vcommander Release GA Release Notes

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1 1 Release Notes System Requirements What's New in This Release Deprecated and Removed Features Changes Affecting Upgrading Users Issues Resolved in This Release Known Issues System Requirements This section provides information on software, hardware and port requirements as well as supported third-party integrations. Software requirements Virtualization Platforms Supported VMware vsphere 6.0, 5.5, 5.1, 5.0, 4.1, 4.0 VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 R2 1 Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 SP1 1, 2 Amazon Web Services HP Helion Public Cloud Microsoft Azure Operating Systems Supported for vcommander Installation Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 or higher Languages Supported English Recommended Databases Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Default Database PostgreSQL is included with vcommander for evaluation environments Browser Recommended Mozilla Firefox 39 Browsers Supported Mozilla Firefox 39, 38 Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, 10, 9 Google Chrome 44, 43 Adobe Flash Player Required Version or later Network Gigabit Ethernet Minimum Licensing For more information about licensing, please refer to the terms in your license agreement or contact your Embotics representative. SQL SQL SQL SQL Server Server Server Server R Simultaneous connections to different versions of SC VMM are not supported. 2 SC VMM 2012 SP1 is deprecated as a virtualization platform and will be unsupported in a future release. 3 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is deprecated as a supported database and will be unsupported in a future release.

2 2 Hardware requirements The following table provides vcommander deployment tiers based on typical use. See "Scaling vcommander Hardware Requirements" in the vcommander Installation Guide for more details. You can also contact Embotics Support to discuss requirements further, should you have any questions or unique configurations. Profile Description Base Requirements Evaluation A single-vcpu deployment used to evaluate vcommander's feature set. Will not grow significantly beyond original occupancy and is not expected to be upgraded to production. 1 vcpu / 2.0 GHz dual core 4.0 GB Memory 2.0 GB disk space Default Postgres database Small A single-vcpu production deployment for static environments of fewer than 500 VMs, supporting fewer than 10 concurrent users, with infrequent reporting. 2 vcpu / 2.0 GHz quad core 4.0 GB Memory 1.0 GB disk space (installation) 4.0 GB disk space (data partition) Dedicated application server Microsoft SQL Database Medium A dual-vcpu production deployment for dynamic environments with fewer than 1500 VMs, supporting fewer than 30 concurrent users, with frequent reporting. 2 vcpu / 2.0 GHz quad core 6.0 GB Memory 1.0 GB disk space (installation) 10.0 GB disk space (data partition) Dedicated application server Separate Microsoft SQL Database DB data file (mdf) and log file (ldf) stored on separate disks Enterprise A dual-vcpu production deployment for dynamic environments with more than 1500 VMs, supporting more than 30 concurrent users, with frequent reporting. 2 vcpu / 2.0 GHz quad core 6.0 GB Memory 1.0 GB disk space (installation) 10.0 GB disk space (data partition) JVM memory increased to 6 GB Dedicated application server Separate Microsoft SQL Database SAN backing for database files vcommander VM Access Proxy Hardware Requirements Minimum requirements: 2 CPUs Note that the higher the number of CPUs available, the more concurrent connections the VM Access Proxy can handle. 2 GB Memory 7 GB disk space The template archive size is approximately 2.5 GB.

3 3 Required ports The following ports are used by the various vcommander components. You configure some of these ports during installation, and you can also configure ports after installation using the vcommander Control Panel. Certain ports can be configured only through a system property; for more information, contact Embotics Support. Where the direction is outbound, this implies a corresponding inbound connection to the target. Table: Required Ports Connection Type Default Port Protocol Direction vcommander, Service Portal and VM Access Proxy (secure vcenter console connections) 443 TCP Inbound Database (Microsoft SQL Server)* 1433 TCP Outbound Database (PostgreSQL) 5432 TCP Outbound VM Access Proxy (secure RDP and SCVMM console connections) 8443 TCP Inbound SCVMM console port for connection to VMM management server 8100 TCP Inbound Hyper-V Adapter port (SCVMM only) 8732 TCP Outbound File transfer 139 or 445 TCP Outbound WMI scanning 135 TCP Outbound VM console access for SSH connections, Linux Guest OS scanning and legacy datastore scanning 22 TCP Outbound VM console access for RDP connections 3389 TCP Outbound VM console access for VNC connections 5900 TCP Outbound VM console access for Hyper-V 2179 TCP Outbound Splunk server (optional integration) 8089 TCP Outbound BlueCat server (optional integration) 80 TCP Outbound Kerberos Key Distribution Center 88 TCP and UDP Outbound Active Directory Domain Controller port for remote secure LDAP traffic 686 TCP Outbound Active Directory Domain Controller port for remote LDAP traffic 389 TCP and UDP Outbound Active Directory Domain Controller port for remote Global Catalog traffic 3268 TCP Outbound Active Directory Domain Controller port for remote Secure Global Catalog traffic 3269 TCP Outbound * Additional ports may be required depending on the configuration of your SQL Server. See the Knowledge Base article Configuration Based Requirements for Microsoft SQL.

4 4 Guest OS Scanning Port Requirements Guest OS scanning of Windows VMs also requires firewall rules to handle a dynamic range of ports opened for the response when vcommander queries the VMs on TCP port 135. To avoid opening a large range of high ports, please refer to the following Knowledge Base articles for instructions on how to configure the Windows Firewall to enable these ports: Configuring Windows for Guest OS Scans Using Group Policy Configuring Windows for Guest OS Scans Third-party integrations The following table provides a list of third-party software that can be integrated with vcommander, including supported versions where applicable. Table: Third-Party Integrations Integration Category Supported Systems and Protocols Integration Type Authentication Active Directory Bundled LDAP Bundled SAML2 WebSSO Bundled Windows SSO Bundled Chef 12.0 Bundled Configuration Management Puppet 3.x (Puppet Enterprise and Bundled Open Source) IPAM BlueCat IPAM 4.1, 4.0 Bundled Application Monitoring Splunk 6.2, 6.1 (with HTTPS protocol) Bundled Notification SNMP 3, 2 Bundled SMTP Bundled Backup Veeam Backup & Replication 8.0, 7.0 Additional download required Workflow Automation REST API client for PowerShell 4, 3 Additional download required

5 5 What's New in This Release Here's a list of features we've added to vcommander in this release. If you're upgrading, see also Changes Affecting Upgrading Users, Deprecated and Removed Features and Issues Resolved in This Release. In this topic Amazon Web Services enhancements Service catalog blueprints and enhancements Chef support Support for single sign-on (SSO) Networking and fencing enhancements Other workflow automation enhancements Service Portal enhancements vcommander user experience enhancements Secure SSH and VNC connections REST API enhancements Platform support Amazon Web Services enhancements We've improved our support for AWS in several ways in this release. Support for AWS CloudFormation templates and stacks Support for Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) AWS Elastic Load Balancer support CloudWatch performance metrics for Amazon EC2 VMs Rightsizing recommendations for Amazon EC2 VMs Support for AWS GovCloud Connect AWS to vcommander through a proxy server Customize AWS VMs at launch time with user data Change the instance type and storage resources for Amazon EC2 VMs Support for AWS CloudFormation and stacks AWS CloudFormation enables you to create and provision AWS infrastructure deployments predictably and repeatedly. CloudFormation template files allow you to create and delete a collection of resources together as a single unit (a stack). You can now make AWS CloudFormation templates available in the vcommander service catalog for users to request. When you upload a template file or point to the URL of a CloudFormation template, vcommander allows you to provide default values. You can also enable your users to provide parameter values on the request form.

6 6 vcommander displays existing stacks in the Operational view. You can view all of a stack's resources on the Stack Resources tab: For resource types managed by vcommander (EC2 VMs, EC2 load balancers and RDS databases), we provide a hyperlink to the parent stack, as shown in the database and load balancer images below. Through vcommander's AWS cost model and detailed cost configuration file, administrators and end users are provided with cost information when requesting, deploying and managing a stack and its resources. vcommander can also help you track existing CloudFormation templates previously provisioned in AWS, providing a unified view of all the components of your stack. vcommander policies and metadata can help you significantly reduce costs. The Expiry policy prevents you from retaining unused resources through automated decommissioning. Metadata enforcement through the Compliance policy helps you track who is incurring the costs associated with AWS objects. The Default Attribute and Default Ownership policies ensure that services created directly in AWS are assigned the appropriate metadata. To get started, see "Managing AWS CloudFormation Templates and Stacks with vcommander " in the vcommander User Guide.

7 7 Support for Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) Amazon RDS gives you online access to the capabilities of several relational database management systems. In vcommander, you can deploy databases through CloudFormation templates, and they are displayed in the Operational tree. You can manage the database lifecycle, including ownership, expiry information and custom attributes, and you can reboot and delete databases, either directly or through a change request. Service Portal users with appropriate permissions can also reboot databases and set metadata. To get started, see "Managing Amazon Web Services with vcommander " and "Managing AWS CloudFormation Templates and Stacks with vcommander " in the vcommander User Guide. Support for AWS Elastic Load Balancers This release introduces support for AWS elastic load balancing, which redirects traffic to healthy Amazon EC2 instances for more consistent application performance. In vcommander, you can deploy load balancers through CloudFormation templates. Elastic Load Balancers (ELBs) are displayed in the vcommander Operational tree, with an icon and properties to indicate instance health and approval state.

8 8 Both vcommander and Service Portal users can apply vcommander metadata such as ownership, expiry date, and custom attributes to ELBs, directly or through a change request. To get started, see "Managing Amazon Web Services with vcommander " and "Managing AWS CloudFormation Templates and Stacks with vcommander " in the vcommander User Guide. CloudWatch performance metrics for Amazon EC2 VMs vcommander now displays CPU usage, disk usage and network usage metrics for Amazon EC2 VMs. Values for these metrics are retrieved from Amazon CloudWatch. Initial performance data is gathered when you add an AWS account to vcommander, and metrics are updated nightly. Note that if you're upgrading to vcommander Release GA and you want to view performance data for an existing EC2 VM before the nightly job runs for the first time, you need to run the Update Performance command on the VM to retrieve the last seven days of performance data.

