Latest service announcements

Learn about Google Cloud VMware Engine changes such as upgrades, backward incompatible API changes, product or feature deprecations, mandatory migrations, or potentially disruptive maintenance.

For previous service announcements, see Archived service announcements.

March 12, 2024

On March 12, 2024, the VMware Engine operations team will continue the essential network infrastructure maintenance. This maintenance improves equipment robustness and applies security patches.

The planned network maintenance is limited to the Google Cloud VMware Engine network fabric. No updates or upgrades will be performed on VMware components of your private cloud as part of this maintenance.

This maintenance is carried out on the common network infrastructure that supports all private clouds in a given region. This maintenance schedule cannot be customized on a private cloud basis.

Maintenance schedule & communication

The maintenance will be carried across all zones and regions but with a specific schedule for each VMware Engine placement group. The maintenance will be rolled out during off-business hours, and lasts four (4) hours every day between 2 AM and 6 AM of the region local time zone.

Notifications

VMware Engine will send the following notifications about this maintenance to all users of the VMware Engine portal and to any email addresses that are configured to receive email alerts:

A general notification at least seven (7) days in advance for each of your private clouds identifying the week that it's scheduled for maintenance.
24-hour and 1-hour advance notifications before the start of any impacting maintenance event.
A final notification upon completion of the maintenance.

Maintenance scope and impact

You can expect this maintenance to have the following scope and impact:

Scope: VMware Engine network fabric directly attached to your private cloud's nodes.
Impact: Each node might go through a minor disruption up to two times during two maintenance windows (separate days). VMware Engine nodes have a redundant uplink configuration for NSX-T Edge and the distributed virtual switches (DVS). There are two types of impact expected:
- Network traffic impact to DVS links on ESXi nodes. We expect a network traffic impact of up to 2 seconds for the failover of an active DVS link on an ESXi node.
- Network traffic impact to NSX-T Edge. Failover events will occur when the connected switch is upgraded. The failover to the standby entity takes up to 7 seconds for NSX-T Edge. Such failover can take place up to two times while both the redundant top of rack switches undergo maintenance. However, it's possible that the failover might need to occur only once in your private cloud.
Required actions: No action is required from you. Google Cloud VMware Engine will monitor and ensure restoration of service.
Suggested actions: Ensure your team is aware of the maintenance and is available to validate any critical application during the maintenance process and after the process is complete. Take additional care if your workloads are sensitive to the network outages mentioned.

Maintenance FAQs

Why are you doing the upgrade?: Our technology partners have delivered newer software versions that provide higher robustness, security, and redundancy for critical infrastructure components.
How does this maintenance improve my Google Cloud VMware Engine experience?: Keeping the network fabric up to date ensures that your production applications are always available and that Google engineers can continue to deliver new features.
Will this cause a service impact to my production applications?: Maintenance can cause an impact to the workload VMs if they cannot tolerate short gaps in connectivity.
Will any software changes be made to VMware components?: No, this network infrastructure maintenance won't have any impact on software versions of VMware components in your private cloud.
How will I know when the maintenance has been completed?: The VMware Engine operations team will send email notifications at the start of maintenance and again upon its completion.
Do I need to do anything after the maintenance?: No action is required from you after the maintenance. You can check that your applications are operating as expected during the maintenance and after maintenance is complete.
How can I get help?: If you have any questions about the upgrade or need any help after the maintenance, contact Cloud Customer Care.

March 7, 2024

The VMware Engine operations team will upgrade VMware components to newer versions beginning mid-March 2024. You will receive an email with the planned maintenance windows of the upgrade.

Upgrade contents

We aim to provide you with the access to the most up-to-date features and functions of vSphere. We will upgrade the VMware stack from version 7.0 Update 2 to 7.0 Update 3 and the NSX-T stack from version 3.1.2 to 3.2.3.1. The upgrade lets you use new features of vSphere, vSAN, and NSX-T.

Learn more about the upgrade contents in the VMware release notes:

VMware components post-upgrade

VMware component	Version	Build
vCenter Server	7.0 Update 3p	23085514
ESXi	7.0 Update 3o	23066467
NSX-T	3.2.3.1.hp	3263187
HCX	4.6.2	Cloud build: 21779414

Upgrade schedule

This upgrade is scheduled between March and June 2024.

The upgrade will be carried out in a rolling fashion, hence we don't anticipate any disruptions to your workload VMs. There will be a transient unavailability of vCenter for up to 15 minutes during the upgrade to the new version. NSX-T edge VMs will move to another host during upgrade and might cause a brief 1 to 7 second disruption to traffic during this change.

How does this change impact your private cloud?

Upgrade steps that are potentially impacting: vCenter and NSX-T Edge will be upgraded during non business hours. The non-business hours will be based on the timezone of the region where the private cloud is deployed.
Upgrade steps that are non-impacting: Your private cloud will be augmented by an additional node and ESXI upgrades will be performed on a rolling basis after gracefully putting each node into maintenance mode. These upgrades will be carried out in business and off-business hours.

What do you need to do?

Review (or change) proposed maintenance schedule: As communicated earlier, we are intimating you about the impending upgrade of your private cloud with 15 days of notice. Review the notification for the time window for the upgrade. Should you need further assistance in rescheduling the upgrade, contact Google Customer support. We request you to inform us 3 days in advance to be able to accommodate your request for rescheduling the upgrade.
VMware third-party solutions: Before the upgrade, ensure that any add-on solutions deployed on your private cloud vCenter are compatible with the versions mentioned previously. Examples are backup, monitoring, disaster recovery orchestrator and other similar tools. Check with the solution vendor and upgrade solutions ahead of time if necessary to avoid any incompatibility after the upgrade.
On-premises HCX Preparation: Ensure that your version of HCX on-premises is compatible with cloud-based HCX. In the next weeks, there will be a second message regarding the Cloud HCX upgrade, which will take place at a later date. You may ignore this section if your HCX version is already 4.6.2.
Upgrade preparation: Ensure that you have taken care of items listed in Preparation before the upgrade starts.

How will you be notified?

VMware Engine will send the following notifications about this upgrade to all users of the VMware Engine portal and to any email addresses that are configured to receive email alerts:

Notification banners on vCenter and NSX portals about the upcoming upgrade.
30 days notice - A general notification at least 30 days in advance for each of your private clouds.
15 days notice - A general notification at least 15 days in advance for each of your private clouds identifying the week it is scheduled for upgrade.
24-hour and 1-hour advance notifications before the start of the upgrade.
A notification at the start of the upgrade.
A final notification upon completion of the upgrade.
Additional notifications will be sent for reschedules, extension of schedules or complications.

Upgrade FAQs

Will it cost my organization anything to upgrade?: No, your organization is not charged for the upgrade. All new capabilities of vSphere are covered by your service.
How long will the upgrade take?: Upgrades can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on the complexity of your deployment, the number of clusters, and the amount of data present on your private cloud.
Will the upgrade break anything?: We don't expect downtime during the upgrade process. However, we recommend that you check with solution vendors of any deployed solutions on your private cloud for compatibility with vSphere 7.0 and ensure that you have over 30% free storage capacity for the upgrade to be performed.
Do I need to do anything after the upgrade?: No action is required from you after the upgrade. You can check the versions of VMware components and use all new features available with this upgrade.
How will I know when the upgrade has completed?: The VMware Engine operations team will send you an email at the start of the upgrade and again upon its completion.
How can I get help?: If you have any questions about the upgrade or need any help after the upgrade, contact Cloud Customer Care.