VMware Virtual SAN 6.0 What's New

With the announcement of vSphere 6.0, comes Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6.0 the next release of VSAN since 5.5.

This makes several improvement and I will be listing them here and do note of the differences as there are some improvement with changes to existing VSAN 5.5.

To start clear, we need to know the terms right.  You will often hear Hybrid VSAN and All-Flash VSAN.  Hybrid is not new.  Since VSAN 5.5, it is always in Hybrid VSAN.  What it means it's a mixed of Flash or Solid State Harddisk (SSD) for cache and Magnetic Disk (MD) for persistent data.

What about All-Flash, this is new in VSAN 6.0.  There will be no MD but make of all Flash/SSD for flash and SSD for persistent.

source: VMware, Inc

In VSAN 5.5, the cache read/write ratio was 70/30.  This is fixed and cannot be changed.  Of course in a VDI environment, this will be less favorable though it is using flash/SDD for cache since only 30% of the cache is used for write cache in a write intensive VDI environment.

In VSAN 6.0, the cache is 100% write where read is straight from the SSD persistent area.  This is definitely very favourable for any environment and workload.

Here is a table of the changes.  Between VSAN 6.0 Hybrid and All-Flash is only the IOPS different.

	Virtual SAN 5.5	Virtual SAN 6.0 Hybrid	Virtual SAN 6.0 All-Flash
Hosts per Cluster	32	64	64
VMs per Host	100	200	200
IOPS per Host	20K	40K	90K
Snapshot depth per VM	2	32	32
Virtual Disk size	2TB	62TB	62TB
Virtual Machine per Cluster	3200	6400	6400
Components per host	3000	9000	9000

The next most still ask for the overheads since it is running on the kernel.  A rule of thumb will be
less than 10% of CPU utilization.

With the announced of VSAN 6.0 which will include VSAN 5.5 will support Direct Attached JBODs for Blade servers.  This will allow Blade servers which have little or no disk to scale with such storage and used in a VSAN setup.

VSAN is supported in self build servers from the HCL list or via VSAN Ready nodes which comes with all the parts already certified to run or available through EVO:RAIL.

Use Cases

• In VSAN 5.5, it was mostly suitable for DR, Test/Dev, VDI.  However in VSAN 6.0, it is now added with one more which is Business Critical Applications (BCA).  This is made possible due to 1) All-Flash, 2) New disk format which will results in better performance.

Requirements

• The Ethernet for Hybrid VSAN network required is at least 1GB Ethernet but recommended to use 10GB.  For All-Flash VSAN, 10GB is a requirement.
• Minimum hosts is still three for VSAN 6.0.  However I would recommend a N+1 which is four hosts to start.
• Minimum one disk group per host.  One Flash/SDD for cache and One MD/SSD for persistent data per disk group.
• Maximum of 7 MD/SSD for persistent data.
• Maximum of 5 diskgroup.

File Format

• VSAN 6.0 uses VSAN FS as the new file format vs VMFS-L in VSAN 5.5.  Online migration via RVC Console is supported.  VSAN 6.0 will still support VMFS-L even if you choose not to upgrade.
• VSAN 5.5 uses vmfsSparse (redo logs) for snapshot while VSAN 6.0 uses vsanSparse.  Read more of vmfsSparse here. 
• Note that once VSAN 6.0 file format is used, vSphere 5.5 will not be able to join the VSAN cluster.

Updated 13/2: Availability
In VSAN 5.5, we were unable to control where each nodes in the VSAN cluster will be e.g. in a 10 hosts clusters, 5 nodes are sharing the same power supply i.e. same rack and the other 5 nodes on another power supply i.e different rack.  This helps also help in network partitioning where the bigger Fault Domain will win when separated.

With VSAN 6.0, we are able to create Fault Domain where we can grouping a VSAN cluster into different logical failure zones.  This allows VSAN to understand and ensure provision of replica will not fall into the same logical failure zones.