9 9 You can also run the VM Performance Trending report for EC2 VMs. This report helps you analyze past and projected VM resource consumption.

10 10 To learn more, see "Viewing the Performance Details of VMs, Hosts and Clusters" and "VM Performance Trending Report" in the vcommander User Guide.

11 11 Rightsizing recommendations for Amazon EC2 VMs vcommander now generates rightsizing recommendations for Amazon EC2 VMs. Using CPU performance data, vcommander generates rightsizing recommendations within the same instance type family (for example, from m1.small to m1.medium). Rightsizing means ensuring that all AWS instances in your virtualized infrastructure are allocated the correct resources for their workload, with the goal of minimizing cost and maximizing performance. As with vcenter and SCVMM VMs, once you've decided an instance should be rightsized, depending on your permissions, you can submit a change request to apply the recommendation, schedule the recommendation to be applied later, or apply the recommendation immediately. To learn more, see "Rightsizing VMs" in the vcommander User Guide. Support for AWS GovCloud This release introduces support for AWS GovCloud an isolated AWS region designed to allow US government agencies and customers to move sensitive workloads into the cloud by addressing their specific regulatory and compliance requirements.

12 12 A GovCloud account is a separate, dedicated AWS account that grants access to the GovCloud region. You can manage a GovCloud account alongside a regular AWS account in vcommander. To learn more, see "Adding an AWS Managed System" in the vcommander User Guide. Connect AWS to vcommander through a proxy server vcommander allows administrators to manage both local hypervisors and public clouds. When managing public clouds, vcommander must be able to reach the Internet, so additional configuration is required if a proxy server is in use on the network. This release provides support for integrating your proxy server with vcommander. To learn more, see "Connecting Amazon Web Services to vcommander through a Proxy Server" in the vcommander User Guide. Customize AWS VMs at launch time with user data User data allows you to configure an AWS VM during provisioning, or to run a configuration script on a VM. User data allows you to, for example: customize the deployed VM's host name during provisioning run scripts after the VM starts and perform common automated configuration tasks enable CloudWatch monitoring for new VMs With vcommander, you can now add user data: to an AWS service catalog component; the user data is then applied during deployment of a service request when manually deploying an AWS VM from a template To learn more, see "AWS User Data Syntax and Supported Variables" in the vcommander User Guide.

13 13 Change the instance type and storage resources for Amazon EC2 VMs vcommander now supports changing the instance type and modifying storage resources for existing Amazon EC2 VMs. Users can submit a service change request or use the Reconfigure Resources command to change the instance type to one that is compatible with the current type; they can also configure EBS optimization for instance types that support it. Users can add General Purpose (SSD), Provisioned IOPS (SSD) and Magnetic volume types, and they can remove disks as well. To learn more, see "Reconfiguring resources for Amazon EC2 VMs" and "Configuring Service-level and Change Request Forms" in the vcommander User Guide.

14 14 vcommander administrators can also modify the resource configuration when adding an AWS template to the service catalog, when manually deploying an AMI to an instance, and when manually deploying a service request. To learn more, see "Adding an AWS Service to the Catalog" and "Manually Provisioning Amazon EC2 Services" in the vcommander User Guide.

15 15 Service catalog blueprints and enhancements Blueprints: More flexible, customizable service catalog and request forms Service catalog blueprints allow you to define all aspects of service creation in one central location. In previous releases, request forms could be assigned only to users and groups. With blueprints, you can now customize the request form for each service component in the service catalog. This means that you can set different infrastructure options (such as CPU and memory) and different metadata (through custom attributes), as well as different default values for these options. Configuring this information in the service catalog reduces the amount of information that the requester must provide, enables the creation of different services based on the same template, and provides information to be used further in the provisioning process.

16 16 Blueprints allow maximum flexibility for the different types of consumers of your IT services. If you want your requesters to specify as little information as possible when requesting a service, you can configure default settings for each service and add no options to the component form. For requesters that need to fully customize a service, create a full-featured component form. If you're upgrading from a previous release, you can continue to use legacy forms, or you can switch to the new blueprint component forms. Note that legacy component forms are deprecated and will be removed in a future release. To learn more, see "Managing the Service Catalog" in the vcommander User Guide.

17 17 Deploy vcenter and SCVMM VMs in powered-off state In previous releases, if you wanted to spin up a big batch of VMs but power them on only when needed, you had to include a Stop VM step in a completion workflow. vcommander now allows you to deploy VMs in vcenter and SCVMM managed systems in a powered-off state. (AWS, HP Helion Public Cloud and Microsoft Azure do not support the deployment of powered-off VMs.) A new option, Start Deployed Components, has been added to the Deployment page of the Add Service wizard. It's enabled by default to match current behavior. For more information on configuring the service catalog, see "Adding a vcenter Service to the Catalog" and "Adding an SCVMM Service to the Catalog" in the vcommander User Guide. Replace a template in the service catalog When you want to replace a template in the service catalog (because you've applied a patch, for example), you can easily replace the existing template with a newer version. All configuration for the component is retained, including resource options and custom attributes. Just select the component and click Replace on the Components page of the Edit Service wizard. To learn more, see "Replacing a Template in the Service Catalog" in the vcommander User Guide. Allow users to enter a password on the request form We've added an option to the Input Text Field form element called Hide User Input. You can use it to allow users to safely enter a password on the request form. When the Hide User Input option is enabled, asterisks (*) are displayed for this field value in the Request Details dialog, s and landing pages. The password is stored, encrypted, in the vcommander database. The plain-text password can be accessed through workflow variables. To learn more, see "Customizing Service Request Forms" in the vcommander User Guide.

