Purpose:

vSphere Configuration Profiles is a new capability in vSphere 8.0, that allows Administrators to manage the host configuration at a cluster level. This capability allows administrators to:

• Set desired configuration at the cluster in form of a JSON document.
• Check that hosts are compliant with desired configuration.
• If non-compliant, remediate hosts to bring them into compliance.

In vSphere 8.0, vSphere Configuration Profiles is being launched as a supported Technology Preview feature, to provide early access to the feature, and gather feedback for future improvements. The reason for the Technology Preview launch of this capability, is because the use of this feature is restricted to customers that use vSphere Standard Switch (VSS).

Requirements

vSphere Configuration Profiles requires the following:

• Cluster lifecycle must be managed with vSphere Lifecycle Manager Images (vLCM).
• Hosts must be on versions ESXi 8.0 and above. 
• This feature is available with Enterprise Plus license.

Limitations

Although in vSphere 8.0, vSphere Configuration Profiles allows the management of most of the configurations; there is no support for managing vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) yet. Therefore, during the Technology Preview phase, the use of this feature is limited to customers that use vSphere Standard Switch (VSS). Enablement of vSphere Configuration Profiles on clusters that have NSX and VDS (Virtual Distributed Switch) are blocked.

Symptoms

Below are scenarios where error messages are displayed, to handle the limitation in use to VSS environments:

• User tries to enable vSphere Configuration Profiles on clusters, where hosts in the cluster have VDS.

• After enabling vSphere Configuration Profiles on a cluster, User tries to configure VDS on the hosts in that cluster.

• After enabling vSphere Configuration Profiles on a cluster, User tries adding hosts connected to VDS, into that cluster.

We realize managing ESXi configurations to be compliant to a specified desired configuration is a challenge in customer environments. vSphere Configuration Profiles is a new capability in vSphere 8.0, that addresses this challenge.  

Customers that use vSphere Standard Switch (VSS); can use this capability now. We will continue to evolve this feature in upcoming releases, to support Virtual Distributed Switch (VDS) as well.