# v9.0.0 Release Notes

# v9.0.0 LTS Release Notes

- Compatible Plugin API version: 1.3.3
- Compatible HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Worker version: 5.4.8+

Release Dates

- v9.0.0 May 2026

After upgrading to v9.0.0, it is recommended to check for HVM Host agent upgrades as well. To upgrade HVM Host agents, navigate to the detail page for each HVM Host, expand the ACTIONS menu, and click "Upgrade Agent." This process must be undertaken on all HVM Hosts. Alternatively, you may select "Download Agent Script" to download a shell script to handle the upgrade. Connect to the HVM Host over a terminal session and run the downloaded script. The scripts are unique to each HVM Host so you must download all required scripts and run the correct script against the correct HVM Host. Though many do, it is possible that some version upgrade hops will not contain an HVM Host agent upgrade.

# New features

AI and Automation
:   - Introduced a "Read-only mode" for AI agents and a corresponding RBAC permission that restricts agents to data retrieval only, preventing them from performing any modification or "agentic" actions
    - The AI chat interface now prompts users for explicit approval before executing any "write" or modification operations in the system
    - Added a new management interface under Tools > AI Services for creating and configuring AI Agents, including model selection and MCP server assignments
    - Introduced a new interactive chat interface ("Murph") that supports streaming responses and tool-based interactions powered by integrated LLM providers
    - Added a global appliance setting to enable or disable the AI chat widget, allowing administrators to hide the interface if AI services are not in use
    - Added a management interface for Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, allowing users to connect external tool providers to AI agents via STDIO or HTTP protocols
    - Introduced a provider abstraction layer that supports integrating external LLM services like OpenAI and GitHub Copilot for use within the Morpheus AI framework
    - Enhanced AI Integration framework for LLM and MCP providers. Endpoints enable execution through Agent Tasks and Agent Tasks.
    - MCP Server Support for the enablement of AI assistants (including GitHub, Copilot CLI, and, Claude Desktop), through a built-in MCP server exposing the Morpheus REST API. Supports Streamable HTTP and legacy SSE transports.
    - Visual Workflow Wizard for creating, editing, and managing workflows through an interactive interface.
    - Private Cloud system initialization wizard to streamline onboarding and provide an extensible plugin compliant framework.

API & CLI
:   - Introduces a new Agent Task type that allows users to configure and execute task flows using Agentic and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations, complete with full orchestration and execution logging
    - Reintroduced and improved API token management with a dedicated API Keys tab in User Settings. Support for pagination, search capabilities, and new API/CLI commands for token lifecycle management
    - Billing and usage reports now include cost and price data for Kubernetes master and worker nodes, providing better visibility into cluster infrastructure expenses
    - Backup Vendor Multi-Tenant API Extensions for Groups, Clouds, Instances, and Servers now support tenant-aware visibility.
    - Support for multiple auth tokens per user, enabling parallel operations across large federated deployments.

Aruba CX
:   - VLAN IDs specified in trunk ranges are now automatically configured on Aruba CX switches if they do not already exist, simplifying large-scale network provisioning
    - Standard networks now support hybrid and trunk-only modes, allowing multiple tagged VLANs to be carried over a single interface with corresponding automatic switch configuration
    - Security Groups integration for the ArubaCxDss network plugin.

Bare Metal
:   - Introduced an auto-discovery feature for bare metal servers that identifies hardware on the BMC network using defined IP ranges and credentials, removing the requirement for manual bulk imports.
    - Added support for deploying VMware ESXi 8 and 9 onto bare metal hosts using iLO virtual media, including automated post-install configuration.
    - Added support for SLES OS installation onto bare metal hosts using iLO virtual media, including automated post-install configuration.
    - Bare metal instances can now be provisioned directly onto Fibre Channel SAN boot volumes instead of requiring local RAID storage.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Plugin
:   - Deploy SDN controller as a VM and integrate with Morpheus via Plugin Framework.
    - Network Services CRUD for overlay networks, distributed routing (E-W and N-S), and VM network operations.
    - Security Services CRUD for Distributed Firewall (E-W), and NAT rules.
    - L4 Load Balancer Operations CRUD for Load Balancer virtual services and backend pools.
    - Observation of SDN logs, metrics, troubleshooting, and support bundle generation through the Morpheus UI.

