What’s New?
The VMware Telco Cloud Automation 1.9 release introduces the following enhancements:
Infrastructure Automation
- Certificate Management
- Register a Certificate Authority (CA) and generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for the domain.
- Support for Self-signed CA through the Infrastructure Automation process.
- Support for Management and Workload domains
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation does not create a separate SDDC (vCenter Server + VMware NSX + VMware vSAN) for management appliances called the Management domain. Instead, the vCenter Server + VMware NSX domain is deployed as VMs in the Management domain. The ESXi of the Workload domain is fully available for running customer workloads.
- Support for a pre-deployed domain
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation supports previous deployments that were not done through Infrastructure Automation. You can now import a pre-deployed vCenter Server + VMware NSX environment or just a vCenter Server environment to Infrastructure Automation. You can then deploy new clusters or cell site groups in this environment.
- VMware vSAN Network File System (vSAN NFS) is optional on the Compute cluster
- VMware vSAN is now an optional component in the Infrastructure Automation process for Workload clusters. However, it is mandatory on Management clusters.
- Support for DHCP Pool for application networks.
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation supports DHCP on application networks that are created by Infrastructure Automation if VMware NSX is enabled for the domain. This satisfies the requirement that the Kubernetes Management network must be created through Infrastructure Automation and the network requires DHCP.
CaaS Infrastructure and CNFs
- VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3 Support
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation now enables you to deploy Kubernetes clusters based on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3.
- You can also migrate existing deployed Kubernetes clusters to VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3.
- The haproxy-based VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.1.3 clusters can now be migrated to VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3 clusters seamlessly.
- CaaS Node Customization (Late-Binding)
- Design a CNF with infrastructure requirements customizations such as custom packages, network adapters, and kernels using the GUI designer.
- Enhanced Central CLI (CCLI) that supports the vmconfig and nodeconfig operator CLIs.
- Schema validation for a CNF catalog
- VMware has introduced a schema validation feature for validating the Network Function and Network Service schema when onboarding a catalog. This feature is required for custom extensions.
- Machine Health Check for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Clusters
- The Machine Health Check feature provides node health monitoring and node auto-repair for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters.
- Machine Health Check monitors the node pools for any unhealthy nodes and tries to remediate by recreating them.
- Machine Health Check can now be configured per node pool.
- Maintenance Mode for VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Clusters
- You can now place node pools in the maintenance mode when performing maintenance activities.
- This option prevents Machine Health Check from remediating the node pools during downtime.
- Improved Precision Time Protocol (PTP) Support
- You can now customize PTP from the Network Function Catalog. VMware Telco Cloud Automation updates the PTP configuration on the target Worker nodes before instantiating the Network Function (late-binding).
- You can configure PTP services such as ptp4l and phc2sys through the CSAR file.
- Cancel and Retry a Cluster Creation Operation
- You can now Abort an ongoing cluster creation operation or retry a failed cluster creation operation.
- The Abort operation cleans up used resources. It is not supported on Management clusters.
- The Retry operation resumes the CaaS cluster creation operation from the last checkpoint that is successfully completed.
- Copy the specifications and deploy new CaaS clusters from an existing cluster.
- Embedded Helm 3.x support.
- Helm 3.x is now embedded in Kubernetes clusters and the option to select Helm 3.x is removed from cluster templates.
- Referencing support for custom workflows.
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation improves the usage of pre-instantiation Workflow outputs. They can now be used as inputs for Custom workflow as well.
- The General Info tab provides detailed information about CNF instances.
VIMs, VNFs, and Network Service Lifecycle Management
- Support for vApp templates for VCD based environments:
- When instantiating a VNF, you can now use vApp Templates as images for a VMware Cloud Director-based cloud. The VIM does not require vCenter access.
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation is now VMware Cloud Director-aware. You can now select a specific VMware Cloud Director catalog during the VNF instantiation.
- You can now configure scaling aspects and instantiation levels for the VDU instances in a VNF using a GUI designer.
- You can now view the Scale Policies of VNF catalogs from the VMware Telco Cloud Automation web interface.
- Schema validation for VNF catalog and Network Service TOSCA descriptors.
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation performs a TOSCA scheme validation when onboarding VNF or Network Service packages.
- This feature reduces the instantiation error and assists network service designers in onboarding their applications.
- Referencing support for custom workflows.
- VMware Telco Cloud Automation improves the usage of pre-instantiation Workflow outputs. They can now be used as inputs for Custom workflow as well.
- If the virtual infrastructure inventory information is not synchronized between VMware Telco Cloud Automation Control Plane (TCA-CP) and VMware Telco Cloud Automation Manager, you can now initiate partial sync or full sync.
- The General Info tab provides detailed information about VNF instances.
VMware Telco Cloud Automation Platform Robustness and Other Improvements
- Licensing Updates
- Evaluation licenses are no longer limited by the number of managed VNFs and CNFs, but they are time-based. The default evaluation time is 120 days.
- Enhanced SOL Compliance
- Rebased the API to support SOL version 2 interfaces
- Rebased the UI to support SOL version 2 interfaces
- Enhanced Tag Support
- Enhanced flexibility and isolation among users based on vendors, products, and more.
- Using RBAC filtering based on tags, you can now group objects and filter users according to business attributes.
- VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.3 provides an increased minimum node size requirement.
Interoperability Matrix for VMware Telco Cloud Automation 1.9
| Product | Supported Versions |
| VMware vSphere | 7.0 U2 |
| VMware Integrated OpenStack | 7.0.1 |
| VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid | 1.3 |
| VMware Cloud Director | 10.2 |
| Kubernetes | 1.17.16, 1.18.16, 1.19.8, 1.20.4 |
| VMware NSX-T | 3.1.1 |
| VMware vRealize Orchestrator | 8.3 |
Components Deployed Through Infrastructure Automation
| Product | Version |
| Cloud Builder | 4.2 |
| VMware Telco Cloud Automation | 1.9.0 |
| VMware NSX-T | 3.1.0 |
| vCenter Server | 7.0 U1 |
| VMware ESXi | 7.0 U1d |
| vRealize Orchestrator | 8.3 |
| vRealize Log Insight | 8.3 |
Documentation and Links:
Product Page
Documentation Home
Release Notes
Downloads
Free Trial Download