esxcli has 62 new commands. Esxcli is a complete set of commands that you can use for troubleshooting, configuration or kickstart files. I have created and printed a mindmap to navigate through the namespaces more quickly. This post covers only basic namespaces, available on all ESXi 6.7 hosts. If you've installed additional software you might see more namespaces. I've also created mindmaps for ESXi 5.1, ESXi 5.5, ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 6.5.
ESXCLI in version 6.7 has 15 namespaces: Read more »
The VMware bare-metal hypervisor ESXi is in the market for over 10 years now. During that time it has been continuously refined and added with new features. Since vSphere 5.0, the hypervisor size is very constant and has not increased severely. In this post, I am going to have a look at how much the hypervisor footprint has been changed from ESXi 3.5 to ESXi 6.7.
ESXCLI is a powerful command line tool on an ESXi host. You may need it for troubleshooting, configuration or for automated ESXi installations by using a kickstart file. I'm having an esxcli command line reference on my desktop since vSphere 5.x and I am using it quite often. Here is the command line reference for the latest release of vSphere ESXi 6.7.
To simplify vMotion across CPU generations VMware has introduced Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC). EVC automatically configures server CPUs with Intel FlexMigration or AMD-V Extended Migration technologies to be compatible with older servers. In vSphere 6.7 a now EVC mode has been introduced.
Intel Skylake Generation
Compared to Intel "Broadwell " EVC mode, the Skylake EVC mode exposes additional CPU features:
For more information about EVC Modes see Intel CPU EVC Matrix
Today VMware made vSphere 6.7 bits available for everyone to download. VMware vSphere 6.7 is now GA.
VMware vSphere 6.7 Release Notes and Download Links
Development time
Since vSphere 6.0 VMware started to extend their major release cycles. With 518 days, the development time of vSphere 6.7 was 3 months shorter than the previous version but is still much longer than the release cycles in the vSphere 5 era. Let's hope for smooth upgrades in the next couple of weeks.
| ESX | Release Date | Days since prior release |
| 6.7 | 2018-04-17 | 518 |
| 6.5 | 2016-11-15 | 614 |
| 6.0 | 2015-03-12 | 536 |
| 5.5 | 2013-09-22 | 376 |
| 5.1 | 2012-09-11 | 384 |
| 5.0 | 2011-08-24 | 407 |
| 4.1 | 2010-07-13 | 418 |
| 4.0 | 2009-05-21 | 456 |
| 3.5 | 2008-02-20 | 615 |
| 3.0 | 2006-06-15 | 563 |
| 2.5 | 2004-11-29 | 244 |
| 2.1 | 2004-03-30 | 253 |
| 2.0 | 2003-07-21 | 434 |
| 1.5 | 2002-05-13 | 416 |
| 1.0 | 2001-03-23 |
VMware ESX History Diagram
Download the latest Perl SDK for your vSphere version from code.vmware.com and copy it to the system. The download is free, but an My VMware account is required.
Make sure that your system up to date:
# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y
After Hewlett Packard Enterprise has missed offering a Microserver in their 9th Generation, it is now back in Gen10. The Microserver series provides affordable servers intended to be used in SMB and as home servers. Due to its low price and power consumption, you can find this system in many virtualization home labs as ESXi hosts or Storages.
The HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 is available with two different CPUs - AMD Opteron X3216 and X3421. Both models a SoC which means that the CPU cannot be changed like the Intel CPUs in Gen8. They support up to 32GB of unbuffered DDR RAM. The server can be equipped with 4 hard drive from the front.
When you try to install FreeNAS 11 on the new HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 X3216, the installer stops booting and appears to be stuck at:
pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pcib0: _OSC returned error 0x10
pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0
This article explains how to fix the issue during the installation and how to apply the fix at an installed system using the FreeNAS Web Interface.
In vSphere 6.7 the command line interface esxcli has been extended with new features. This post introduces the new and extended namespaces.