18 18 Improved Quick Search in service catalog In addition to service name and service description, vcommander console users can now search by component name, component description and source template name in the service catalog Quick Search. These properties are useful, for example, when you're trying to update source templates in the service catalog. Predefine default Puppet classes and groups in the service catalog In the previous release, you could configure the request form so that users could specify Puppet classes and groups when requesting new VMs. You can now predefine default Puppet classes and groups for service catalog entries, so that your users do not need to make these decisions. You can then pass the default values to a completion workflow that instructs the Puppet master to apply the configuration to requested VMs. If it makes sense in your environment for example, if administrators rather than end users are requesting new Puppet VMs you can still allow requesters to choose Puppet classes and groups by adding controls to the Form tab for each component. To learn more, see "Integrating Puppet with vcommander" in the vcommander User Guide.

19 19 Chef support Provision and decommission Chef nodes with vcommander vcommander can now be integrated with the Chef IT automation platform. Integrating vcommander with Chef allows you to: obtain a list of roles and recipes from the Chef server on a configurable schedule set default values for roles and recipes in the vcommander service catalog optionally, present Chef configuration choices to end users when requesting new services configure Chef-specific workflow steps for common functions such as creating nodes, supplying roles and recipes for node configuration, and deleting nodes during decommissioning

20 20 access VM configuration, metadata and request form data when configuring a node in the Chef server identify Chef nodes and view their configuration in vcommander and the Service Portal To learn more, see "Integrating Chef with vcommander " in the vcommander User Guide.

21 21 Support for single sign-on (SSO) Single sign-on (SSO) allows Service Portal users to authenticate to a third-party system. SSO benefits service providers offering multiple services to end customers, where authentication (single or multi-factor) takes place in a separate login portal that acts as a front end to various service offerings. In this release, vcommander introduces support for both SAML2 WebSSO and Windows SSO. SAML2 WebSSO Support vcommander uses the SAML2 WebSSO profile to provide single sign-on capabilities. SAML, or Security Assertion Markup Language, is an XML-based, open-standard data format for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties, in particular, between an identity provider and a service provider. WebSSO is a cloud-centric, federated authentication system developed to solve the problems of deploying authentication across heterogeneous infrastructures. It is a thin policy layer on top of widely deployed and trusted protocols such as HTTPS and TLS client certificate authentication. To learn how to configure SAML2 SSO, see "Configuring Single Sign-on for the Service Portal" in the vcommander User Guide.

22 22 Windows Session Authentication (Single Sign-On) When you integrate with Active Directory, you can enable users to log in to either vcommander or the Service Portal using their Windows credentials, without having to enter a password. Users must use Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. To learn how to configure Windows session authentication using Active Directory, see "Using Windows Session Authentication (Single Sign-On)" in the vcommander User Guide. Networking and fencing enhancements Expose specific ports in fenced networks You can now open specific ports for inbound connections as exceptions to the default rule applied by the selected access mode. By default, traffic for a fenced VM with an access mode of In or In/Out is redirected to all of its private ports. You may want to expose only specific ports; application services in the fence can then be contacted via the exposed ports. For a web server, for example, you might want to expose only ports 80 and 443. You can now configure port forwarding for specific ports when creating a fenced service. When you have configured port forwarding for a fenced VM, the IP Address property displays a Port Forwarding link in both vcommander and the Service Portal.

23 23 Click Port Forwarding to display details. The Public IP column shows the VM's public IP address (the public IP address of the vrouter). In this example, public port 8080 has been forwarded to private port 80 on the VM, and public port 8443 on the vrouter has been forwarded to private port 443 on the VM. Users must access the VM with the public IP address and public port(s). To learn more, see "Creating a Service Using a Fenced Network" and "Viewing Fencing Information for VMs" in the vcommander User Guide. Internal subnet mask is now configurable If you have preconfigured templates using static networking with netmasks other than , you can now use these templates to create fenced networks. When you create a service catalog entry for a fenced network, you can specify a subnet mask on the Fencing Configuration page. The specified subnet mask is then set on the internal network and assigned to VMs through DHCP. To learn more, see "Creating a Service Using a Fenced Network" in the vcommander User Guide.

