VMware vSphere 5.5 and vSAN 5.5 End of General Support Reminder

February 20, 2018 Off By David
Written by David Marshall

I recently saw an announcement from VMware reminding people that vSphere 5.5 and vSAN 5.5 are nearing what the virtualization giant is calling "End of General Support" or EOGS.  I guess that’s the more polite way of saying End of Life (EOL) what with no support being offered and all.  Mark your calendars, these two VMware products each reach EOGS on September 19, 2018. 

EOL, or EOGS for those playing the acronym game at home, dates tend to sneak up on people as this isn’t necessarily something everyone pays close attention to.  How many people actually disregarded the numerous attempts by Microsoft to migrate off of Windows XP?  Plenty.

For these two virtualization products nearing the end of support, VMware warns:

  • To maintain your full level of Support and Subscription Services, VMware recommends upgrading to vSphere 6.5. Note that by upgrading to vSphere 6.5 you not only get all the latest capabilities of vSphere but also the latest vSAN release and capabilities.
  • vCloud Suite 5 and vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM) customers running vSphere 5.5 are also recommended to upgrade to vSphere 6.5.
For more information on the benefits of upgrading and how to upgrade, visit the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center. For detailed technical guidance, visit vSphere Central and the vSphere 6.5 Topology and Upgrade Planning Tool.  VMware has extended general support for vSphere 6.5 to a full five years from date of release, which will end on November 15, 2021. 

And if your company is one of those that just doesn’t upgrade if it ‘aint broke, you might be able to purchase "Extended Support" in one-year increments for up to two years beyond the EOGS date if you are active on Support and Subscription Services.  Visit VMware Extended Support for more information. 

For those of you who want to keep up with VMware’s Product Lifecycle Matrix, this is the document for you.

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About the Author

David Marshall is an industry recognized virtualization and cloud computing expert, a seven time recipient of the VMware vExpert distinction, and has been heavily involved in the industry for the past 17 years.  To help solve industry challenges, he co-founded and helped start several successful virtualization software companies such as ProTier, Surgient, Hyper9 and Vertiscale. He also spent a few years transforming desktop virtualization while at Virtual Bridges.

David is also a co-author of two very popular server virtualization books: "Advanced Server Virtualization: VMware and Microsoft Platforms in the Virtual Data Center" and "VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center" and the Technical Editor on Wiley’s "Virtualization for Dummies" and "VMware VI3 for Dummies" books.  David also authored countless articles for a number of well known technical magazines, including: InfoWorld, Virtual-Strategy and TechTarget.  In 2004, he founded the oldest independent virtualization and cloud computing news site, VMblog.com, which he still operates today.

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Twitter: @vmblog
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Blog: http://vmblog.com
 

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