vSphere - Eric Sloof

Tuesday, July 1. 2014

VMware vSphere Beta 2 goes public

The objective of VMware's Beta Programs is to gain customer feedback on our products. Public betas are available to anyone interested in testing our software and providing feedback to our product & engineering teams.

Program information will be updated on this page once public beta software is available to test. Please check back periodically for updates.

VMware vSphere Beta 2 is now available!

To find out more information about participating in this next phase of the vSphere Beta Program, click here: Beta 2 Information

Monday, June 2. 2014

Video - Resolving OpenSSL Heartbleed for VMware vCenter Server 5.5

This video discusses and demonstrates the resolution procedure for vCenter Server 5.5 in response to the OpenSSL Heartbleed vulnerability.

Wednesday, March 12. 2014

VMware has released vCenter Orchestrator 5.5.1

With this release vCenter Orchestrator introduces a more flexible content delivery mechanism thanks to increased workflow development efficiency, the Dynamic Types concept and out of the box version control system support.

Workflow tagging

As part of the automation process you are now able to assign key-value tags to an existing workflows. Tags let you attach metadata to existing workflows and make them more searchable and easy to use. Tags let you quickly identify resources based on a logical relation. Later on, you can reference them in a specific automatic remediation case or call a particular workflow based on a tag criteria.

Plug-ins improvements

Plug-in development is easier than ever thanks to significant improvements in the vCenter Orchestrator Plug-In SDK. The new Plug-In SDK is distributed as part of the Orchestrator Appliance and exposes a mvn-based context for building the plug-in hierarchy and storing the plug-in dependency. In addition to this, with this release Orchestrator introduces a new plug-in development API exposing easy to use SSL trusted store support and cluster-wide persistence and propagation of plug-in configuration changes. The following plug-ins are now being shipped as part of the vCO 5.5.1 platform - HTTP-REST, SOAP, Active Directory, SNMP, and AMQP.

Version control system support

The vCenter Orchestrator client provides the ability to export existing packages directly into a folder. Once the workflow packages are exported, they can be easily integrated with a version control system and the content can be easily collaborated among the team.

Dynamic Types (Beta)

Workflow developers are now able to explore the new Dynamic Types which currently is being shipped with Beta quality. They can easily extend vCenter Orchestrator plug-ins by adding their custom types accessible from the scripting API. New types become available in the inventory right after creation and they could be directly leveraged from the vCAC ASD context as part of the cloud provisioning process and XaaS definition.

Download vCenter Orchestrator 5.5.1

VMware Virtual SAN - General Available

VMware Virtual SAN is a new software-defined storage tier for VMware vSphere environments. Virtual SAN clusters server disks and flash to create radically simple, high performance, resilient shared storage designed for virtual machines.

The key benefits are:

Radically simple storage designed for virtual machines
Hypervisor-converged storage software that creates a high-performance, persistent storage tier
Significantly reduced TCO by up to 50 percent
Integrated with VMware stack
Flash-optimized architecture for compelling price/ performance
Low upfront investment; grow as you go with granular linear scaling of performance, capacity, and cost
Rapid storage provisioning and automated, self- tuning ongoing management
Single pane of glass management with vSphere
Backed by VMware support and all major server OEMs

Additional Resources:

Friday, February 7. 2014

New VMware Product Walkthroughs

VMware has launched a new website which will help you to get up to speed with some of their new products. This walkthrough is designed to provide a step-by-step overview. Here are the currently available PWTs:

Thursday, October 31. 2013

vSphere 5.5 Hardening Guide Released

When implementing VMware virtualization technology, organizations must ensure that they can continue to maintain a secure environment and meet their compliance obligations. To do so, you will have to evaluate risks that might affect protected information and mitigate those risks through risk-appropriate standards, processes, and best practices.

The official release of the vSphere 5.5 Hardening Guide provides guidance on how to securely deploy VMware vSphere 5.5 in a production environment. The focus is on initial configuration of the virtualization infrastructure layer, which covers the following:

The virtualization hosts
Configuration of the virtual machine container (NOT hardening of the guest operating system (OS) or any applications running within)
Configuration of the virtual networking infrastructure, including the management and storage networks as well as the virtual switch (but NOT security of the virtual machine’s network)
SSO, VUM, the webclient, VCSA, vCenter Server, its database and client components

Mike Foley: I’m happy to report that the vSphere 5.5 Hardening Guide has been released for General Availability

Tuesday, April 16. 2013

VMware has released the Official vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide

The official release of the vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide provides guidance on how to securely deploy VMware vSphere 5 in a production environment. The focus is on initial configuration of the virtualization infrastructure layer, which covers the following:

The virtualization hosts
Configuration of the virtual machine container (NOT hardening of the guest operating system (OS) or any applications running within)
Configuration of the virtual networking infrastructure, including the management and storage networks as well as the virtual switch (but NOT security of the virtual machine’s network)
SSO, VUM, the webclient, VCSA, vCenter Server, its database and client components

vSphere 5.1 Hardening Guide - Official Release by Mike Foley

Friday, February 22. 2013

Free e-learning course - Virtualizing Microsoft SharePoint with VMware vSphere 5

This self paced course discusses why organizations need to consider virtualization of Microsoft SharePoint. This course focuses on the SharePoint design prerequisites and general guidelines for designing, sizing, and implementing SharePoint on vSphere. The course consists of three modules:

Introduction to SharePoint Virtualization discusses why VMware recommends virtualization of SharePoint. You will also learn about the need for virtualizing SharePoint and the benefits of virtualizing SharePoint on vSphere.