24 24 Static DHCP reservations for fenced VMs If the Address Mode for a fenced VM component in the service catalog is set to Static, vcommander assigns the specified IP address to that component if requested over DHCP. The base image no longer needs to be preconfigured with the static IP address; it can now be preconfigured with DHCP. To learn more, see "Creating a Service Using a Fenced Network" in the vcommander User Guide. Easier network selection Selecting a network from a large list of networks is now easier. You can search for networks when configuring IP pools: A search field and pop-up search dialog allow you to quickly locate networks: during manual VM deployment when reconfiguring VM network resources when adding a Configure Virtual Networking step to a completion or service workflow

25 25 when configuring automated deployment placement for fenced networks To learn more about networking, see "Networking and IP Management" in the vcommander User Guide. Other workflow automation enhancements Approval workflows for change requests: More flexible options for automated fulfillment vcommander now allows you to configure specific fulfillment behavior for each of your change request forms. For example, you can configure: automatic fulfillment for all decommissioning requests automatic fulfillment for non-disruptive resource change requests

26 26 In this scenario, any part of a resource change request that does not require a power-down and restart would be fulfilled automatically. Tasks requiring a power-down would require manual fulfillment. To learn more, see "Creating an Approval Workflow" in the vcommander User Guide. Run command workflows on all service types In previous versions, you could create workflows for vcommander and Service Portal users to run on VMs; you could also call workflows from within policies. In this release, command workflows (previously known as service workflows) can be run on all services that vcommander manages: databases, load balancers, stacks, virtual services and VMs. You can create different workflows for different types of services. To learn more, see "Creating a Command Workflow" in the vcommander User Guide. Determine VM placement by service name A new workflow variable, #{request.publishedservicenames}, along with the deployment parameter $DESTINATION$, allows you to control the deployment destination by the name of the requested published service. This new variable is supported in approval workflows for new requests, service-level completion workflows and component-level completion workflows for new requests. To learn more about variables, see "Using Variables to Access vcommander Metadata for Workflows" in the vcommander User Guide. New workflow steps: Copy File and Create File Besides the new Configure Chef step, two new workflow steps in the Guest OS category allow you to copy a file and create a file in the guest OS. For example, when integrating with Chef, the Copy File step can be used to copy the RSA key to the target VM, in order to authenticate the Chef client with the Chef server. The Create File step can be used to upload a an unattended install response file to the guest OS as part of a service request. To learn more, see "Workflow Steps Reference" in the vcommander User Guide.

27 27 Configure OS Networking workflow step support for Ubuntu You can now use the Configure OS Networking workflow step for Ubuntu Linux VMs. To learn more, see "Configuring OS Networking through a Workflow Step" in the vcommander User Guide. Service Portal enhancements Control which VM rightsizing recommendations Service Portal users can see You can now allow Service Portal users to see only upsize recommendations, only downsize recommendations, both upsize and downsize recommendations, or none. See "Customizing Service Portal Roles for End Users" and "Rightsizing VMs" in the vcommander User Guide for more information. Display DNS name in Service Portal tree Service Portal users can now identify their VMs by DNS name in addition to VM name. The setting is controlled by a new user preference under Tools > Preferences. When the preference is enabled, the DNS name is displayed in parentheses to the right of the VM name in the tree view. You can edit the system property embotics.portal.tree.show.dns to enable the preference by default on first login. To learn how to edit system properties, see "Advanced Configuration through System Properties" in the vcommander User Guide. Dashboard Refresh button The charts on the Service Portal Dashboard now refresh every 10 minutes. Users can click Refresh to refresh the charts if needed.

28 28 vcommander user experience enhancements Set system properties in the vcommander console When Embotics Customer Support directs you to set a system property, you can now set the value right in the vcommander console. A new Advanced Configuration tab allows users with the role of superuser to set values for all vcommander system properties. In previous releases, setting a system property meant editing the Windows registry using the vlmw utility and then restarting the vcommander service. Most properties when set in the console do not require a service restart. Note that if you set a value in the console that differs from a value previously set in the registry, the registry entry will override the console value if you restart the vcommander service. This ensures that if an error is made in the console, you can repair the error by editing the registry. See "Advanced Configuration through System Properties" in the vcommander User Guide for more information. Secure SSH and VNC connections VM Access Proxy now provides secure SSH and VNC access Version 2.2 of the VM Access Proxy (formerly the Console Proxy) provides secure SSH and VNC access to VMs without requiring you to open your firewall. A secure connection is opened right in the user's browser, without the need for client applications. To learn how to upgrade to version 2.2 of the VM Access Proxy, see "Upgrading the vcommander VM Access Proxy" in the vcommander Installation Guide. To learn how to configure secure SSH and VNC access, see "Configuring the vcommander VM Access Proxy for Secure VM Connections" in the vcommander User Guide.

29 29 REST API enhancements Changes in version 2.4 of the REST API Version 2.4 of the vcommander REST API includes the following enhancements: create and edit service catalog components with the blueprint model manage roles and access rights execute command workflows (formerly known as service workflows) wait for a task to enter its final state (COMPLETED, CANCELLED, or FAILED) enable file logging set ownership on virtual services retrieve organization references manage services assigned to organizations synchronize the inventory of a managed system The Apply Ownership API call now returns a task info structure that can be used to monitor status In addition, the API Service version is now returned in the HTTP headers each time a client logs in. For full information on the REST API, see the vcommander REST API Getting Started Guide (included with the REST API package) and the REST API online help. You can access the built-in reference information here: hostname or IP address>:<port>/apihelp/ Platform support Support for vsphere 6 vsphere 6 is now supported as a virtualization platform. See the System Requirements for the full list of supported virtualization platforms. Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Support SQL Server 2014 is now a supported database. See the System Requirements for the full list of supported databases.

