What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.1?

VMware vSphere is the industry-leading virtualization platform and the key enabler for cloud computing architectures. vSphere enables IT to meet SLAs for the most demanding business critical applications, at the lowest TCO. vSphere accelerates the shift to cloud computing for existing datacenters, while also underpinning compatible public cloud offerings paving the way for the only hybrid cloud model. With the support of over 3,000 applications from more than 1,650 ISV partners, VMware vSphere is the most trusted platform for any application.

 

So what's new in 5.1?

• Larger virtual machines – Virtual machines can grow two times larger than in any previous release to support even the most advanced applications. Virtual machines can now have up to 64 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and 1TB of virtual RAM (vRAM).

 

• New virtual machine format – New features in the virtual machine format (version 9) in vSphere 5.1 include support for larger virtual machines, CPU performance counters and virtual shared graphics acceleration designed for enhanced performance.

 

Storage

• Flexible, space-efficient storage for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) – A new disk format enables the correct balance between space efficiency and I/O throughput for the virtual desktop.

 

Network

• vSphere Distributed Switch – Enhancements such as Network Health Check, Configuration Backup and Restore, Roll Back and Recovery, and Link Aggregation Control Protocol support and deliver more enterprise-class networking functionality and a more robust foundation for cloud computing.

 

• Single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) support – Support for SR-IOV optimizes performance for sophisticated applications.

 

Availability

• vSphere vMotion® – Leverage the advantages of vMotion (zero-downtime migration) without the need for shared storage configurations. This new vMotion capability applies to the entire network.

 

• vSphere Data Protection – Simple and cost effective backup and recovery for virtual machines. vSphere Data Protection is a newly architected solution based EMC Avamar technology that allows admins to back up virtual machine data to disk without the need of agents and with built-in deduplication. This feature replaces the vSphere Data Recovery product available with previous releases of vSphere.

 

• vSphere Replication – vSphere Replication enables efficient array-agnostic replication of virtual machine data over the LAN or WAN. vSphere Replication simplifies management enabling replication at the virtual machine level and enables RPOs as low as 15 minutes.

 

• Zero-downtime upgrade for VMware Tools – After you upgrade to the VMware Tools available with version 5.1, no reboots will be required for subsequent VMware Tools upgrades.

 

Security

• VMware vShield Endpoint™ – Delivers a proven endpoint security solution to any workload with an approach that is simplified, efficient, and cloud-aware. vShield Endpoint enables 3rd party endpoint security solutions to eliminate the agent footprint from the virtual machines, offload intelligence to a security virtual appliance, and run scans with minimal impact.

 

Automation

• vSphere Storage DRS™ and Profile-Driven Storage – New integration with VMware vCloud® Director™ enables further storage efficiencies and automation in a private cloud environment.

 

• vSphere Auto Deploy™ – Two new methods for deploying new vSphere hosts to an environment make the Auto Deploy process more highly available then ever before. Management (with vCenter Server)

 

• vSphere Web Client –The vSphere Web Client is now the core administrative interface for vSphere. This new flexible, robust interface simplifies vSphere control through shortcut navigation, custom tagging, enhanced scalability, and the ability to manage from anywhere with Internet Explorer or Firefox-enabled devices.

 

• vCenter Single Sign-On – Dramatically simplify vSphere administration by allowing users to log in once to access all instances or layers of vCenter without the need for further authentication.

 

• vCenter Orchestrator – Orchestrator simplifies installation and configuration of the powerful workflow engine in vCenter Server. Newly designed workflows enhance ease of use, and can also be launched directly from the new vSphere Web Client.

 

For information on upgrading to vSphere 5.1, visit the vSphere Upgrade Center at:

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/overview.html.

 

vSphere is also available with the new vCloud suites from VMware.

For more information, visit http://www.vmware.com/go/vcloudsuite/.

 

VMworld TV - An in-depth demo of VMware Mirage - Eric Sloof - NTPRO.NL

VMworld TV - An in-depth demo of VMware Mirage - Eric Sloof - NTPRO.NL

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VMworld TV - Behind the scenes at the VMware hands-on labs - Eric Sloof - NTPRO.NL

VMworld TV - Behind the scenes at the VMware hands-on labs - Eric Sloof

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VMworld 2012: VMware + EMC Storagethe best gets better

Wikibon just refreshed their study (2 years in a row, so it's not quite "annual" yet) on VMware and Storage – and one thing they do is reach out to the vendors, and analyze their relative VMware integration. I'd encourage you to check it out yourself<http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/VSphere_5_Storage_Integration_chips_away_at_Management_Overhead> (come to your own conclusion), but here's the summary – EMC = #1! Also – amazingly this was a count of the degree of integration – but when the respondents were asked "who is the best", EMC was highlighted as the best by 3x times more than the next closest!

