Plain Virtualization

 If you have not been following, VMware has quietly release update 1 for both vSphere and vSAN close to 3 months after the major release of version 8 for both. Catch announcement of vSphere 8 Update 1 and vSAN 8 update 1 . Here I will consolidate some of the read up to do a fast catch up. vSphere 8 Update 1 What's New Major feature summary Ability to attached a cluster Configuration Profile. Similar like how Host Profile works, but this is at cluster level. You will need to remove Host Profile from existing host in order to use Configuration Profile. vSphere Lifecycle Manager no longer just support cluster level. Now it can also be used for single standalone host as long it is managed by vCenter Server. Mixed GPU profile support in a single cluster. Prior to vSphere 8 Update 1, each cluster must use the same GPU profile for host leveraging on GPU. This version allows a mixed setup of GPU profile type. Support for Supervisor services when using virtual distributed switch. You will ...

With VMware Explore in US, vSphere 8 and vSAN 8 are both announced. However, do note that not to get confused announcement is on the release but it's not generally available. So you cannot download them till generally available. The general available date is to be 28th Oct as stated with all the announcement for all the new infrastructure offering here . vSphere 8 To give you a technical overview of vSphere 8, do check out this site . In vSphere 8, the biggest feature that was release is the support for Distributed Services Engine also known as Data Processing Unit (DPU) or SmartNICs as a hardware or as Project Monterey which was announced 2 years ago. With the initial release, only NSX services will be offloaded to the DPU. The plan was to have vSAN and ESXIO to be part of the DPU. Which then will be able to provide NSX and vSAN services to not just vSphere environment but also to all x86 servers running Windows and Linux. To find out more, try it out on HOL . Also with this relea...

Right before VMworld, VMware has announcement some new releases. Two of which that has lots of new stuff to look forward to is vSphere and vSAN. Here I am going to list down all the resources that you can read or watch to find out more on what is new in both vSphere 7.0 Update 1 and vSAN 7.0 Update 1. vSphere 7.0 Update 1 Check out the announcement  here  and the youtube video  here . AMD SEV-ES Support in vSphere 7 vSphere With Tanzu - Networking with vSphere Distributed Switch vSphere 7 Update 1 – AMD SEV-ES   AMD SEV-ES Support in vSphere 7 ( video ) vSphere Clustering Service (vCLS) (updated) vSphere Lifecycle Manager Improvements (updated) Unprecedented Scalability (updated) As usual, with almost in every release, you see the maximum supported numbers goes up. However, one of the key supported on CPU security is from AMD on SEV-ES. Check out the article  here . vSAN 7.0 Update 1 Check out the announcement  here  and video . Duncan Epping have ...

The long-awaited version for App Volumes has been released. For those who remember App Volume 3.0, it was taken down by VMware within a week (if I remembered correctly). It was a version that cannot be in placed upgrade and it was a new architecture completely. It was a right move that VMware removed it and with version 4.0. This wasn't the case. In place upgrade was possible and co-existence of version 2.x and 4.x can be achieved. To list a few of the new features below: Increase the number and speed of attachments through a new packaging  and organizing the lifecycle of the Windows apps Able to manage Single Application or Group of Applications in a single stack Enable SSL encryption for SQL server AppStack Migration Tool: use for migrating App Volumes 2.18 to App Volumes 4.0 Refer to this video for What's New in VMware App Volumes 4.0. Mastering App Volumes Activity path here .

In most announcement in VMworld, often there will be a release every other time for vSphere.  This time round, there isn't any announcement or a given date.  However, there are session on vSphere 6.5 and also on VM encryption feature which will be introduced in the next version.  This year it was announced at VMworld Barcelona 2016. There ain't major features but some great enhancement and requests that customer has been asking for.  So here is a breakdown of some of the important features enhancements or addition to this release: vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) VMware has already introduce this back in version 5.0.  And at 6.0, it has already been in par with the Windows version.  In this release, there will be no update to vSphere Client and Update Manager is now part of vCSA.  API is also provided for automation. vCenter Migration , a new feature to help existing Windows vCenter Server customers to move to the vCSA.  This tool wil...

With the recent announcement release of Workspace One and Horizon 7, this makes more of some repackaging for Workspace One and new version or Horizon View. What's New? Workspace One Repackaging of Workspace Suite Blue/Yellow. Integration of vIDM with Airwatch. Comes in on-premise or Cloud Hosted. Come in three editions: Standard, Advanced, Enterprise. Refer to comparison and pricing guide . Workspace One* Standard Advanced Enterprise - vIDM - Socialcast - Secure Content Locker (View) - Workspace One Standard - Airwatch Blue - Windows 10 Management - Workspace One Advanced - Horizon 7 Enterprise *there is some confusion on the packaging due to the comparison site and pricing guide which will update the information when available. Horizon 7 Support Instant Clone (release in vSphere 6 but not in used by any products) True SSO integration with vIDM Improvement to Blast Extreme protocol availab...