30 30 Deprecated and Removed Features If you need more information about any of the deprecated or removed features, please contact Deprecated features and platforms SCVMM 2012 SP1 as a virtualization platform Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 is deprecated as a virtualization platform and will be removed in a future release. SCVMM 2012 R2 is a fully supported virtualization platform. See the System Requirements in the vcommander Installation Guide for the list of supported platforms. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is deprecated and will be unsupported in a future release. User-specific component forms for new service requests With the introduction of the blueprint service catalog model, user-specific component forms for new service request (that is, component forms created in the Form Designer) are deprecated and will be removed in a future release. End of Life Policy, Suspect Policy and Approval Policy The End of Life policy, Suspect policy and Approval policy and the relevant VM states are deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Connect to the same network as the source service The option to connect to the same network as the source service when configuring deployment destinations is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. We recommend selecting one or more networks from the list of available networks. #{vm.*}, #{virtualservice.*} and #{component.*} workflow variables With the introduction of the #{target.*} variables, which can be used in workflows with all five of the supported service types (VMs, virtual services, databases, load balancers and stacks), the #{vm.*}, #{virtualservice.*} and #{component.*} variables are deprecated when used in workflows and will be removed in a future release. For example, the following two variables are equivalent: #{target.cost} #{vm.cost} To see the contexts where the new #{target.*} variables are supported, see "VM Variables Reference" and "Virtual Service Variables Reference" in the vcommander User Guide. Settings subvariables cpusameastemplate and memorysameastemplate With the introduction of the Blueprint catalog model: The Settings subvariable cpusameastemplate has been replaced by cpusameasdefault.

31 31 The Settings subvariable memorysameastemplate has been replaced by memorysameasdefault. See "Settings Subvariables Reference" in the vcommander User Guide for the full list of Settings subvariables. Removed features and platforms Add Single VM Service button The feature allowing you to quickly add a single-vm vcenter or SCVMM service to the service catalog using the Add Single VM Service shortcut button has been removed because it does not fit into the service catalog blueprints model. Removed variables The following Settings subvariables have been removed in this release: instancetype.availableforspotinstance instancetype.description instancetype.ebsoptimizedavailable instancetype.ecu instancetype.instancefamily instancetype.instancestorage instancetype.maxenis instancetype.maxipspereni instancetype.memory instancetype.networkperformance instancetype.processorarch instancetype.storage instancetype.vcpu The following VM variable has been removed in this release: #{vm.instancetype.processorarch} Changes Affecting Upgrading Users Automation options for change request approval workflows The automatic fulfillment options in the Approval Workflow Configuration wizard have changed. vcommander now allows you to configure specific fulfillment behavior for each of your change request forms. For example, you can configure: automatic fulfillment for all decommissioning requests automatic fulfillment for non-disruptive resource change requests

32 32 In this scenario, any part of a resource change request that does not require a power-down and restart would be fulfilled automatically. Tasks requiring a power-down would require manual fulfillment. During the upgrade, vcommander migrates your existing configuration to the Release GA configuration that most closely matches it. For example, if you had selected Do not automatically fulfill change requests for any forms prior to upgrading, after upgrading, the Manual option will be selected for all forms. See "Creating an Approval Workflow" in the vcommander User Guide to learn more. We recommend that you verify the new settings after upgrade. Assigning a component-level completion workflow to a service catalog component In previous releases, it was not possible to explicitly specify that no completion workflow would be assigned to a service catalog component. Now, you can select "None" in the drop-down menu. Because you can select "None", the concept of a "global" completion workflow no longer applies; we have replaced the Global workflow with a Default workflow. When no default workflow exists, the drop-down menu indicates that none is available.

33 33 As a result of the change from global to default workflow, we have also changed the labels on the Assigned Components page of the Completion Workflow Configuration wizard: See "Managing the Service Catalog" and "Creating a Completion Workflow" in the vcommander User Guide for more information.

34 34 Service Portal Show Rightsizing permission split into two To allow you to control what rightsizing recommendations Service Portal users can see, the Show Rightsizing permission has been split into Show Rightsizing Up and Show Rightsizing Down. If the Show Rightsizing permission was enabled for a role before upgrade, both Show Rightsizing Up and Show Rightsizing Down will be enabled after upgrade. If the Show Rightsizing permission was disabled for a role before upgrade, both Show Rightsizing Up and Show Rightsizing Down will be disabled after upgrade. See "Customizing Service Portal Roles for End Users" and "Rightsizing VMs" in the vcommander User Guide for more information. Service catalog and form configuration If you upgraded from release 5.2 or earlier, by default, all service catalog entries use the "legacy" model. But we recommend that you switch to the new "blueprint" model. The legacy model is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. With the legacy model: the Component forms you customized in a previous release are still used all request forms are customized in the Form Designer With the blueprint model: the service catalog uses component-specific settings, such as CPU, memory, network and credentials, that are configured in the service catalog entry component forms are no longer assigned to users and groups; rather, they are assigned to components in the service catalog the service catalog entry ignores Component forms created in the Form Designer service-level form settings, such as placement destination, ownership and expiry date, are taken from the Service forms created in the Form Designer To choose the blueprint model, edit the service catalog entry and navigate to the Components page. Select Blueprint (recommended). Click Next and you will notice a new button bar, allowing you to set defaults as well as customize the request form for this component: If a user request changes from the default settings configured in the service catalog, these changes are displayed in approval s, on the approval landing page, and in the Request Details dialog. Click Help on any of the tabs to learn more about the available settings. See "Managing the Service Catalog" in the vcommander User Guide to get started. Changes to VM Sharing due to Blueprint catalog model Shared VM catalog entries are created using the Blueprint catalog model. This means that the Shared VM request form looks slightly different: only the Service form is displayed; the Component form is not displayed.

