Imagine that you need to set up a Linux based cluster but you’re not necessarily a Linux guru. Well, with the new Fault Tolerance feature you don’t have to know anything about classic Linux clustering to configure the environment. Simply click on the virtual machine in Virtual Center and choose the option to turn on Fault Tolerance—task complete!

vNetwork Distributed Virtual Switch

The vNetwork Distributed Switch offers organizations aggregated data center level virtual networking and transparent third party management of virtual environments. The vNetwork Distributed Switch simplifies setup, change, troubleshooting, monitoring, and debugging. The ability to span many ESX/ESXi hosts significantly reduces ongoing network maintenance activities and quickly scales up networking capacity. vNetwork embeds new network VMotion technology that enables organizations to build rich, VMotion-aware networking apps on top of vSphere 4.0.

The distributed switch and 3rd party virtual switches will allow network administrators to have the visibility they’ve always wanted into the virtual networking environment. No longer does the server/virtualization team need to fully manage the virtual network, now that task can be handed back to the network team and they can manage the virtual environment exactly the same way they are used to managing the physical network environment.

Scalability of Physical Servers and VMs

A key component of vSphere is the ability to virtualize much larger workloads that in the past have been difficult if not impossible. With the additional scalability in both the physical and virtual environments mentioned below, the idea of being 100% virtualized can become a reality. Features include 8-way Virtual SMP allowing you to run larger CPU-intensive workloads on the VMware ESX platform. You can also assign any number of virtual CPUs between one and eight to a virtual machine.

Key Points:

• 255GB RAM—Up to 255GB RAM can be assigned to ESX/ESXi 4.0 virtual machines.


• New Virtual Hardware—ESX/ESXi 4.0 introduces a new generation of virtual hardware (virtual machine hardware version 7), which adds significant new features including:


• New storage virtual devices:


• Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) virtual devices—Provides support for running Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering configurations.


• DE virtual device—Ideal for supporting older operating systems that lack SCSI drivers.


• Hot plug support for virtual devices and hot add support for memory and virtual CPUs

Data Recovery

VMware Data Recovery provides agent-less, disk-based backup and recovery of your VMs with VM or file level restore capabilities. Features include incremental backups and data deduplication to save disk space and centralized management through vSphere Client. This all means quick, simple protection for your VMs and cost effective storage management.

Virtualization tends to open several new possibilities in the backup/recovery arena. For those familiar with existing 3rd party virtual backup utilities, think of VMware Data Recovery as a Veeam Backup or vRanger “lite.” This integrated tool is not as scalable or functional as some of the 3rd party alternatives, but can give you a peek at some of the new ways to think about backup in a virtual environment.

Virtual Center Orchestrator

vCenter Orchestrator is a powerful workflow engine that automates tasks for vSphere and allows orchestration between multiple solutions. This is the underlying engine to another VMware product, Life Cycle Manager, that is now included out of the box with vCenter. You can automate manual, repeatable steps by a drag and drop interface without scripting, and centralize workflow management for all processes associated with the environment. Plus, vCenter allows administrators to control large environments easily and provides custom workflows for complex environments.

In conclusion, vSphere 4.0 offers IT administrators almost everything they need to manage a virtual infrastructure along with the scalability to virtualize a larger percentage of their current physical servers. From virtual network management to fault tolerance to backup and recovery of virtual machines, vSphere delivers.

For a deep dive into vSphere, including functionality, packaging, licensing, and upgrading, please review our recent webinar.

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