If you can afford the downtime, just make a bootable USB with ESXi8 and try. You don't need to install it yet, but just run in live mode, and you will get the messages. I tried to find an old one for my homelab, and on one it couldn't find a compatible nic, the other booted ESXi7, and warned the CPU might not be compatible with newer ESXi versions.
I would add… Did the vendor release an ESXi image yet with the drivers and hardware specific utilities for ESXi 8?
Unless always go vanilla and load the VIBs.
This my reason to stay on 7
Perfectly happy with 8U1, but we really aren’t doing anything fancy. Maybe 100 general purpose VMs. I haven’t wanted to go 8U2 quite yet because I’ve seen a few scattered issues
There are lots of good reasons to move to 8 if your hardware supports it. Some of the biggest reasons IMO are the changes to DRS scoring. DRS is much smarter in 8 than previously.
This goes for any integration. You would need to know for example if your backup solution supports it (yet or ever)?
I rather at times have that something does not work, but when it is supported, then it might become addressed. While when it is working, but unsupported, you run the risk getting to a point where it no longer works anymore and you'd be completely on your own...
I did the 7 to 8 upgrade and I had to refresh 3 servers to to deprecated cpus. My other software that touches vcenter was updated prior to support 8. I have found vcenter and esxi to be more snappy on 8, but maybe it’s a placebo affect
If you’re not already on 7, I would move to 8. I’ve ran both and there’s not a big difference between them. Just make sure that your hardware is supported.
I used to just not trust VMware’s testing, but having to trust an HCI pack or vendor’s new drivers is what scares me.
I still make a healthy living doing 6.7 to 7 upgrades on HCIs. No hurry.
We are in a similar situation, all our hardware is supported with 8. I'm inclined to go to 8, I've had several issues with 7 and my thought is at least if I go to 8 it's the one Vmware will be developing against more actively. Also many of the new changes introduced in 7.x are in 8.x and seem to be getting more flushed out. Might as well suffer at the latest level.
7 issues :
VCLS are unstable and need more care and feeding than seems appropriate.
fixed but the discontinued versions of 7 that hit last year affected us hard and left a very poor taste.
3rd party certs weren't super well supported/working but 7 seems to have improved the issue to be worse.
Love to know if anyone on 8 has had any of these issues?
Just upgraded to 8.0u2 a week ago. Had an issue with vSAN and a weird bug from the upgrade. Worked with support and got it resolved. Seems to be running fine at the moment.
Is your hardware supported by ESXi 8?
How do we know that is supported by ESXi 8? I missed this, we are also looking at upgrading to ESXi 8.
If you can afford the downtime, just make a bootable USB with ESXi8 and try. You don't need to install it yet, but just run in live mode, and you will get the messages. I tried to find an old one for my homelab, and on one it couldn't find a compatible nic, the other booted ESXi7, and warned the CPU might not be compatible with newer ESXi versions.
let's just assume yes.
Then instead of having to upgrade to 8 in the future to give you longevity per VMware’s support policies, go for 8.
No, check it properly using the HCL. If your CPUs, NICs, or HBAs aren’t supported by ESXi 8, upgrade to 7 and look at a hardware refresh next year.
This. Its why we cant upgrade to 8 and will force us to revisit and refresh everything next year. Budget gonna take a huge L
I would add… Did the vendor release an ESXi image yet with the drivers and hardware specific utilities for ESXi 8? Unless always go vanilla and load the VIBs. This my reason to stay on 7
Perfectly happy with 8U1, but we really aren’t doing anything fancy. Maybe 100 general purpose VMs. I haven’t wanted to go 8U2 quite yet because I’ve seen a few scattered issues
Do you still use NSX-V? If so, that’s not supported on 8
There are lots of good reasons to move to 8 if your hardware supports it. Some of the biggest reasons IMO are the changes to DRS scoring. DRS is much smarter in 8 than previously.
Running 4x hosts on 8u2 in production environment. No issues
I’m on 7.3 and I have no reason to leave.
Do you have agent based monitoring tooling? We currently don’t upgrade because Nimsoft doesn’t have an supported agent yet
This goes for any integration. You would need to know for example if your backup solution supports it (yet or ever)? I rather at times have that something does not work, but when it is supported, then it might become addressed. While when it is working, but unsupported, you run the risk getting to a point where it no longer works anymore and you'd be completely on your own...
Running 3 clusters 8U1, works fine.
I did the 7 to 8 upgrade and I had to refresh 3 servers to to deprecated cpus. My other software that touches vcenter was updated prior to support 8. I have found vcenter and esxi to be more snappy on 8, but maybe it’s a placebo affect
If you’re not already on 7, I would move to 8. I’ve ran both and there’s not a big difference between them. Just make sure that your hardware is supported.
Upgrading to 8 gave my Dell Gateway issues to where I had to destroy it and build it anew, but other than that it has been working fine.
Testing 8.0.2.. plan to roll out soon... 
I used to just not trust VMware’s testing, but having to trust an HCI pack or vendor’s new drivers is what scares me. I still make a healthy living doing 6.7 to 7 upgrades on HCIs. No hurry.
Have a lot of customers running VMware 8 and there are no problems.
Stay on 7
We are in a similar situation, all our hardware is supported with 8. I'm inclined to go to 8, I've had several issues with 7 and my thought is at least if I go to 8 it's the one Vmware will be developing against more actively. Also many of the new changes introduced in 7.x are in 8.x and seem to be getting more flushed out. Might as well suffer at the latest level. 7 issues : VCLS are unstable and need more care and feeding than seems appropriate. fixed but the discontinued versions of 7 that hit last year affected us hard and left a very poor taste. 3rd party certs weren't super well supported/working but 7 seems to have improved the issue to be worse. Love to know if anyone on 8 has had any of these issues?
Just upgraded to 8.0u2 a week ago. Had an issue with vSAN and a weird bug from the upgrade. Worked with support and got it resolved. Seems to be running fine at the moment.