VM-Net

Today VMware announced two new intermediate certifications over and above its VCP 4 certification. The VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) will be available as two separate tracks one focusing on Datacentre Administration (VCAP4-DCA) and the second on Datacentre Design (VCAP4-DCD). Targeted at VCP4’s these certifications will allow VMware professionals to further enhance their skill sets.

The VCAP4-DCA is directed toward System Administrators, Consultants and Technical Support Engineers who can demonstrate their skills in VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter technologies in relation to the datacenter, as well as their knowledge of application and physical-infrastructure services and their integration with the virtual infrastructure.

Become a VCAP4-DCA (Available from 12th July)

To achieve VCAP4-DCA, you must complete two core validation components: 

1. Be a VMware Certified Professional 4 (VCP4)
2. Pass the VCAP4-DCA exam

Become a VCAP4-DCD (Available sometime in August)

To achieve VCAP4-DCD, you must complete two core validation components:

1. Be a VMware Certified Professional 4 (VCP4)
2. Pass the VCAP4-DCD exam

On March 29th HP announced a number of new and enhanced products in its G6 ProLiant server and blade range. The new G6 servers and blades announced utilise Intels new Xeon 5600 Series of processors code named Westmere. Whilst the Westmere CPU’s are available with 4 cores its the  six-core (12x hyperthread) Westmere’s that will provide a significant gain over 4-core Gainestwown 55xx in virtualization environment. The new G7 servers announced  are alledged to offer upto 97% reduction in power and cooling costs, 27 time improvment in perfomace per watt whilst supporting higher consolidation ratios.

The new  G6 servers include:

• 4 x New ProLiant  blades
• 1 xNew workstation blade
• 6x  New DL servers
• 2 x New Ml server
• 3 x Scale out server

The new G7 servers include:

• HP Proliant DL165 & SL 165z Server
• HP ProLiant DL385

Today VMware announced the end of VCB and hinted at a point revision of its flagship product vSphere some time in 2010   in an e-mail sent to partners today. Although this was to be expected with backup providers releasing products compatible with vSphere you can read the full announcement below.

VMware Backup Product Strategy
VMware released vStorage APIs for Data Protection(VADP) with the vSphere 4.0 release in May, 2009. VADP is the next generation of VMware’s backup framework. We have also been working with several backup partners to integrate VADP into their solutions to make backup of vSphere Virtual Machines fast, efficient and easy to deploy compared to VCB and other backup solutions. Several of our major backup partners have already released VADP integrated backup products and we expect most of the major backup partners to have VADP integrated backup software by the upcoming feature release of the vSphere platform in 2010.

Future Product Licensing
Given the strong interest and adoption of VADP by our backup eco-system and the benefits offered by VADP compared to VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), we are announcing the End of Availability for VCB starting with next vSphere feature release in 2010. Starting with the next vSphere platform feature release, VCB will be removed from vSphere platform. VADP integrated backup products (including VMware Data Recovery) will be the recommended option for efficient backup and restoration of vSphere Virtual Machines. This will allow us to focus new value added feature development on VADP instead of two backup frameworks (VCB and VADP). You can find more information about the use of vStorage APIs for Data Protection in our Developer Community. For information on the availability of VADP integrated release of your backup product please contact your backup vendor.

End of Availability
With the release of the next vSphere platform, we will continue to provide the binaries for VCB, but they will not be compatible with the next platform release. We will continue to provide support for VCB on the current vSphere platform per the VMware support policy.

Virtual Iron was certainly not a big player like VMware or Citrixin the virtualisation market, but the company did hold a great deal of promise. In the acquisition announcement, Oracle described Virtual Iron as a “leading provider of server virtualisation management software. However a little over a month after it acquired Virtual Iron Oracle has decided to kill the Virtual Iron business and keep only the technology, according to a report in The Register.

Whilst things looked remarkably bleak for Virtual Iron customers VMware today announced that it is offering existing Virtual Iron customers an easy way to migrate their Virtual Iron deployments to VMware vSphere 4, the industry’s leading virtualisation platform.

For those Virtual Iron customers who have a current license and support contract VMware is offering a  good discount off the list prices on the following products:

• VMware vSphere 4 Advanced Edition, VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus Edition, VMware vCenter Server Foundation and VMware vCenter Server Standard

 

• Support and subscription (SnS) on VMware vSphere 4 Advanced Edition, VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus Edition, VMware vCenter Server Foundation and VMware vCenter Server Standard

Proof of a current Virtual Iron license and support contract will be required to qualify for the VMware offer. Promotional pricing is limited to the number of Virtual Iron licenses supported by a current support agreement. The offer is valid through September 30, 2009.