VMware Update Manager Non-Critical baselines to restrict content only to VMware content starting vSphere 7.0 Update 3q

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0

Issue/Introduction

There will be a change to Non-Critical baseline content on VMware Update Manager starting vSphere 7.0 Update 3q, async drivers will not be added automatically to the Non-Critical baseline.

Existing vSphere 7.x Customers (prior to 7.0 U3q) using non-critical baselines will have all the latest async drivers updated automatically in their environment. However, starting vSphere 7.0 Update 3q, Customers need to explicitly pick and choose the async driver updates that are needed. This behaviour is similar to 8.x versions.

VMware started hosting partner content (async drivers) to fulfil vLCM requirements in vSphere 7.0. These content were also pulled into system generated (predefined) baselines, especially Non-Critical baseline. In vSphere 7.0 various issues were observed during the remediation of such baseline where in wrong obsoletions, invalidations and re-validations were observed during  the compliance check of this baseline. As a result, the compliance status of Non-critical baseline have been very inconsistent based on the host state. Recent updates to 3rd party/async drivers into VMware online portal lead to potential patching issue in multiple environments.

Resolution

Create Custom Baselines with the non-critical async components as per the requirement. However, VMware recommends NOT to create a baseline as similar to earlier Non-Critical baselines (that includes all async drivers) to avoid any inconsistent state.

Steps to create Custom Baseline:

• In the vSphere Client, click the bars icon and select Lifecycle Manager.
• On the Baselines tab, select New > Baseline.
• On the Name and Description page, enter information about the baseline
• Select the baseline type as "Patch" and click Next.
• On the Select Patches Automatically page, stop the automatic updates by deselecting the respective check box and click Next.
• On the Select Patches Manually page, turn off the "Show only rollup updates" toggle switch
• Select individual patches/drivers to include in the baseline and click Next.
• Follow the prompts to Finish creating the baseline

Refer the Document for more details on creating Custom baseline.