35 35 Note that shared catalog entries created before upgrade are not changed after upgrade; the request form looks the same. It's no longer possible to edit shared VM catalog entries, and it's no longer possible to change the CPU or memory resources when requesting a shared VM. See "Sharing VMs with Other Users" in the vcommander User Guide for more information. Service workflows now known as "command workflows" and can be targeted at a service type In previous versions, you could create workflows for vcommander and Service Portal users to run on VMs; you could also call workflows from within policies. In this release, command workflows (previously known as service workflows) can be run on all services that vcommander manages: databases, load balancers, stacks, virtual services and VMs. You can now create different workflows for different types of services. Service workflows created in a previous release are automatically targeted at VMs after upgrade. To learn more, see "Creating a Command Workflow" in the vcommander User Guide. Storage Tier costs no longer configured in AWS cost model Due to support for databases, load balancers and stacks, and the resultant storage cost complexity, costs for AWS storage tiers are now stored in the cost configuration XML file, rather than in the AWS cost model. If you need to edit storage costs, contact support@embotics.com. To learn more about AWS costing, see "Managing Amazon Web Services with vcommander " in the vcommander User Guide. vcommander Console Proxy name changed to VM Access Proxy To clarify its purpose, the vcommander Console Proxy is now known as the VM Access Proxy. To learn how to upgrade to version 2.2 of the VM Access Proxy, see "Upgrading the vcommander VM Access Proxy" in the vcommander Installation Guide. Note that upgrading to version 2.2 of the proxy is not required unless you want to enable secure SSH and VNC connections.

36 36 Issues Resolved in This Release Issue Description and Solution REST API handles only single custom attribute values from service request form The REST API now properly handles multiple custom attribute values from a service request form Default value for number of CPUs taken from form, not template, after upgrade when using legacy model When using the legacy catalog model, the default value for CPU Count is taken from the template after upgrade Vulnerabilities in version of Tomcat packaged with vcommander The version of Tomcat packaged with vcommander has been updated to resolve the vulnerabilities Input Text Field values do not appear in Request Details for requests made prior to upgrade Values entered into Input Text Field form controls in requests made prior to upgrade now appear as expected on the Form tab of the Request Details dialog after upgrade Fenced deployments may fail when using blueprint forms if network zones are assigned to the deployment destination Fenced VMs can now be deployed successfully to deployment destinations with network zones assigned when using blueprint forms. Issues resolved in previous 5.5.x releases Issue Description and Solution Pasting text into filter for List View service catalog causes incorrect service to be opened for editing When using the List View service catalog and you have pasted text into the filter field, the correct service can now be opened for editing Unable to create file in guest OS based on form inputs It s now possible to create a file in the guest OS based on form inputs, using the new "Create File" completion workflow step. See "Workflow Steps Reference" in the vcommander User Guide Chef environment is not exposed to end user The Chef environment can now be set in the Configure Chef workflow step. This can be exposed to the end user by using a list-type attribute on the form; reference this from the workflow step using variables. See "Integrating Chef with vcommander " in the vcommander User Guide Service Portal user can't view service request for VM they didn't originally request When a VM's ownership has changed, it's now possible for the new owner to view the service request that created a VM Service requests may not be visible if the template backing a component has migrated Service requests are now visible when made for services where the template backing a component has been migrated.

37 VMware Remote Console 7.0 not supported vcommander Release GA supports the standalone VMRC application for Windows that is packaged with vsphere REST API: Unable to log in with PowerShell REST client as user that has not logged into the vcommander console It's now possible to log in with the PowerShell REST client using an account that has not previously logged into the vcommander console. The error "Response content cannot be parsed because the Internet Explorer engine is not available" is no longer generated Can't create credentials for Chef integration using Internet Explorer Pasting a.pem file into the Password field of the Add Credentials dialog is now possible when using Internet Explorer Unable to publish a service to a specific organization via the REST API One or more organizations may now be specified when creating a service catalog entry via the REST API Paging through service requests may be slow when list is sorted by Date Submitted Paging through service requests when the list is sorted by Date Submitted now performs as expected Large workflow script step output cannot be captured A workflow script step now captures up to 8000 characters of output REST API: PowerShell New-EncryptCredential has 15-character password limit New-EncryptCredential now supports passwords longer than 15 characters Scripts containing commands with backslashes may fail Scripts containing commands with backslashes now work as expected Unable to view performance charts for vsphere 6 managed systems Performance charts can now be viewed for VMs on vsphere 6 managed systems IP pool conflicts may be difficult to resolve IP pool conflict alerts have been improved, making conflicts easier to resolve Storage cost period on request form may not respect configured cost period If you set the Cost Period on the Estimated Cost form element to a non-default value, the Storage cost on the request form now respects the cost period Error message for a failed deployment displays incorrect time unit The time displayed in the error message for a failed service request is now displayed in seconds Switching between organizations may generate error and log user out of the Service Portal Switching from one organization to another in the Service Portal now works as expected REST API call to retrieve networks returns only first network of that name The REST API call to retrieve networks of a particular name now returns all networks with that name.

