Full Story >
VMware vSphere 5.0 - What's New and what’s improved!
VMware have announced the release of vSphere 5.0 - the latest version of their virtualisation platform.
This new version has increased its feature set and capabilities across all editions, focusing on cloud-scale IT service delivery and enhancements that can save organisations time and money by creating more virtualised hosts at lower cost.
Businesses want IT to be more flexible and responsive, but also improve efficiency and control costs. VMware, the customer-proven leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, delivers solutions that enable organizations to lower costs, increase business agility and ensure freedom of choice. Their solutions allow enterprises to accelerate their transition to the cloud and adopt a more efficient, agile service delivery model—IT as a Service. With VMware’s approach, businesses control the critical elements of their IT strategy as they build cloud infrastructures tailored to address their unique business challenge.
What's New in vSphere 5.0?
New Features
· VSphere Auto Deploy—Auto Deploy is a new deployment and patching model for new vSphere hosts running the ESXi hypervisor. Deploy more vSphere hosts in minutes and update them more efficiently than ever before.
· VSphere ESXi™ convergence—vSphere 5 is converging on the ESXi hypervisor architecture. ESXi—the gold standard in hypervisors— enables vSphere users to leverage a thinner architecture, a more secure footprint, and a streamlined patching and setup model.
· New virtual-machine format (Version 8)—The new virtual-machine format in vSphere 5 has several new features, including support for
o 3D graphics for Windows Aero
o USB 3.0 devices
Storage
- VSphere Storage DRS—Improve management and enable more-efficient use of storage resources through grouping, placement and balancing.
- Profile-Driven Storage—Identify the appropriate storage to use for a given virtual machine depending on service level. The result is a streamlined approach to selecting the correct storage and ensuring its delivery.
- VSphere File System—Leverage enhanced scalability and performance through a non-disruptive upgrade to the platform’s latest clustered file system version.
- VSphere Storage I/O Control—Improve management and enforcement of service-level agreements (SLAs) through extension of limits and shares in Network File System (NFS) datastores.
- VSphere Storage API Program—Take advantage of extensions to the Array Integration API that support thin provisioning. Leverage the new Storage Awareness and Discovery API to interface with arrays when using the new vSphere Storage DRS and Profile-Driven Storage features.
Network
- VSphere Network I/O Control—new per–virtual-machine controls allow more-granular SLA enforcement.
- VSphere Distributed Switch—Improves visibility of virtual-machine traffic through NetFlow and enhances monitoring and troubleshooting through Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) support.
Availability
- VSphere High Availability—new architecture enables superior guarantees, simplified setup and configuration, and expanded scalability.
- VSphere Vmotion—Migration of virtual machines over higher-latency network links is now supported.
Security
- ESXi Firewall—new service-oriented and stateless firewall engine restricts access to specific services by IP address or subnet. This is particularly useful for third-party components that require network access.
Scalability
- Larger virtual machines—Virtual machines can now grow four times larger than in any previous release to support even the largest applications. Virtual machines can now have up to 32 virtual CPUs and 1TB of RAM
Current customers will receive the new functionality in VMware vSphere as part of their active support and subscription (SnS) contracts. There are also upgrade paths among VMware vSphere kits and editions to provide a cost-effective way to upgrade to more advanced functionality.