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The latest HCX release has been published globally! 🥳

VMware HCX 4.3.1 is a maintenance release, emphasizing service stability. The resolved issues are listed in the HCX 4.3.1 release note. The release includes platform-level fixes. The team recommends this maintenance version for all existing and planned HCX 4.3 installations.

Enhancements to System Updates

There were some improvements related to how the HCX systems handle updates. These are related to operations happening on this interface:

It boils down to these changes:

Relevant System Updates Only

There are always multiple HCX releases supported in parallel (As of this writing HCX 4.1, 4.2 & 4.3 are all generally available(with HCX 4.0 nearing End of General Support ) ). HCX updates are published globally to all of these client systems. In the past we’ve displayed every update published in every system, which sometimes has meant displaying irrelevant software updates.
Going forward, we will no longer show updates meant for older minor releases, and newer updates, for versions outside of the supported upgrade path.

Replacing Downloaded Updates

The interface has always allowed a user to separately download an update, and install the update, but the interface was locked into that download. Some fixes have been implemented to allow a previously downloaded update to be replaced with a newly published update.

“Check for Updates” Frequency

The “Check for Updates” option is a way to manually check in with the publishing server for new patches. This operation is usually not necessary as updates get published globally, but this helps with any systems that were offline or did not have a healthy connection when the update published. This operation can now be performed once in a 30min interval (changed from 24 hours).

Request Download Link

The Request Download Link option shows up on HCX Cloud is the mechanism for obtaining the HCX Connector OVA. This is true for both public cloud deployments of HCX, and private installations in a data center. As of this update, the option will now generate a download link for the HCX Connector version that is most compatible with the HCX Cloud system.

Previously, the generated link would download the latest HCX Connector version available. This previous approach was generally not a problem but could cause feature mismatches in scenarios where the cloud systems do not have access to the latest features

End of Support for HCX 4.0 Next Week

Consider this one my friendly PSA/reminder. End of Support information is available in lifecycle.vmware.com from the moment a release is generally available.

Along with the end of access to support, there are no security patches or fixes developed. Highly recommend an upgrade to HCX 4.3.1 for any 4.0 & 4.1 deployments.

Closing Thought

Although several usability improvements are highlighted above, a herculean effort went into improving HCX stability in 4.3, and that should be the primary factor when considering this release!

Happy end of week 7 2022!

—
Gabe