VMware vSphere 6.7 released today, here's how to download it right away

Posted by Paul Braren on Apr 17 2018 (updated on Apr 20 2018) in

Today, not only were we treated to the vSphere 6.7 announcement, but within a few hours, all the bits became available for download too! This includes vSAN 6.7 too, of course. Here's the main download link you need for all key vSphere 6.7 related items most likely to be running in your home lab:

my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/6_7

but folks new to VMware sometimes get tripped up when trying to find the actual files they'll need to get started. Note that the fresh install full downloads do require you to use your my.vmware.com account, with free sign-up and 60 day trials, with information about potentially avoiding all that for existing vSphere 6.5 labs below. Licensing and support are out of scope for this article, but I'll quickly note that the amazingly affordable VMUG Advantage EVALExperience gets you 365 day licenses for your non-production home lab, and has its bits lovingly refreshed every 3 months or so, with a new refresh likely coming up soon. I've sent an email off to info@vmug.com to see if I can get an ETA on that for you. Meanwhile...

Download

To get started with your lab testing, here's the two files I'd recommend you download first:

VMware vSphere Hypervisor [ESXi ISO] image [Includes VMware Tools], 330.31 MB

Name: VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.7.0-8169922.x86_64.iso
Release Date: 2018-04-17
Build Number: 8169922
VMware vCenter Server Appliance, 3.41 GB

Name: VMware-VCSA-all-6.7.0-8217866.iso
Release Date: 2018-04-17
Build Number: 8217866

Now with those big downloads underway, why not view the

vSphere 6.7 GA Release Notes

that covers both ESXi and VCSA? You will find all kinds of details in there, including dependencies and warnings. This article is focused only on the downloads.

Warning - As the 6.7 name hints, this follow-on to October 2016's vSphere 6.5 release is not quite as big a leap as 6.0 to 6.5 was, but there is plenty new here. Back up everything first! If you have license keys for 6.5, my understanding is that they should work with 6.7, but you must read Important information before upgrading to vSphere 6.7 (53704) first.

Thoughts & Plans

I can safely say that the promised focus on a browser-based HTML5 UI for all essential functions and now for vSAN too is quite an improvement for both installation simplicity and ongoing routine sysadmin workflows, as well as for producing how to videos. See also my tirade about the transition pains, which I'm glad are finally (mostly) behind us, especially for day-to-day vSAN deployment and operations. Dumping Flash has been a long time coming.

Of course, I plan to test this new release thoroughly on my Xeon D-1500 8 and 12 core SuperServer Bundles, and the loaner Xeon D-2100 I'm expecting later this month.

I am still considering re-doing my popular How to build your awesome virtualization home lab with VMware vSphere 6.0 (ESXi & VCSA), especially now that I've found an insanely fast and affordable Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite (see specs) that does the forward and reverse lookup and FQDN that VCSA loves, with lovely names instead of ugly IPs for everything. This router also avoids that clumsy hosts-file-editing stuff and kludgy router domain name hoops I resorted to jumping through last time around.

Upgrades

I'm also working on my usual "How to easily update" set of VCSA and ESXi articles, but the backing mechanisms don't seem to be ready quite yet.

Apr 19 2018 Update

I heard back from VMUG Advantage within minutes of inquiring at info@vmug.com. Here was the rapid response:

Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2018 3:19 PM
To: Paul Braren
Subject: Re: Do you happen to know when vSphere 6.7 will be available on VMUG Advantage EVALExperience downloads pages?

Hi Paul,

My guess will be close to 2 weeks, there was a lot of releases today and while I am pulling them down now it will take some time.

This is pretty good! I know people are eager, this tweet, and this comment below are just two examples. I've been the kind of guy that has wanted the latest VMware hypervisor on the day of release since the GSX and ESX days in the early 2000s, so I understand and empathize with those feeling the pain of this wait. On the bright side, we've come a long way since the days of the VMUG Advantage code getting a bit stale sometimes. Nowadays, the longest wait for the latest version of most of the software at most 3 months. Once 6.7 arrives on VMUG Advantage, I'll make a new TinkerTry post to shout it from the rooftops, like I did when 6.5 arrived there: