vCSA is a prepackaged and preinstalled Photon Linux-based VM that provides vCenter and PSC services. As compared with old versions, vCSA now offers the same capabilities provided by the Windows-based version plus some exclusive services such as native high availability, native backup and restore, a migration tool, and improved appliance management.
With vSphere 6.5 Update 1, you can run the vCSA GUI and CLI installers on Microsoft Windows 2012 x64 bit, Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 x64 bit, Microsoft Windows 2016 x64 bit, and macOS Sierra. The new capabilities make the appliance complete and ready to take over the Windows-based version.
The following is a short description of new features introduced in vSphere 6.5:
- Native high availability: This feature, available for vCSA only, is a solution to provide HA to your vCenter. You could have the active vCSA in one data center and the passive vCSA located in a DR or secondary data center. It removes the dependency on expensive third-party database clustering solutions of RDMs.
- VUM: This is now embedded into vCSA. You no longer need a separate Windows VM, and an additional license.
- New graphic: The new vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) allows administrative management and monitoring of the vCenter appliance. Syslog configuration is now part of the VAMI as well.
- Client Integration Plugin (CIP): This is now deprecated and no longer required since it has been replaced by the native web client.
- Native backup and restore: The process has been simplified with a new native file-based solution. Restore the vCenter Server configuration to a fresh appliance and stream backups to external storage using HTTP, FTP, or SCP protocols (vCSA only).
The installation procedure has been simplified and now vCSA and PSC installation is a two-stage process:
- Stage 1: Deploy OVF
- Stage 2: Configuration
This is a great enhancement and provides not only better validation checks, but also you can take a snapshot between stages for rollback. In addition, you can create a template for additional deployments.
Introduced with vSphere 6.0 Update 1, the Appliance Management client (accessible at the address https://<VCSA_IP>:5480) simplified the configuration and upgrade process. Now you can patch or upgrade the appliance through ISO or URL-based patching, simplifying the process and allowing you to save precious time:
