During VMworld 2010 in San Francisco one of the big messages being pushed out to the attendees is that VMware ESX will no longer have a future. The 4.1 release will be the last release of VMware ESX, future releases will only come with ESXi. Dauglas Phillips interviewed Sean and Charu from the ESXi team about what this will mean for customers. Is ESXi up to the challenge?
Tuesday, August 31. 2010
VMware ESX is End of Life, in the future only VMware ESXi will exist
VMware vCloud Director Explained
VMware vCloud Director is a software solution that enables enterprises to build secure, multitenant private clouds by pooling infrastructure resources into virtual datacenters and exposing them to users through Web-based portals and programmatic interfaces as fully automated, catalog-based services. By building secure and cost-effective private clouds with vSphere and VMware vCloud Director, internal IT organizations can act as true service providers for the businesses they support, driving innovation and agility while increasing IT efficiency and enhancing security. This solution provides a pragmatic path to cloud computing by giving customers the power to leverage existing investments and the flexibility to extend capacity among clouds. 
Integrated vShield Edge technologies such as perimeter protection, port-level firewalling, network address translation and DHCP services offer virtualization-aware security, simplify application deployment, and enforce boundaries required by compliance standards in the private cloud. VMware vCenter Chargeback is a software solution that allows IT organizations to gain visibility into the costs of provisioned virtual machines to facilitate planning and decision making. It also enables IT organizations to meter and charge users based on policies.
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-director/
VMware vCloud Director Evaluator's Guide
The purpose of this document is to support a self-guided, hands-on evaluation of VMware Cloud Director 1.0. This document is intended to provide IT professionals with the necessary information to stand up a VMware Cloud Director based Cloud in a VMware vSphere environment. This guide will walk you through key use cases for VMware Cloud Director to help you conduct a successful product evaluation.
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMW-vCloud-Director-EvalGuide.pdf
Monday, August 30. 2010
The VMworld lab 13 mystery is finally solved - VMware vCloud Director
Friday, August 27. 2010
New Book: Maximum vSphere
Maximum vSphere is the complete, up-to-the-minute working reference for everyone who plans, implements, or runs VMware virtual infrastructure. Authored by top VMware consultant Eric Siebert, the book brings together proven best practices, tips, and solutions for achieving outstanding performance and reliability in your production environment. This book brings together crucial knowledge you won’t find anywhere else, including powerful new vSphere 4 techniques drawn from the experiences of dozens of advanced practitioners. You’ll find sophisticated, expert coverage of virtual machines, ESX/ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, networking, storage, monitoring, troubleshooting, backups, vMotion, fault tolerance, vSphere management, installation, upgrades, security, third-party tools, and more. The author takes the same hands-on approach that made his VMware® VI3 Implementation and Administration so popular. Whether you’re implementing or managing vSphere 4, upgrading from older virtualization technologies, or taking new responsibilities in any VMware environment, you’ll find this book indispensable.
Chapter 1: Introduction to vSphere
Chapter 2: ESX & ESXI HOSTS
Chapter 3: Virtual Machines
Chapter 4: vCenter Server
Chapter 5: Storage in vSphere
Chapter 6: Networking in vSphere
Chapter 7: Performance in vSphere
Chapter 8: Backups in vSphere
Chapter 9: Advanced Features
Chapter 10: Management Of vSphere
Chapter 11: Installing vSphere
Chapter 12: Upgrading To vSphere
Chapter 13: Creating And Configuring Virtual Machines
Chapter 14: Building Your Own vSphere Lab
Other Book Details:
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (20 Aug 2010)
Language English
Simon Seagrave and Eric Siebert have confirmation that the book is released this morning. It will be available in both paperback and Kindle formats, an electronic version is also available on the Safari book website.
Simon has written the chapters on ‘Performance in vSphere’ and ‘Building Your Own vSphere Lab’ with Eric writing all the other chapters. The forword is by John Troyer.