This is extremely useful as in the past, without fault domain we could need more resources to create a workaround. Assuming FTT=2, you will need at least 5 nodes for 3 replicas and 2 witness.  As illustrate below, without logically creating a Fault Domain, there are actually 6 Fault Domains due to the number of servers and in such, even though two nodes are in the same rack its actually 2 Fault Domains to VSAN so resulting replica be still be placed in the same rack so creating FTT=2 ensure at least one replica is on a separate Fault Domain.

source: VMware, Inc

With the new Fault Domain, we can maintain the default FTT=1 and ensure at least one replica will be in each separate Fault Domain to achieve redundancy as shown below.  Not only does this allows even the minimum of 3 nodes, it also uses less resources.

source: VMware, Inc

VMware 2015 Certification Roadmap

With the new year of 2015, VMware education also did some amendments to their certification roadmap to adapt to the industry requirements.  However there isn't a big change but one major one I see is the VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) has been renamed to VMware Certified Implementation Expert (VCIX).  You can view more details here.  The roadmap diagram is as below:

In fact I was seeing this coming since under Network Virtualization track it has already started with VCIX.

Although VCIX6-NV started with only an administration exam, I believe all tracks will contain both design and administration exam as mentioned under VCIX section.

The other change would be under the Cloud Management & Automation track where there are two different VMware Certified Associate (VCA) but only one VMware Certified Professional (VCP) track.  This will be focused on VMware vRealize Automation and no longer focused on VMware vCloud Director.

Many are confused with the new name VCIX and thinking it only contain administration exam due to the word "Implementation".  However this is not true, it will contain two exams one for Administration and one for design similar to the original VCAP.

To help in the prerequisites, refer to the solution track diagram.  Choose a track and follows the previously requirements.

VCA can be taken without any prerequisites.  Exam can be done anyway and it's online.  There is no need to take the exam at a test center.

VCP, you will need a qualifying course (normally a 5 days course) and an relevant VCP exam.  In additional an online foundation exam is required (not sure what this online foundation exam does, but I believe upon passing will you be authorize to book a VCP exam).

VCIX, you would need to obtain VCP of the appropriate track before seeking an authorization to attempt.  To be granted VCIX, you MUST complete two exams; Design and administration.
Certification requirements: VCP Certification + VCIX Design exam + VCIX Administration exam.
The exam for each is also shorten to 2 hours instead of 4 hours previously in VCAP.  A total of 4 hours (2 exams x 2 hours) is required to achieved VCIX.

For VCDX, upon completion of VCIX certification, you will be granted to attempt VCDX with a submission of a design proposal and upon passing the assessment will you be granted a slot to a defense panel to be certified this title provided passing the defense.

Hope this clarify everyone confusion.

If VMware Education follows the same as below, I would see the follow but this is not confirmed and I will update this once I have more information:
For those who are like me who already obtain certain certification, I believe there will be a an upgrade by taking the relevant exams e.g. VCP6-DCV from VCP5-DCV without any course for a short period of time before a What's New course is required.

For VCAP, this is now a grey area since VCIX requires two exams to be achievable.  For those owning only one VCAP, they might be required to complete both exams to achieved VCIX.  No information is provided at time of writing and I will update once I have more information.


For renewal of VCDX, this will be something new since in the past, VCIX will only need to complete VCAP Design.

Note:
With all the changes, the same rules applies, any certification will be valid for 2 years from the last certification achieved from VCP and above.  Within the 2 years period, another certification from VCP and above needs to be obtained else all certifications under one's name will be revoked.

Announced of VMware vExpert 2015

For those who are not aware, the application for vExpert 2015 started in November 2014 and today it was announced.  A total of 1028 individuals this time!  That was a big increased from last year 754 at the start of 2014 and 581 from 2013.

For those who are new to vExpert, you can follow the update that are entitled to you throughout the year and posted in this community page log into based on your email ID.  Many vendors each with their respective way to reward vExpert either via a NFR use their product or a free T-shirt.

For those who have missed the application, this year however there were no news of quarterly application mentioned like last year.

Nevertheless, keep up the good work and carry on the contribution you have been doing to be rewarded this accreditation year after year.

Once again, congratulation to all individuals. Keep it going!

If you missed it, do check out the next application date, which has yet to be announced.


Some benefits listed below:
You will receive an email for your access to the community page and a logo will be created for your use.
A certificate will also be posted later stage based on year for your accreditation.
A few listed in the source here.

PluralSignal a year of subscription of all online courses which I highly recommend.  For the rest of the NFR software licenses, it will be based on your needs and requirements and many can be announced here.

The Long Wait is Over!

The start of February also mark the great launch today by VMware.  Another milestone achieve with more to look forward to which will change the way things will run in an infrastructure.

Today has been the long awaiting launch of vSphere 6.0 (which many thought was during vSphere 5.5 but finally it made it), there are also some changes to some add-on products changes as well as bundle update.

The General Availability (GA) for vSphere will be in Mar 2015.  The training courses are found here.

What's New

vCloud Suite will be updates with vSphere 6.0 and vCloud Director and vCloud Network & Security will be deprecated as announced last year and no longer seen in this bundle.  This also get updated with the new vRealize Operations (vROps) Suite to 6.

vSphere with Operations Management (vSOM) will be updated to 6.0 which include vSphere 6.0 and vRealize Operations (vROps) 6.0.  Finally those on vSOM 5.5 have been asking for vROps 6.0 has been granted their wishes.

VMware Data Protection (VDP) 6.0 is now one single product.  There will be no more VMware Data Protection Advanced (VDPA) but now call VDP.  It is now available for vSphere Essential Plus and above edition.  This also included in the new vSphere Remote Office Branch Office.  VDP 6.0 in vSphere 6.0 contains the full functions of VDPA.  With this launched, customer who are on valid Subscription & Support (SnS) for vSphere will be entitled to download VDPA 5.8 and/or VDP 6.0.

vSphere Hypervisor Free edition now support vSphere Data Protection API.  Which means now even if you are on the free Hypervisor, you can also enjoy offloading your backup process to your supported backup solutions.  How cool is that!

Virtual SAN (VSAN) 2.0 is announced with vSphere 6.0.  Many new features and one of which is a all flash VSAN but this comes as a add-on licensed via per CPU or per desktop (for VDI).  Host limits has also been increase to 64 similar to vSphere 6.0.  The greatest improvement will be VSAN snapshot now adopt similar technology from VirSto a storage solution which was acquired early 2013.  All this comes with a new file system.  One main function is the ability to support direct attached JBOD.

vSphere Enterprise Plus, vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus and vCloud Enterprise get to use VMware Integrated OpenStack free of charge with Support sold separately.


vSphere 6.0 What's New
In this release, Transparent Page Sharing (TPS) is disabled by default when shipped.  Starting from all the new updates for vSphere 5.x, TPS will be disabled.  Check out the kb.  To enable or disable you can refer to this blog post.   This is due to security reason mentioned here.  However this is more of a logical risk than a physical risk as as of now there is no case of such security due to enabling TPS have been reported.

Do take note of TPS and it could help drive performance in terms of memory aspect especially for Mission Critical Applications.

Install and Upgrade
vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) now comes in a guided installation wizard for easy deployment especially for user who are new.  There will also be two separate ISO for binary for the Windows vCenter as well as the vCSA, saving user time on download and space to store them previously when there are all bundled in one ISO.

Compute
Newer hardware support is always expected which you can refer to VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) and OS supported here.

For scalability please see the table below.  Though many might say this is just a number game but there are real customer which I experience with requirements for this mainly these are monster VMs made up of Database servers.
 

vSphere 5.5	vSphere 6.0
32 Hosts per Cluster	64 Hosts per Cluster
4000 Virtual Machines per Cluster	8000 Virtual Machines per Cluster
320 CPUs	480 CPUs
64 vCPUs	128 vCPUs
4 TB RAM	12 TB RAM*
1 TB vRAM	4 TB vRAM
512 Virtual Machines per Host	2048 Virtual Machines Per Host

 * With specific server OEM partners

Storage
Storage IO Controls now extend to per VM level.  This was similar to what was introduced in vSphere 5.1 when network IO control provided for per VM.

NFSv4.1
The long wait is over!  Finally vSphere is able to support NFSv4.  This was a much request for NFS storage users since NFSv4 has already been on the market for quite some times and vSphere 5.5 was speculated to support but didn't when released.  Kerberos that comes with NFSv4 will be supported as well :)

Virtual Volumes (VVol)
New way of presenting Storage to be VM aware providing Per VM granularity similarly to what VSAN was able to do with policies.  This is achieved with VMware Storage APIs - Storage Awareness (VASA).  This also remove the need to lots of LUN Management tasks which often creates lots of issues.  This will support protocols namely iSCSI, NFSv3 (no NFSv4 at time of writing), FC and FCoE. Capability of Storage will be expose to vSphere via the VASA provider just like VSAN on vSphere.  This will introduce storage policy based management (SPBM) to traditional storage on vSphere for the first time!

Storage and Availability Integration
This release introduced content library where you can replicate images e.g. template, ISO, etc. to other vSphere cluster removing the waste time and effort creating or trying to copy from one to another.  Also with the support for the new Storage features namely VSAN, vFlash, SRM, VVol and vSphere Replication.

Network
IPv6 support for Management Network.  Things to note only vSphere 6 is supported for IPv6 so no management of below version 6 is allowed.  This has to be a green field implementation of course if you intend to migrate your existing vSphere Cluster to IPv6, expect definitely a downtime on the management this will need careful planning.

Availability
vMotion Capabilities Extension

• vMotion across vSwitches currently supported on virtual standard switches (vSS) and virtual Distributed Switch (vDS) supported across all edition vSphere which support vMotion
• vMotion over long distance with up to 100ms round-trip time (RTT) is now supported available in vSphere Enterprise Plus Edition.
• vMotion across vCenters on local, metro and cross continents provided it meets the requirement of vMotion over long distance stated above and supported on vSphere Enterprise Plus Edition.  Requires 250 Mbps per vMotion operation.  vMotion Network on L3 connection.

Fault Tolerance for Multi-Processor VM (SMP-FT)
Oh Yes Yes!  The support for SMP-FT VM.  Don't be too excited just yet as the maximum number for this is up to 4 vCPUs and only available in vSphere Enterprise Plus.  Though this might not be able to support most of their giant monster VM, it sure helps more on typical critical applications that needs only 4 vCPU and below.

Side note, SMP-FT is also available for vSphere Remote Office Branch Office edition but subject to 2 vCPU and 4 vCPU for Standard and Advanced respectively.

vCloud Air Integration
vSphere 6.0 will support vCloud Air in terms of backup, Disaster fail over and back.  Do note offering is only available in US, Europe, Japan and China at time of writing.

vSphere Replication
Yes finally it has been a long time that is only support a RPO of 15 mins and this kills it easily comparing to all other network or host based replication solutions.  In this release, it now has 5 mins RPO time (subject to bandwidth availability and data rate of change) and up to 2000 VMs from prevous 500 VMs which will help in SRM support definitely.

vSphere App HA
Sadly to say, in this release App HA has been removed.  I am not sure what will be replacing it (or ever there be), at this time, if you need it, you have do with vSphere 5.5 or use third party solution like Symantec AppHA.

VMware Data Protection (VDP)
With the new release of vSphere 6.0, there will be no more purchase needed for VMware Data Protection Advanced (VDPA).  Instead, VDPA features will be fully available in VDP 6.0.  Customer with valid Subscription & Support (SnS) for vSphere will be entitled to download VDP 6.0.  VDP 6.0 will be able to support vSphere 5.1 and above.

Management
vCenter Server Applicance
It now has the same support limits similar to Windows vCenter Server with embedded vPostgres
Content Library.  It now support Linked-Mode and comes with four sizes: tiny, small, middle and large.

Virtual Data Center (vDC)
Abstracted from vCloud Director, this isn't new but it's new in vSphere.  With vDC, you will be able to pool and abstract resources and provide them to different clusters.

Policy Based Management (PBM)
As you see more and more policy driven management, this release is also a start start with VM placement through tags and working with VM anti-affinity policies.

vSphere Host Client
If you are managing a single host not joined to a vSphere vCenter, you will now use this client to manage this host with VM with hardware above version 8 supported.

vSphere Web Client
With support of SRM now in web client since the release of SRM 5.8 this will carry forward to vSphere 6.0.  vCenter Update Manager however is still not supported :( The greatest news on this piece is the long awaiting performance improvement!  And yes this in release lots of performance improvement has been done to this long awaited issue.  Everything from login, right click, Workflow, Screen to screen, etc.  Also to stay the same as vSphere Infrastructure Client, the task windows is place back to the bottom of screen (Why on earth was it first introduced on the right?).

A side note, vSphere client is now able to read only for hardware version 9 to 11 instead where previously it cannot manage VM on hardware above version 10 in vSphere 5.5.  Do note it can ONLY edit VM that is on hardware version 8.


There are just many other smaller features and enhancements that are not listed here but the main ones which I felt were the main attractions.  Will fill more up as it comes along.  Of course my post will still focus in making everything plain and simple to digest for the greater audience out there.

One Event - VMware Online Launch

Many might not know unless you receive email from VMUG or by chance saw some postings from social media.

What would we be expecting from this event is unknown but I am speculating the long waited vSphere 6.0 which was on public beta since last year and have already been on Release Candidate Build.  With vSphere 6.0, we can assume we might be seeing VSAN 2.0 since VSAN is integrated to vSphere as well as Virtual Volumes as Tech Preview first seen in VMworld 2011.

With all this above, we might see some new pricing or bundling.  I am hoping to see what is line up during this launch.

Here is the online launch site where you can register to be reminded.

You can choose from the few dates available and the first day will be on 2nd February 2015 during America time and 5th February 2015 for Asia time.

Below is the dates and time:

AMERICAS

Date:  February 2, 2015

Time:  1:00 – 2:00 PM PST / 4:00 – 5:00 PM EST

EMEA

Date:  February 3, 2015

Time:  9:00 – 10:00 AM GMT / 10:00 – 11:00 AM CET

ASIA PACIFIC - ASEAN, Western Australia, Hong Kong

Date:  February 5, 2015

Time:  10:00 – 11:00 AM SGT

ASIA PACIFIC - Sydney, Australia

Date:  February 5, 2015

Time:  10:00 – 11:00 AM AEDT

ASIA PACIFIC - Mumbai, India

Date:  February 5, 2015

Time:  10:30 – 11:30 AM IST

VMware User Group Singapore Conference - The First!

Yes the very first VMware User Group (VMUG) Singapore Conference is happening on 23rd Jan 2015!

It came a long way, from the first VMUG meeting held from few members to a large group of members now.  From a meetup every couple of months to almost every month.  As it matures today, it has more and more sponsors/vendors sharing their technology and road map as well as special speakers.

Coming the first month of next year (not too long to wait), the very first VMUG SG Conference will be held at Marina Bay Sands.  This is the first time a full day conference been held in Singapore.  There are already many in the States and Australia however this is the very first milestone for Singapore.

For those not aware, VMUG are run by users in the VMware community so VMware does not come into any organizing this such event like vForum equivalent.  This is focus for the VMware users by the users.

The agenda is finally out and the speakers are all ready.  You will be looking forward to meet up with reowned bloggers, book writers, etc. e.g. Scott Lowe, Simon Seagrave, Alastair Cooke.

What are you waiting for?  Get your horses ready, block your calendar and head over to here to register for the event NOW!

I hope to see all of you there.  In case you are not a member yet, just register an account to keep yourself updated of future events and register for this event too!


Update 13th Jan 2015
The mobile app for VMUG Conference is now up and running.  Download it on your Android or iOS now and use it on the day itself to keep track of the sessions and speakers.

IT Paradigm Changed, Have you?

Last month of the year and today have a some talk over lunch with a colleague and decide to pen this down which I see lacking on the market.

I have spoken to customers and also spoken to some colleagues and realize the IT paradigm as changed quite substantial.  However many are still operating the wrong way which end up even with virtualization, cloud or Software Defined Data Center, etc. it is still not helping them achieve in a big scale.

Recently I did a session on BC/DR: Implementing a Holistic Strategy with VMware Solutions session at APJ vForum in Singapore.  I mentioned a few things that was abstracted from VCDX Design Defense Blueprint page 11.  This diagram has helped me in a lot of discussion and I see many are still not aware.  The five things: Availability, Recovery, Security, Manageability, Performance.

