vRealize Log Insight 4.8 has been released

After months of waiting vRealize Log Insight 4.8 (vRLI 4.8) was released last night.

I’ve been waiting on this release as it fixes a number of minor CVEs (Java of course) and the major improvement which has been ask for by almost every customer who I’ve spoken to – Data retention configuration options based on time!

You now have the option to configure the data retention period based on your needs from a few days to 12 months instead of having to exactly size the appliances to guestimate your retention needs.

Another major additions is that there is now a JSON parser so that JSON logs can be easily sent and parsed into vRLI. Additionally the parser can be configured for conditional parsing. Users can specify if a parser should be applied based on the value of a parsed field.

There have been a number of minor security improvements including one which could delay upgrade for those with older SSL certificates. From 4.8, the minimum key size for the virtual appliance certificate must be 2048 bits or greater.

There are a couple of resolved issues which have bugged me (and clients) in the previous releases

• Launch in context for vROps is now working correctly.
• Queries now support time-related terms that when entered are automatically translated to the current time.
• The “From” date bug is fixed

VMware are yet to update the Interoperability Matrix but hopefully there won’t be any major surprises in store.

So all in all, more minor evolution than revolution. as many were expecting the next release of vRLI to herald the change to PhotonOS like many other VMware appliances, but it is welcome all the same.

The download is already available on my.vmware.com, and as per usual you must be running vRealize Log Insight 4.7 or 4.7.1 to upgrade to 4.8. Follow my guide HERE for upgrading Log Insight.

The full release notes can be found HERE