VM-Net

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.

One of the areas I recently added on this site is a place to recommend good books I’ve read or are currently reading about virtualization and related technologies. With the release of vSphere behind us we are about to see the first crop of books on vSphere about to be released. The first three of these books are:

VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security Securing the Virtual Environment

Complete Hands-On Help for Securing VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure by Edward Haletky, Author of the Best Selling Book on VMware, VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise

 As VMware has become increasingly ubiquitous in the enterprise, IT professionals have become increasingly concerned about securing it. Now, for the first time, leading VMware expert Edward Haletky brings together comprehensive guidance for identifying and mitigating virtualization-related security threats on all VMware platforms, including the new cloud computing platform, vSphere.

 VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security begins by reviewing basic server vulnerabilities and explaining how security differs on VMware virtual servers and related products. Next, Haletky drills deep into the key components of a VMware installation, identifying both real and theoretical exploits, and introducing effective

Paperback: 552 pages

Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (28 Jul 2009)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0137158009

ISBN-13: 978-0137158003

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Mastering VMware vSphere 4

As part of the highly acclaimed Mastering series from Sybex, this book offers a comprehensive look at VMware vSphere 4, how to implement it, and how to make the most of what it offers.

Now that virtualization is a key cost–saving strategy, Mastering VMware vSphere 4 is the strategic guide you need to maximize the opportunities.

Coverage Includes:
 

• Shows administrators how to use VMware to realize significant savings in hardware costs while still providing adequate “servers” for their users
• Demonstrates how to partition a physical server into several virtual machines, reducing the overall server footprint within the operations center
• Explains how VMware subsumes a network to centralize and simplify its management, thus alleviating the effects of “virtual server sprawl”

Paperback: 696 pages

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (11 Sep 2009)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0470481382

ISBN-13: 978-0470481387

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VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference

VMware vSphere 4 Administration Instant Reference is a quick-reference guide for day-to-day administration of VMware’s newest virtual infrastructure software.

The book includes design features such as thumb tabs, secondary and tertiary tables of contents, and special heading treatments to provide quick and easy lookup, as well as quick-reference tables, lists, and step-by-step instruction to provide VMware administrators answers on the spot.

This book is the perfect companion to any book on VMware, including Sybex’s Mastering VMware titles.

Paperback: 496 pages

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (13 Nov 2009)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0470520728

ISBN-13: 978-0470520727

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With the  release of vSphere 4 looming (21st of May)  Cisco has made its Nexus 1000v virtual switch available to the general public in the form of a 60 day trial. Priced at $695 per CPU on top of the cost of a vSphere Enterprise Plus CPU licence some VMware customers might find Cisco’s vNetwork Distributed Switch a little too expensive, especially when you consider that Enterprise Plus is approximately $600 more expensive than Enterprise.

Whilst the $600 per socket is actually discounted by %50 if you upgrade before December 15, 2009 some VMware customers are arguing that the current pricing and licencing tiers  may negatively impact sales, not only of  Cisco’s  Nexus 1000V but also vSphere itself.  When you consider  Citrix’s recent decision to give away XenServer for free VMware may have opened the door to the competition. I for one feel that the creation of the Enterprise Plus licencing tier, in fact all of the proposed licencing tiers makes little sense and hope, just like in the past, VMware realign/reduce/simply their licencing tiers in a manner that make sense. Starting May 21, we’ll see if customers will  consider the Cisco virtual switch over the VMware distributed switch or even pay the price to replace the basic VMware virtual switch at all.

In an earlier post I stated that  some of the VMware other products were rumored to have compatibility issues with vSphere 4. It looks like these rumours were indeed true and  a number of products do have  issues with both vSphere 4.0 and with vCentre 4.0.

The good new is that VMware have indicated that all incompatibilities will be resolved in the second half of 2009 according to the following compatibility matrix shown below.

When or if VMware will give a more precise time frame for each product remains to be seen but given that these incompatibilities effect both VMware’s View 3  and there Site Recovery Manager products one would hope that VMware will resolve all issues early on into  second half of 2009 rather at the end.