Taking an example today, when a Application owner request a machine with certain specification in terms of CPU, Memory and space from an Infra personnel, the answer was: "Just provision as requested".  In this scenario, it doesn't matter if this is physical or virtual, if the machine was to have issues or went down, who is always held responsible?  Infra guys.  Have you ever thought that both are at fault?  First did the Application owner knows what he really wants?  Did the infra personnel asked him the details?  Could think be different?  Would things like availability requirements, RTO, RPO, security, etc come into play?

In bigger organization, many would think that they have the budget, they could implement lots of solutions, automate them but in a smaller enterprise or businesses we cannot do that.  Is that really true?  Even in this big organization, do you think the infra personnel asked those questions?  They might not but why they ain't they facing the same in the smaller enterprise?

Let's go back to my session on BC/DR.  When application owner request a machine, questions like what is your RPO, RTO and availability could be asked?  So if an organization has a daily backup (assuming they do daily backup for everything unless stated otherwise) they will place that machine into the usual job schedule.  This will end up your RPO to be 24 hours (once a day equate 24 hours).  If this is a database, would this be sufficient?  Or do you need a RPO of 1 hour?  In terms of availability, do you have a SLA?  Any clustering requirements or application redundancy solution?  vSphere has App HA, physical world can leverage on Veritas cluster or MSCS.  Was this mentioned and questions?  Say the application owner has $20,000 to spend on this machine, but requested a five 9's SLA, can this be even achieved?  If not, what is possible or alternative?  Today, the IT Infra personnel is no longer just someone who administrate the environment.  He act as a consultant to the company and he has to questions and provide advice.  His responsibility has just grown bigger.  By missing this out, the expectation from both parties will be different.  Technology has advanced, human thinking need to be enhanced.

Now let's goes back to the normal environment on request.  Same thing would have applied.  If an application owner request for a machine, would you check what is their requirements?  In bigger organization, why do they do so well in term of the process?  Is it not the technology?  That is partially correct.  The consulting creating this process was either correct or the process all along in the organization was set correctly.  So in a big organization today, when someone requested for a machine, all this questions would be ask and chosen by the requester when they submit the request.  E.g. A Dev machine could be auto assign to a Tier 3 storage where functional test is expected not a performance test.  Production machine is automatic place on a Tier 1 since they would need that performance.  They could also be asked, if Availability is checked, MSCS will be implemented else the standard vSphere HA is used instead.

As people start to use these systems, the consultant role mentioned previously from the infra personnel start to goes away.  In such, big organization might still have the the usual IT personnel who didn't have the knowledge cause the system has already done the work.  What has changed, a proper workflow was implemented to automate the process.  What is different here was the process.  Can this process be used in other places?  Answer is Yes!

Back to organization that cannot automate or pay for big consultation fee to do that, can they provide a better service up front?  Can they enable the process to be more efficient?  Can application owner be realistic and co-own responsibility?  The answer is Yes!  So would automation tool be useful in an Data Center?  Yes if you got the right process implemented.  No, if you don't if that automation tool is just a tool without a proper process first in place.

How many times you hear people introducing different automation tools or solutions and tell you process need to be in place?  How can you help you if that?

People makes the different and I see many professionals are still holding on to old IT paradigm and this has to change when technology evolved, the mindset has to shift.  Do something different today, questioned what is required?  What is the alternative?  No one knows the environment better than the infra personnel.  Not only do you value add to the company, you also create a niche for yourself.  You also get both parties have the same expectations and during an issue the responsibility of the machine is not just you alone.

Sit down. Have a thought.  By asking shifting your thinking can create a whole different, will you?

This is strictly a personal point of view.  There can be many others reason and debates.  In summary, the IT Paradigm is no longer the same and the way we think and do should also reflect the changes.

VMware CPU Compatibility for EVC

Quite sometime back, I did wrote about how to use the compatibility site on VMware HCL page here.  Recently I saw that there was and additional page there was added just for CPU.

It might be a little too much work to clicking through for one model and another just to check what are the Enhanced vMotion (EVC) modes supported.

So here VMware just release one for CPU just to have a ease of check here.  Of cause you can still check out the KB to understand more on CPU class.

Here is a video to illustrate how you can use the new section.

VMware vExpert 2015 Kicks Off!