If you think this is "one analyst" kind of thing – check out the latest Goldman Sachs Strategic IT spending study (July), which also showed EMC being selected 2.5x more than the next closest competitor when the use case is VMware centric – that's materially more EMC's general market share).

Here's the results for the major unified storage players:

[image]<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd28833017c318ddf2d970b-pi>

Here are the results for the major block-only players (or Unified players, counting block integration points).

[image]<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd288330177446b8376970d-pi>

So… The best is getting even better.

Not only do we have a native vCenter Operations VNX connector now GA, with VNX Storage Analytics Suite in early adopter stage (more on that here), but there are two BIG additions in vSphere 5.1 that VNX and VNX customers will benefit from: 1) VAAI NFS Fast Copy for VMware View and vCloud Director use cases; 2) Native multipathing enhancements.

For more on these two things… Read on…

In vSphere 5.0, the first set of VAAI API calls for NFS arrived. vSphere 5.1 adds a new API – NFS Fast Clone – which can be used to accelerate VMware View and vCloud Director use cases. It requires that the NFS server is able to take file-level snapshots, and be able to do "snap of snap" (to accelerate the "base replica+snapshot" behavior used in these cases). This API is supported in EMC VNX (in the currently shipping code – VNX OE 32, aka "Inyo") and the upcoming EMC Isilon "Mavericks" code (which is the first release where Isilon NAS will be expressly targeted at VMware use cases). BTW – notice how coordinated we try to be – the feature shows up in the EMC array release that preceeds the corresponding vSphere release. Hint – there are already VM Granular Storage – more here – giblets in there.

Check it the new VAAI NFS Fast Copy in the demo below:

You can download a high-rez version of the demo here in MP4 format<https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=%20832817271&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]&arg12=downloaddirect&transaction=signon&quiet=true> and WMV format<https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=%20832758918&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]&arg12=downloaddirect&transaction=signon&quiet=true>.

BTW – It's worth restating - NFS is a great choice for customers using vSphere – I generally recommend using it in conjunction with VMFS. In the Virtual Geek annual survey I asked what protocols people use – here's the result:

[image]<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd28833017c318ddfd7970b-pi>

Wikibon also asked the same question – and this is what they found:

[image]<http://virtualgeek.typepad.com/.a/6a00e552e53bd288330177446b841c970d-pi>

The other improvement is one of those "little things that means so much" – dramatically improved and simplified native multipathing for VMware and EMC VNX customers using block storage and VMFS.

This takes a bit of explanation. Note that these are "internals" in the sense that most customers don't muck around with this level of detail – but hey, it's good to know.

* EMC VNX is an array that uses an "active/passive LUN ownership" model (for now) – but is active/active (both storage processors support a load at any time). This is pretty common architectural model in arrays of it's generation and target market. A feature called "Asymmetric Logical Unit Access" aka "ALUA" is also pretty common of arrays of this type. What it does it present the LUN via both storage processors, where one set of paths is "non-optimal" because it has to cross the internal interconnect between "brains".
* EMC VNX also has for a long time had the ability to tresspass (move a LUN from one brain to another) non-disruptively. This is dependent on how fast it happens and how well the host multipathing works. LUN Tresspass and ALUA doesn't make VNX the same as true "active/active" models like EMC VMAX – but can come close. In recent VNX OE releases – LUN tresspasses are now super fast at scale.
* Like other implementations of this sort of architectural model – there are internal things (like metadata) that get owned by one storage processor or the other – so every LUN has:
* A "Default Owner" – this is the storage processor with all the metadata in "steady state". When the LUN is actually owned by it's default owner, the overall system load lowers, and performance is generally better.
* A "Current Owner" – while every LUN starts with being service by the "default owner" storage processor, the current owner can change after a trespass, which can be due to host failure, HBA failure, network failure, storage processor failure – or by an non-disruptive upgrade (where all LUNs move to one storage processor, the other gets upgraded, and then they tresspass the other way and get updated).
* Front-end-ports on the "Current Owner" – which, if ALUA is configured, show up as "optimized" paths in vSphere, and the other storage processor ports show up as "non-optimized" paths. vSphere sends I/O down non-optimized paths.

So… With all that said – a lot comes down to what the host multipathing does. For example, after a tresspass, does it eventually issue a restore command that will tresspass the LUN back to it's original "Default Owner"?

