We get a lot of questions about versioning and understanding how vSphere and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) interacts with Red Hat OpenShift. vSphere is part of the VCF set of software components that Broadcom/VMware is using now by default to refer to versioning. While they are keeping the VMware vSphere versioning, they are presenting it together in all new communications as VCF. For future releases, vSphere and VCF cadences will be aligned.
This is how the versioning of vSphere corresponds to VMware Cloud Foundation:
- vSphere 7.0 Update 2 = vSphere 7.0 Update 2 or later / VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.
- vSphere 8.0 Update 1 = vSphere 8.0 Update 1 / VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0.
Note that this applies to all current versioning references of vSphere. See this link for the full matrix published by VMware by Broadcom.
Requirements to install your OpenShift cluster on a vSphere instance
You must install a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform cluster on one of the following versions of a VMware vSphere instance that meets the requirements for the components that you use:
- Version 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later.
- Version 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later.
Both of these releases support Container Storage Interface (CSI) migration, which is enabled by default on OpenShift Container Platform branch build.
You can host the VMware vSphere infrastructure on-premise or on a VMware Cloud Verified provider that meets the following requirements:
- VMware virtual hardware: 15 or later.
- vSphere ESXi hosts and vCenter host: 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later.
For more detailed information on VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements follow this link.
How do I install my OpenShift cluster on vSphere?
There are a number of options available, including the Assisted Installer, the Agent-based Installer, using installer-provisioned infrastructure, and using user-provisioned infrastructure. Do note that the steps for a user-provisioned infrastructure installation are provided as an example only; setting up a cluster with your own infrastructure requires familiarity with the vSphere platform and the OpenShift Container Platform installation process, but you may choose to create the necessary resources using alternative methods other than the guidelines listed in the documentation.
What’s new with VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2.1?
The VCF 5.2.1 release includes the following:
- Reduced Downtime Upgrade (RDU) support for vCenter: VCF users can now leverage vCenter RDU to execute a vCenter upgrade. vCenter RDU is a migration-based approach to upgrading vCenter and reduces the vCenter downtime to less than 5 minutes.
- Network Virtualization and Security platform (NSX) in-place upgrades for clusters that use vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines: VCF users now have the choice to perform NSX in-place upgrade for clusters that use vSphere Lifecycle Manager baselines. In-place upgrades eliminate the need to place hosts into maintenance mode during the upgrade.
- Support for vSphere Lifecycle Manager baseline and vSphere Lifecycle Manager image-based clusters in same workload domain: VCF users now have the flexibility to deploy and upgrade vLCM baseline and vLCM image-based clusters within the same workload domain.
- Manage all software-defined data center (SDDC) certificates and passwords from a single UI: SDDC Manager certificate and password management functionality is now integrated in the vSphere Client to simplify and speed-up day-to-day operations. VCF users can now manage the certificates, integrated certificate authorities, and system user passwords from the administration section in the vSphere Client.
For a comprehensive list of everything that’s new with VCF 5.2.1, see the VCF Release Notes.
Region and zone configuration for vCenter
You can define the infrastructures.config.openshift.io configuration resource to specify multiple regions and zones for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster that runs on a VMware vSphere instance. Before doing so, you should ensure that all data centers and compute clusters have tags, which will allow the cloud provider to assign labels to your nodes. These tags should represent the name of their associated region or zone, or both. You should also have created the openshift-region and openshift-zone tag categories on the vCenter server.
Topology-aware features for the cloud controller manager and the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator Driver require information about the vSphere topology where you host your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. This topology information exists in the infrastructures.config.openshift.io configuration resource.
To read more about specifying multiple regions and zones for your cluster on vSphere, see Multiple regions and zones configuration for a cluster on VMware vSphere.