HVM
:   - HPE Morpheus Enterprise v9.0.0 includes a new cluster layout for HVM Clusters, version 1.3, which succeeds version 1.2. The primary difference in cluster layout 1.3 is the replacement of Pacemaker as the resource manager for GFS2 datastores (now known as HPE Clustered Datastores). Rather than Pacemaker observing the reported state of Corosync and making fencing decisions, the Morpheus Agent becomes the high-availability control plane, providing even greater reliability for HPE Clustered Datastores in HVM Clusters. HPE Morpheus Enterprise v9.0.0+ also includes a one-click upgrade to take existing 1.2 HVM Clusters to cluster layout version 1.3. For more information about upgrading HVM Clusters, see [Cluster Layout Upgrade](https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=sd00008014en_us&page=GUID-D678172F-CF40-43CE-9EC6-7CD47F9EDFD5.html) in the HPE HPE Morpheus Enterprise user manual.
    - Added a type-ahead "Search servers" field and a general search field to the Backups History page to allow users to filter back-up records by specific virtual machines or servers
    - Users can now modify advanced virtual machine options after deployment, including UEFI/BIOS firmware toggles, Secure Boot, and a new "Boot to BIOS" flag with a configurable timeout for troubleshooting
    - Enhanced the Dynamic Placement system with adjustable aggressiveness profiles (Conservative, Moderate, Aggressive) and migration cooldowns to better balance cluster resources based on memory utilization
    - Automated the injection of VirtIO drivers during bulk migrations from VMware to HVM, eliminating the need for manual driver preparation on Windows virtual machines
    - Stretched Cluster Support spanning multiple logical sites as a single cluster for both uniform and non-uniform configurations. Live Migration is supported for VMs enabled with Secure Boot.
    - Guest OS Encryption (vTPM/SecureBoot) automated recovery from back-up for VMs using BitLocker/vTPM.
    - Memory Overallocation on HVM clusters.
    - Support for Two-Node GFS2 clusters using an external quorum witness.
    - Shared vDisks to assign vDisks to multiple guest VMs simultaneously.
    - Allow VMs to boot via PXE/network boot for customers with established deployment automation workflows.
    - Enable BIOS Asset Tag Configuration for VMs at creation and Day 2.
    - Support audit logging and traceability in morphd for tracking of user identity for libvirt and virsh actions.
    - SR-IOV network type to enable VMs to have direct, near wire-speed access to physical network adapters.
    - Trunk VLAN Support for standard networks. Support for multiple VLAN traffic on a single interface (access, hybrid and trunk-only modes).
    - HVM Network Plugin for standard, private, data, and overlay. Enable decoupled networking management through dedicated plugin via the Network Provider framework.
    - Morpheus appliance deb/rpm packages contain all files, agents, plugins, and dependencies. Supplemental packages are no longer required for installation or upgrades.

Kubernetes
:   - Added a default HKS 1.35 Cluster Layout for all typically supported Clouds
    - CNCF Certification for Kubernetes 1.34 and 1.35 for HKS (PCE, PCAI, and standalone).

Morpheus Core
:   - Added official support for Amazon Linux 2023 across Morpheus Node, VM Node, and FIPS appliance packages
    - Added support for the Romanian Leu (RON) as a selectable currency within the platform
    - Added support for the Czech Koruna (CZK) as a selectable currency within the platform

User Interface (UI)
:   - Added React UI for modernized navigation framework and administration.

Supportability
:   - End-to-end supportability, including support bundle generation, environment telemetry, health metrics, operational runbooks, and RBAC-controlled access.
    - Host Hardware Sensor Metrics Enhancements for improved metrics based on feedback.

Nutanix
:   - Added a new Windows NIC Configuration Method for Nutanix Prism Central that applies static IP settings via a post-install script, ensuring reliable network configuration regardless of adapter naming variations.

SimpliVity
:   - Multi-Session Management (8-Node) support for parallel operations for multiple users/services across 8-node SimpliVity clusters.

# Fixes

Platform Updates
:   - containerD updated from EOL 1.6.24 to LTS version 1.7.29 in HKS.
    - Embedded MySQL updated to 8.4.x LTS; non-embedded support extended to 8.4.x or above.
    - Plugin updated to support XCP-ng 8.3 LTS (previous supported version EOS).
    - K8s 1.33, 1.34, and 1.35 cluster packages updated to latest versions with CVE evaluation.

Agent
:   - Fixed storage reporting errors on older Linux distributions and systems using btrfs subvolumes that resulted in zero or inflated storage usage values.

API & CLI
:   - Fixed an issue where the API and CLI did not correctly return all associated resource pools for networks assigned to multiple pools.
    - Updated the default API token expiration for system clients (morph-api, morph-cli, and morph-customer) to 30 days to improve security posture.

HVM
:   - Fixed an issue where virtual machines on a data network with a 9000 MTU could not communicate using jumbo packets until the network interface was manually reset.
    - The system now automatically enforces a single active heartbeat datastore per HVM Cluster to prevent failover ambiguity and quorum conflicts.
    - Fixed a keyboard mapping issue that prevented the AltGr key from functioning correctly when using the console on HVM-based virtual machines.
    - Creating HVM Active/Passive Bond (mii-polling-rate, up-delay, and down-delay configurations now applied automatically during provisioning.

BMaaS
:   - Hardening and gap fixes identified in BMaaS (GA).

User Interface
:   - Bare Metal Storage UI Volume Table improvements. Additional columns, filtering, sorting, and usability fixes for the BM storage volume table.

HKS
:   - Improved reliability, validations, error reporting, and web-proxy gateway stability.

SCVMM
:   - Fixed an issue where the hypervisor console would fail to connect to a virtual machine that had been migrated to a different host until a manual cloud sync occurred.

# Limitations

HVM
:   Application-level Clustering (SQL Server, Oracle RAC) are currently not valididated.

Published: May 2026
