Hey everyone!
VMware released some unexpected news yesterday regarding the end of support for vSphere & vCenter 6.5 and vSAN 6.5 & 6.6. These were both originally intended to reach End of General Support (EoGS) this year, on the 15th November 2021. VMware are now extending this general support window to the 15th October 2022, no changes to the end of technical guidance have been announced.
This date might seem familiar, vSphere 6.7 reaches EoGS on the 15th October 2022, meaning unless you have an extended support contract with VMware, this is the date you will need to migrate away from the vSphere 6.x platform by!
VMware have kept things simple by extending the EoGS for vSAN 6.5 and 6.6 to this same date which also coincides with vSAN 6.7 EoGS.
In summary, things are a lot more simple, on a vSphere/vCenter/vSAN 6.x release that isn’t already EOL? It will reach EoGS on the 15th October 2022 now.
However, like so many freebies, there can be strings attached, such is the case here. So, what are they?
- Extended Support will only be offered for 6.7, if you’re planning on leveraging this, you should make sure you’re on 6.7 by the EoGS for 6.5
- VMware are strongly recommending to upgrade vCenter to at least 6.7U3 (vCSA) or 6.7 Patch 5 (vCenter Server) as a minimum to achieve HTML5 feature parity with Flash as Flash is end of life.
- Extended general support will exclude any fixes that require any rearchitecting of the solutions or any major upgrades to 3rd party or open source software.
You can read the original KB from VMware here.