vSphere 5.1 has been released...

I know I am touting this a bit too late, but I have been touting the latest features on other forums.

But with this post I will be going through the main features that's been added to strengthen the vSphere product suite.

• The vRAM based entitlement for licensing has been taken off. It is going to be per processor based licensing.

• Virtual machine hardware version has been upgraded to version 9 with the new release.

• Like some bloggers out there I would like to call the new distributed virtual switch as "vDistributed Switch 2.0" - 

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.

•  SR-IOV - Single Root - IO Virtualization

Support for SR-IOV has been included for greater Network handling for virtual machines.

Below is a great explanation of how SR-IOV works.

For indepth detail check out the link http://blog.scottlowe.org/2009/12/02/what-is-sr-iov/
Where Scott Lowe goes in depth to explain the internals of SR-IOV.

• vSphere Enhanced vMotion - "Unified vMotion"

The new vMotion feature does not need a shared storage anymore, the vMotion can happen on local storages too now.

However before using this feature it is better to consult the best practices guide at http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/VMware-vSphere51-vMotion-Perf.pdf

I skimmed through the pages and came across these vital information in order how to implement this successfully.

vSphere 5.1 vMotion Best Practices

Following are several best practices that were derived from the previously described tests:

·         vSphere 5.1 vMotion has performance optimizations that depend on the unified 1MB file system block size found in VMFS-5. Although 1MB has been the default VMFS block size since the early VMFS versions, certain VMFS versions (VMFS-3, for example) allowed users to choose a different block size. VMFS file systems that don’t use 1MB block sizes cannot take advantage of these performance optimizations. A significant reduction in migration time can be achieved by switching to VMFS-5 with a 1MB block size.

·         vSphere 5.1 vMotion typically transfers disk content over the vMotion network. However, if the source host has access to the destination datastore, vSphere 5.1 vMotion will use the source host’s storage interface to transfer the disk content, thus reducing vMotion network utilization and host CPU utilization.

·         If both the source and destination datastores are on the same VAAI-capable array, and the source host has access to the destination datastore, vSphere 5.1 vMotion will offload the task of copying the disk content to the array using VAAI.

·         When using vSphere 5.1 vMotion to migrate a virtual machine with snapshots, plan to provision at least a 1Gbps management network. This is advised because vSphere 5.1 vMotion uses the Network File Copy (NFC) service to transmit the virtual machine's base disk and inactive snapshot points to the destination datastore. Because NFC traffic traverses the management network, the performance of your management network will determine the speed at which such snapshot content can be moved during migration.

·         If there are no snapshots, and if the source host has access to the destination datastore, vSphere 5.1 vMotion will preferentially use the source host’s storage interface to make the file copies, rather than using the management network.

·         Consider using a 10GbE vMotion network. Using a 10GbE network in place of a 1GbE network for vMotion will result in significant improvements in vSphere 5.1 vMotion performance. When using very large virtual machines, consider using multiple 10GbE network adaptors for vMotion to further improve performance.

·         When using the multiple–network adaptor feature, configure all the vMotion vmnics under one vSwitch and create one vMotion vmknic for each vmnic. In the vmknic properties, configure each vmknic to leverage a different vmnic as its active vmnic, with the rest marked as standby. This way, if any of the vMotion vmnics become disconnected or fail, vSphere 5.1 vMotion will transparently switch over to one of the standby vmnics. However, when all your vmnics are functional, each vmknic will route traffic over its assigned, dedicated vmnic.


·        VDP replacing the VDR Backup applicance. Based on EMC's Avamar backup appliance the new Backup appliance will replace the VDR appliance which has been a tool to take disk backup of VM's.


·    vSphere Replication is included in all versions of licenses. 15 minute RPO based vSphere replication is added as an additional feature in all licenses. SRM will be still continued as a fully blowned product for BCR/DR.


·    This is something that was long pending anticipated. VMware tool upgrades and installation does not need a reboot of the guest OS anymore.


·    vShield Endpoint is being added for AV vendors to take advantage of offloaded agentless AV solutions.


• 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.

      There are MANY new options and features that are ONLY available in the web-client, which are NOT available in the old C# vSphere Client.

• 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.


The other feature we have been waiting for was the multiple vCPU support for Fault Tolerance but 
have not seen any claim from VMware that they have increased vCPU support for Fault Tolerance.
As VMware lover that was the only thing I am disappointed with.


The other feature we have been waiting for was the multiple vCPU support for Fault Tolerance but 
have not seen any claim from VMware that they have increased vCPU support for Fault Tolerance.
As VMware lover that was the only thing I am disappointed with.