The interface for this is nice looking and really clean, I like it.
The inclusion of Update Manager into the appliance now makes this a very attractive option.
In a lot of instances the de facto upgrade method has been to rip and replace because it was easier than trying to upgrade.
Even if it’s basic and not full of the advanced features, I’d still like it as an option. There’s also an argument to be made that we should have some redundant capabilities for a management interface of vCenter and ESXi. The fact of the matter is I can build and configure an environment much faster with the C# Client than I can with the vSphere Web Client or the Host Client any day of the week. It’s faster and organized in a familiar way since it’s been in use across every version of vSphere until now.
That being said the venerable C# Client, vSphere Client, Thick Client or whatever you want to call it, for most engineers and administrators is still way better than the vSphere Web Client or the HTML5 Client. I understand the need to consolidate development and to modernize the interface. I’m in the camp that believes this was a bad move. The message appeared intentional so I have to assume this changed from vSphere 6 and Log Insight 3.x or it’s always been this way. The FAQ indicates multiple hosts can be assigned licenses but when I added a vCenter it said this license only works for a single host. It also now comes free with a vCenter license and grants you 25 OSIs.
As an aside I recently installed vSphere 6.5 onto a Dell R710, which is currently unsupported, and it works fine. This list is definitely going to change as support is verified but it’s certainly something you’ll want to check before upgrading.