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

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vSphere Replication 5.1 and Site Recovery Manager 5.1 Now Available! - VMware vSphere Blog

Make sure you read the release notes, as always, but head on over to the download pages and pick up a copy!
vSphere Replication

* Release Notes <http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-replication-51-release-notes.html>
* Download<https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/5_1>

Site Recovery Manager

* Release Notes<http://www.vmware.com/support/srm/srm-releasenotes-5-1-0.html>
* Download<https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/infrastructure_operations_management/vmware_vcenter_site_recovery_manager/5_1>

blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vsphere-replication-5-1-and-site-recovery-manager-5-1-now-available.html> |by Ken Werneburg on September 11, 2012
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Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vsphere-replication-5-1-and-site-recovery-manager-5-1-now-available.html

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What’s New in vSphere 5.1 – Networking - VMware vSphere Blog

With the release of VMware vSphere 5.1, VMware brings a number of powerful new features and enhancements to the networking capabilities in the VMware vSphere platform. The following diagram provides a list of new features in different categories[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2012/09/vSphere5.1-newFeatures.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2012/09/vSphere5.1-newFeatures.jpg>

The main thing I would like to highlight is that the operational improvements in VDS will help customers to go away from the hybrid virtual switch design approach, where management traffic is carried on vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) and all other traffic flows through vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS). The Rollback and Recovery and Configuration Backup and Restore features address some of the operational concerns customers had about VDS and thus simplifies the virtual network operational aspects. Going forward with vSphere 5.1 all things on VDS is the way to go !

For more details about all the new features please take a look at the What's New paper here<http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vSphere-51-Network-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf>. In the coming weeks, I will dive down into each feature and provide more technical details. So please stay tuned.





Get notification of these blogs postings by following me on Twitter: @VMWNetworking

blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/whats-new-in-vsphere-5-1-networking.html> |by Venky on September 11, 2012
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Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/whats-new-in-vsphere-5-1-networking.html

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VMware vCloud Networking Poster - VMware vSphere Blog

During VMworld 2012 (US) we released a brand new networking poster. This poster is a reference to all things related to vSphere Standard Switch (VSS), vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS), and Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) technology. It provides you information on the different components, terminologies and parameters of VSS, VDS, and VXLAN. It also explains the advanced features of VDS and discusses some best practices. You can download the pdf of this poster here<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2012/09/VMW-vCloud-Networking-Poster2.pdf>

[http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2012/09/Networking-Poster.jpg]<http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/files/2012/09/Networking-Poster.jpg>

I hope you like it. As always, I would love to hear your feedback.

blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vmware-vcloud-networking-poster.html> |by Vyenkatesh (Venky) Deshpande on September 11, 2012
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Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vmware-vcloud-networking-poster.html

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vSphere 5.1 networking enhancements

There are many networking enhancement in vSphere 5.1 but I want to call out a couple specifically. The reason for this is that there have been many discussions on this blog about "hybrid VSS / VDS" environments as many were not comfortable with running everything on a VDS. Although the risks were minimal I could understand where people were coming from. So what's new in this space?

1. Management network rollback and recovery
2. VDS config backup and restore
3. Network health check

Management Network rollback / recovery says it all I guess. I for whatever reason you made changes that will result in your host not being able to connect to vCenter then this change will not be committed. Even more importantly, if you ever end up in the situation where your host is not able to connect to the network while using a VDS you can now reconfigure it through the DCUI (Network Restore Options). I played around with it, and I think it is a huge enhancement. I don't see a reason to go hybrid any longer… go full VDS!

Another often heard complaint was around export/import of the VDS config or backup/restore. With vSphere 5.1 this ability is now added. Not only can you save the VDS config and use it for new VDS's but you can of course also use this feature for backup purposes (see screenshot below). Another cool feature is that if you made a change to a portgroup that was not what you intended you can actually roll it back.

[http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8012/7650164690_04cff0af09.jpg]

Last but not least is the "Network Health Check" option. I particularly like this feature as I've been in the situation many times in the past that changes were made on a physical level and people forgot to inform me about it. This will allow you to quickly identify when things changed and that will make the discussion with your networking colleagues a lot easier. In this release three things are checked:

* VLAN
* MTU
* Network adapter teaming

These checks will be done every minute, and is done by sending probing packets on the VDS uplinks. If for whatever reason these probing packets fail it could indicate that the config of the physical components have changed. Nice right… I am not going to reveal any more secrets as I am guessing Venky will be writing some deepdive stuff soon.

In the mean while, for more details around what's new I would like to refer to the great what's new paper that Venky Deshpande wrote: What's New for Network in vSphere 5.1<http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vSphere-51-Network-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf>.

yellow-bricks.com [X] <http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/09/06/vsphere-5-1-networking-enhancements/> |by Duncan Epping on September 6, 2012
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Original Page: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2012/09/06/vsphere-5-1-networking-enhancements/

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vMotion without shared storage requirement, does it have a name? - VMware vSphere Blog

With the release of version 5.1, VMware introduced some extra functionality to the vMotion platform. One of these enhancements enables vMotion to run in environments without shared storage.

I heard a lot of names floating around the community, such as X-vMotion, Unified vMotion and enhanced vMotion, but in reality we do not brand this particular enhancement as a separate feature. To give you some background of the previous mentioned terms: X-vMotion was the internal code name for this feature, this name is still visible in the ESXi Host Advanced Setting with the rest of the internal codenames. Unified vMotion is a reference to the unified architecture which combines vMotion and parts of the Storage vMotion for this process. When a virtual machine needs to be migrated between hosts that do not share storage, vMotion copies the data across the vMotion network using some of the Storage vMotion code. A separate article will appear soon expanding on the technical bits of this process.

A separate product name usually means a separate license and that is the beauty of this enhancement. vMotion without the shared storage requirement is available in all kits and edition that have vMotion included. This means, if you are using vMotion today, the moment you upgrade to vSphere 5.1, you can migrate virtual machines between hosts without the need of shared storage and without any downtime.

blogs.vmware.com [X] <http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vmotion-without-shared-storage-requirement-does-it-have-a-name.html> |by Frank Denneman on September 5, 2012
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Original Page: http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/vmotion-without-shared-storage-requirement-does-it-have-a-name.html

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MY Webinar Wednesday's

In an effort to educate even more people on VMware’s products, I have started a bi-weekly webinar series called “Webinar Wednesdays”

 

I will be focusing on VMware products and solutions that fit into the mid-market.

 

Please signup and view the schedule and topics at:

http://mikeyallits.blogspot.ca/p/webinar-wednesdays.html