VMware and EMC found this was an area where we could make things better. In vSphere 5.0 and earlier – the NMP PSP for Fixed and MRU issue this auto-restore, but Round-Robin PSP does not. Also we found that in versions of the VNX OE that are earlier, we wouldn't respond to the vSphere issued auto-restore properly in all cases (corner case).

… So – in vSphere 5.1 this was improved, and we made some fixes that showed up in VNX OE 32. Here's a comparison (thanks for the work on this Clint) of vSphere 5.0, 4.x and vSphere 5.1 with VNX arrays running VNX OE 31 and 32:

You can download a high-rez version of the demo here in MP4 format<https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=%20832616805&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=%20832616805&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]&arg12=downloaddirect&transaction=signon&quiet=true> and WMV format<https://vspecialist.emc.com/human.aspx?Username=Bloglink&Password=vgeekb1og&arg01=%20832767820&arg05=0/[DownloadAs_Filename]&arg12=downloaddirect&transaction=signon&quiet=true>.

Net? In vSphere 5.1 and VNX OE 5.1, we've worked to make the native multipathing work better – eliminating the need for tools, scripting, or anything like that. Heck – the Round Robin PSP has become the native PSP selected when you use EMC VNX and VMAX arrays. Simple.

EMC VNX customers – what do you think?

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Technical White Paper - What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.1 – Platform

VMware vSphere 5.1 provides many new features and enhancements that further extend the core capabilities of the VMware vSphere platform. Included among these are notable improvements in the areas of host security, logging, monitoring, and deployment; new VMware vSphere vMotion (vMotion) capabilities that enable virtual machines to be migrated between hosts and clusters with no shared storage; and support for the latest processors and guest operating systems (OS).

This paper provides an overview of the new features and capabilities being introduced with vSphere 5.1. This paper is organized into the following four sections:

vSphere Platform Enhancements

- User Access- Auditing- Monitoring- vMotion Enhancements
- Extended Guest OS and CPU Support
- Agentless Antivirus and Antimalware

Virtual Machine Enhancements

- New Virtual Machine Features- Introducing Virtual Machine Compatibility

Auto Deploy

- Stateless Caching Mode- Stateful Install Mode- Remote Logging and Dump Collection- Improved Scalability

[image]<http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/vSphere_Platform.png>

Technical White Paper - What's New in VMware vSphere 5.1 – Platform.pdf<http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/uploads/WhatsNewvSphere5.1.pdf>

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Technical White Paper - VMware vSphere Data Protection - Eric Sloof

With VMware vSphere 5.1, VMware is releasing a new backup and recovery solution for virtual machines called vSphere Data Protection (VDP). This solution is fully integrated with VMware vCenter Server and provides agentless, disk-based backup of virtual machines to deduplicated storage.

Benefits of VDP include the following:


* It ensures fast, efficient protection for virtual machines even if they are powered off.
* It uses patented deduplication technology across all backup jobs, significantly reducing disk space consumption.
* VMware vSphere APIs – Data Protection (VADP) and Changed Block Training (CBT) are utilized to reduce load on the vSphere host and minimize backup windows requirements.
* It performs full virtual machine and File-Level Restore (FLR) without installing an agent in every virtual machine.
* Installation and configuration is simplified using an appliance form factor.
* Management is performed utilizing the VMware vSphere Web Client.
* The VDP appliance and its backups are protected using a checkpoint and rollback mechanism.
* Windows and Linux files can easily be restored by the end user without a Web browser.

This paper presents an overview of the architecture, deployment, configuration, and management of VDP.

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Technical White Paper - Introduction to VMware vSphere Replication - Eric Sloof

A fundamental part of protecting IT is ensuring that the services provided by virtual machines are resilient, and robust at all levels of the compute stack, from hardware through to the application. vSphere Replication is a feature introduced with VMware vSphere 5.1. It is designed to augment the recovery capabilities of the VMware vSphere platform by providing a built-in capability to continually replicate a running virtual machine to another location.

Replication creates a copy of a virtual machine that can be stored locally within a cluster or at another site, providing a data source to rapidly restore a virtual machine within minutes. vSphere Replication augments offerings in the vSphere availability protection matrix. It provides a solution that enables recovery time better than that of restoring from backup, without introducing the complexity of a complete storage array–based replication configuration.

vSphere Replication also enables configuring replication on a per–virtual machine basis and significantly rounds out the capabilities of protection offered by vSphere. This paper will help you understand what vSphere Replication is and some of the benefits of its features. It will also discuss how it works to protect your virtual machines against failure.

http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/2109-Technical-White-Paper-Introduction-to-VMware-vSphere-Replication.html

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