Developing SharePoint Virtualization Design discusses the design prerequisites for virtualizing SharePoint. This module also discusses the key tasks in developing a SharePoint virtualization design. Moreover, this module covers general guidelines for virtualizing SharePoint.

Implementing SharePoint on Virtual Infrastructure discusses the implementation alternatives for SharePoint virtualization. This module also covers how to implement the virtualization of SharePoint on vSphere. Finally, this module discusses how to test and monitor SharePoint performance on vSphere.

After completing the course, you should be able to:

• Describe the need for virtualizing Microsoft SharePoint.

• Describe the benefits of virtualizing Microsoft SharePoint.

• Explain the reference architecture of SharePoint on VMware vSphere with examples.

• Identify the prerequisites for virtualizing SharePoint on vSphere.

• Explain the support and licensing options for SharePoint on vSphere.

• Describe the process for designing the virtualization of SharePoint on vSphere.

• List the general guidelines for virtualizing SharePoint.

• Describe the implementation alternatives for SharePoint virtualization.

• List the implementation steps for SharePoint virtualization.

• Identify the guidelines for SharePoint virtualization.

• Explain the process of performance testing and monitoring of SharePoint on vSphere.

Virtualizing Microsoft SharePoint with VMware vSphere 5

Tuesday, September 11. 2012

Free self-paced training - vSphere What's New [V5.1]

The VMware vSphere - What's New [V5.1] course is designed for SEs (VMware/Partner) and customers who want to learn about the new features and components available in VMware vSphere 5.1. This training course explores new features in VMware vCenter Server 5.1 and VMware ESXi 5.1. By the end of the course, you should gain an understanding and should be able to implement the following new functions and features of VMware vSphere 5.1:

Compute and Storage

Support for hardware version 9, the latest CPU performance counters and virtual shared graphics acceleration designed for enhanced performance.
For better space efficiency vSphere supports storage space reclamation for VDI.

Network

Support for VXLAN
Enhanced vSphere Distributed Switch that supports:
Network health check
Backup and restore
Rollback and recovery
Link Aggregation Control Protocol support
Single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV)

Availability

VMware vSphere vMotion® without the need for shared storage configurations.
VMware vSphere Data Protection for simple and cost effective backup and recovery,
vSphere Replication enables efficient array-agnostic replication of virtual machine data over the LAN or WAN.

VMware vCenter Enhancements:

vSphere Web Client
vCenter Single Sign-On
VSA enhancements
Support for Additional Disk Drives
Increase Storage Capacity Online
vCenter running on the VSA Cluster

• Security: Inclusion VMware vShield Endpoint to eliminate the agent footprint from the virtual machines, offload intelligence to a security virtual appliance, and run scans with minimal impact.

• Automation: Two new methods for deploying new vSphere hosts to an environment make the Auto Deploy process more highly available than ever before.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/courses.cfm?ui=www_edu&a=det&id_course=149391

The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is now Generally available

VMware has announced the general availability of the new VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, a complete, integrated cloud infrastructure solution that integrates VMware's leading virtualization, cloud infrastructure and management portfolio into a single SKU, simplifying the adoption of cloud era technologies.

"The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 is the first and most comprehensive solution for delivering the software-defined datacenter," said Mike Clayville, vice president, product marketing, cloud infrastructure products, VMware. "By bringing together everything customers may need to build and manage agile, reliable cloud infrastructure, the VMware vCloud Suite simplifies and automates IT operations and delivers on the promise of cloud computing."

The VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 extends the benefits of virtualization to every domain in the datacenter -- compute, storage, networking, and the associated availability and security services. It includes industry leading virtualization, software-defined datacenter services, policy-based provisioning, disaster recovery, and application and operations management capabilities delivered by:

VMware vSphere 5.1 - With more than 100 enhancements and new features, VMware's virtualization platform is the proven foundation for the software-defined datacenter, delivering the highest service levels for all applications, including business-critical workloads and low-latency, I/O-sensitive applications.
VMware vCloud Director 5.1 - With scalability improvements that support "elastic" virtual datacenters spanning multiple VMware vSphere clusters and up to 30,000 VMs, VMware vCloud Director 5.1 allows customers to provision complete virtual datacenter services in minutes.
VMware vCloud Networking and Security 5.1 - Providing a full set of software-defined networking capabilities, the new VMware vCloud Networking and Security enables the dynamic creation of virtual networks and services that are completely decoupled and independent from the physical network hardware.
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 - To enhance the availability and rapid recovery of applications running in the software-defined datacenter, vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.1 simplifies and automates disaster recovery planning, testing and execution.

VMware vSphere 5.1 is available for download now!!!

VMware vSphere 5.1 Release Notes

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vcloud_suite/5_1

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp - This documentation center provides information on how to use the vSphere products to create and configure virtual machines and manage your virtual infrastructure.

vSphere 5.1 Link-O-Rama

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