38 Annual Cost property for SCVMM VMs may be inaccurate if power state is not "Running" The Annual Cost property in the VM's Details pane now includes all costs for SCVMM VMs in the "Starting" and "Stopping" states No static memory performance metrics provided for SCVMM VMs vcommander now displays static memory usage for SCVMM VMs. Note that memory rightsizing recommendations are not generated for SCVMM VMs with static memory Sorting columns in Workflows tab generates error if a column has a blank value Sorting the columns in the Workflows tab at the bottom of the vcommander console now works as expected when a column has a blank value Add new disk via change request disk is always placed on VMX datastore, even if not enough space When a new disk is added via a change request, it is still placed onto the VMX datastore if there is enough space. If there is not, a datastore with the appropriate storage tier is picked according to the datastore placement rules configured for global provisioning Unable to shut down guest OS if vcommander cannot obtain correct VM power state A new system property, embotics.workflow.force.off.after.fulfill.failure, allows you to force vcommander to power off the VM if the Shutdown Guest OS command fails during automated fulfillment of change requests and rightsizing recommendations. Go to Configuration > System Configuration > Adv anced tab to change system properties. Contact support@embotics.com for more information Approvers column may be blank for scheduled service request searches When you include the Approvers column in a search query and then configure a scheduled task for this search, the report now includes Approvers information Fenced network nonfunctional after vrouter in DHCP mode is restarted When a vrouter in DHCP mode is rebooted, the virtual interface is now reinitialized, and the fenced network functions as expected VMs may not be powered off on schedule if a VM in the Power Schedule group is out of inventory vcommander no longer attempts to power off out-of-inventory VMs in Power Schedule groups PowerShell API Add-DatastoreToDeploymentDestinations causes exception if destination target doesn't exist The API Add-DatastoreToDeploymentDestinations no longer causes an exception if the destination target has been removed Cannot edit organization if member is deleted from Users and Roles page It's now possible to edit an organization after an organization member is deleted, whether from the Users and Roles page or with the wizard.

39 vcommander should access guest during guest OS scanning by host name only The system property embotics.osscanner.usednsnamefirst has been changed to embotics.osscanner.hostnameonly. If the property is set to true and the DNS name is populated, vcommander uses the host name (without the domain). If the property is false (default value), vcommander uses the IP address (if set), followed by the DNS name (if set). Note that this property is ignored when the VM's address has been explicitly overridden in the Configure for Guest OS Scan dialog. Go to Configuration > System Configuration > Adv anced tab to change system properties. Contact for more information Automated fulfillment of change request may fail due to timeout when waiting for power up and down operation The default wait time for powering up and down operations during change request fulfillment has been increased, and the system property embotics.powercontrol.maxwait allows you to configure the timeout value. Go to Configuration > System Configuration > Adv anced tab to change system properties. Contact for more information Requesting a snapshot without a name results in error It is no longer possible to create a snapshot without a name in vcommander or the Service Portal Deleting a VM from a fenced vapp may cause duplicate external IP address in subsequent fenced service When you delete a VM from a fenced vapp, vcommander now removes the network files from the vrouter, so the vrouter no longer directs traffic for the deleted VM's IP addresses Deleting a datastore in a deployment destination marks the destination as invalid A destination is no longer marked as invalid if one of the configured datastores is deleted REST API: Unhelpful PowerShell client error message when storage tiers are not displayed in Storage form element If a PowerShell script requires a value for Storage Tier from the request form, but the Storage form element option Display Storage Tiers is disabled, the error message displayed now indicates the source of the problem Requested component's status may remain "In Progress" though service is deployed successfully if VM with same name existed previously in same location The status of a successfully deployed component is updated as expected when a VM with the same name had previously been deleted from the same location Directory service users may be unable to log in after upgrade when certificates are self-signed vcommander now trusts all self-signed certificates by default for LDAP and Active Directory connections. If you are not using self-signed certificates, set the system property embotics.ad.ssl.trustall to false. Go to Configuration > System Configuration > Adv anced tab to change system properties vrouter makes frequent NTP server requests The vrouter deployed in fenced VM networks no longer makes requests to an NTP server host Unable to complete deployment of fenced virtual service when service catalog entry was created through copying When you create a fenced service in the catalog by copying another service, deployment is now successful.