The end of the External VMware PSC.
If you are still running an external Platform Services Controller (PSC), the clock is ticking on it. A recent VMware architecture blog (VMware vSphere Blog) written by Emad Younis basically announces the end of the external PSC. We assume he has some insider knowledge since he says it will no longer be an option in future versions of vSphere (presumably 7.0) but even without insider knowledge, the end of the external PSC makes sense.
The Platform Services Controller primarily manages Single Sign On for the vSphere Domain but also manages licensing, tags, categories, SSO certificates, global permissions and custom roles. The PSC was introduced with vSphere 6.0. For clients that had multisite VCs, the external PSC model was deployed to enable enhanced linked mode between the multiple Virtual Centers.
Now with the release of vSphere 6.7 and also 6.5 Update 2, Enhanced Linked Mode is supported by embedded PSCs. At this point, with new installations, there is no reason (and soon no option) to choose the external PSC deployment model and complicate your environment. For all new installations, embedded PSCs are the recommended best practice and really the easiest to set up and use. Everything integrated neatly in the vCenter Appliances at the time of deployment and upgraded when vCenter updates are applied.
Even customers with EXISTING external PSCs can now migrate to embedded when upgrading to vSphere 6.7 Update 1 using the converge utility.
I’m happy to see VMware simplify their deployment model with the feature parity of the Embedded Platform Services Controller. This will make things a lot easier at deployment and upgrade time.
So if you are one of the customers with an External Platform Services Controller deployment model, start thinking about the path to upgrade to simplify your vSphere environment.
Happy Virtualizing!