Updating my first blog post this month by the new of the vExpert 2015 kick off while I am busy with vForum Singapore.

There are so many great news today.  First the news on VMware by ZDNet as the most important IT vendor.

Back to the main subject.  Hurry yourself now head to the blog post to sign up and be accredited vExpert yourself by proving your contribution to the communities.

I have previously shared my experience why I started all this sharing.  Do your part, so this community can be leverage on to help you and me and everyone else.

This year will two application date while the latter date is not yet announced, it best not to missed it.

Hope to see more vExpert in 2015!

New and Re-brand with vRealize

With both the VMworld 2014 in San Francisco and Barcelona, there are many new bundles and re-branding starting with vRealize.

To many there are many questions and confusion on what is really in all these bundles?  Here I am just to clarify the confusion which I, myself got confused with and have cleared it up.

Re-branding
We know that VMware has vCenter Operations Management Suite (Standard/Advanced/Enterprise).  In this suite, there were 4 components namely: vC Ops Manager, vCenter Infrastructure Navigator, vCenter Chargeback (EOA), vCenter Configuration Manager.  With the new re-branding, this is now call vRealize Operations 6 (Standard/Advanced/Enterprise).

The powerful vCloud Automation Center (formerly DynamicOps), is now rename to vRealize Automation.

IT Business Management (ITBM) which provide a transparency of cost and services across your whole infrastructure is now known as vRealize Business.

VMware Log Insight a log analytics tool is also renamed to vRealize Log Insight.
Something which was not announced (maybe I missed out) but was renamed, vCenter Orchestrator that comes with vCenter is not call vRealize Orchestrator.

vRealize Hyperic is the new name for vCenter Hyperic (formerly vFabric Hyperic).

New Bundle/Product
VMware vRealize Operations Insight 6 is an add-on for vSphere with Operation Management (vSOM) customers who are interested in upgrading their vCenter Operations Management Suite Standard (part of vSOM) to the Advanced edition comes with vRealize Log Insight.

A new bundle for naked vSphere customers or Openstake customers known as vRealize Suite 6 Standard/Advanced/Enterprise which consists of vRealize Log Insight, vRealize Operations, vRealize Automation, vRealize Business with each similar edition as described.

vRealize Code Stream an application delivery framework to streamline and automate in software delivery process.  It can be integrated out of box with jFrog Artifactory.
 
For vCloud Air;
For customers who are on vCloud Air, you will be able to use VMware vRealize Operations Advanced/Enterprise and vRealize Automation Advanced/Enterprise Public Cloud Extension

In summary, you are seeing that VMware is trying to align the portfolio of the solutions more specifically.  From the previous on End User Computing (EUC) solutions to brand with "Horizon", and Management solutions with "vRealize", you will be seeing a clearer picture of what solution this all contains and about.

New	Formly known	Description
vRealize Suite	NEW	vRealize Automation + vRealize Business + vRealize Operations + vRealize Log Insight
- vRealize Automation	vCloud Automation Center	NA
- vRealize Business	IT Business Management	NA
- vRealize Operations	vCenter Operations Management Suite	NA
vRealize Operations	vCenter Operations Management	NA
- vReazlize Operations Manager	vCenter Operations Manager	NA
- vRealize Hyperic	vCenter Hyperic (vFabric Hyperic)	NA
- vRealize Infrastructure Navigator	vCenter Infrastructure Vanvigator	NA
- vRealize Configuration Manager	vCenter Configuration Manager	NA
vRealize Operations Insight	NEW	vRealize Operations Advanced + vRealize Log Insight for vSOM customers
vRealize Orchestrator	vCenter Orchestrator	Free with vCenter
vRealize Application Services	vFabric Application Director	Part of vRealize Automation Enterprise Edition
vRealize Log Insight	vCenter Log Insight	NA

Update 17th Oct 2014
Added vRealize Orchestrator, vRealize Hyperic, vRealize Code Stream.

Update 21st Oct 2014
Added a table for easy viewing.  More can be read from another blog http://vmwaretips.com/wp/2014/08/25/do-you-vrealize-whats-in-a-vname/.

Updated 28th Oct 2014
Finally something from VMware.  Refer to this vRealize FAQ to understand all the confusion.