VMware View Archives - Page 6 of 7

Huge amount of VMware updates

October 23, 2018November 20, 2009

Today when i woke up there where a lot of VMware updates available (to much to handle for one day 🙂 ). I did an upgrade of my lab environment, it went smooth with any issues. VMware did a great job with the new improvements! Here’s a list of improvements with some screenshots:

VMware ESX 4 Update 1 improvements:

VMware View 4.0 support – This release adds support for VMware View 4.0, a solution built specifically for delivering desktops as a managed service from the protocol to the platform.

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 support – This release adds support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as well as 64-bit Windows 2008 R2 as guest OS platforms. In addition, the vSphere Client is now supported and can be installed on a Windows 7 platform. For a complete list of supported guest operating systems with this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Enhanced Clustering Support for Microsoft Windows – Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) for Windows 2000 and 2003 and Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering is now supported on a VMware High Availability (HA) and Dynamic Resource Scheduler (DRS) cluster in a limited configuration. HA and DRS functionality can be effectively disabled for individual MSCS virtual machines as opposed to disabling HA and DRS on the entire ESX/ESXi host. Refer to the Setup for Failover Clustering and Microsoft Cluster Service guide for additional configuration guidelines.

Enhanced VMware Paravirtualized SCSI Support – Support for boot disk devices attached to a Paravirtualized SCSI ( PVSCSI) adapter has been added for Windows 2003 and 2008 guest operating systems. Floppy disk images are also available containing the driver for use during the Windows installation by selecting F6 to install additional drivers during setup. Floppy images can be found in the /vmimages/floppies/ folder.

Improved vNetwork Distributed Switch Performance – Several performance and usability issues have been resolved resulting in the following:

Improved performance when making configuration changes to a vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) instance when the ESX/ESXi host is under a heavy load

Improved performance when adding or removing an ESX/ESXi host to or from a vDS instance

Increase in vCPU per Core Limit – The limit on vCPUs per core has been increased from 20 to 25. This change raises the supported limit only. It does not include any additional performance optimizations. Raising the limit allows users more flexibility to configure systems based on specific workloads and to get the most advantage from increasingly faster processors. The achievable number of vCPUs per core depends on the workload and specifics of the hardware. For more information see the Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 4.0 guide.

Enablement of Intel Xeon Processor 3400 Series – Support for the Xeon processor 3400 series has been added. For a complete list of supported third party hardware and devices, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.

The new VMware ESX 4 update 1 build is 208167

VMware vCenter Server 4.0 Update 1 improvements:

IBM DB2 Database Support for vCenter Server — This release adds support for IBM DB2 9.5 as the backend database platform for VMware vCenter Server 4.0. The following editions of IBM DB2 are supported:

IBM DB2 Enterprise 9.5

IBM DB2 Workgroup 9.5

IBM DB2 Express 9.5

IBM DB2 Express-C 9.5

VMware View 4.0 support — This release adds support for VMware View 4.0, a solution built specifically for delivering desktops as a managed service from the protocol to the platform.

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 support — This release adds support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 as well as 64-bit Windows 2008 R2 as guest operating system platforms. In addition, the vSphere Client is now supported and can be installed on a Windows 7 platform.

Pre-Upgrade Checker Tool — A standalone pre-upgrade checker tool is now available as part of the vCenter Server installation media that proactively checks ESX hosts for any potential issues that you might encounter while upgrading vCenter agents on these hosts as part of the vCenter Server upgrade process. You can run this tool independently prior to upgrading an existing vCenter Server instance. The tool can help identify any configuration, networking, disk space or other ESX host-related issues that could prevent ESX hosts from being managed by vCenter Server after a successful vCenter Server upgrade.

HA Cluster Configuration Maximum — HA clusters can now support 160 virtual machines per host in HA Cluster of 8 hosts or less. The maximum number of virtual machines per host in cluster sizes of 9 hosts and above is still 40, allowing a maximum of 1280 Virtual Machines per HA cluster.

The new vCenter version and build is 4.0.0 build 208111

When choosing for Operating System for the vCenter server keep the following in your mind:

Future releases of VMware vCenter Server might not support installation on 32-bit Windows operating systems. VMware recommends installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit Windows operating system. If you have VirtualCenter 2.x installed, see the vSphere Upgrade Guide for instructions on installing vCenter Server on a 64-bit operating system and preserving your VirtualCenter database.

VMware Data Recovery (vDR) version 1.1 improvements:

File Level Restore Functionality is Officially Supported

File Level Restore (FLR) provides a way to access individual files within restore points for Windows virtual machines. In previous versions of Data Recovery, FLR was provided as an experimental feature. File Level Restore feature is now officially supported.

Integrity Check Stability and Performance Improved
The integrity check process is faster and more stable. Note that integrity checks are computationally intensive processes and can take significant periods of time. The exact amount of time integrity checks take varies based on of the size of the deduplication store. Even with these enhancements, integrity checks that take several hours are not unexpected.

Integrity Checks Provides Improved Progress Information
When an integrity check is running, a progress indicator is displayed. This progress indicator has been improved, although it does not provide the optimal level of detail.

Enhanced CIFS Shares Support

File Level Restore (FLR) is a graphical client that can restore individual files. Here are some screenshots of FLR:

vSphere PowerCLI 4.0 Update 1 improvements:

Managing the failover and load-balancing policies of VirtualSwitch and VirtualPortGroup objects with Get-NicTeamingPolicy and Set-NicTeamingPolicy.

Copying files in and out of guest operating systems with Copy-VMGuestFile.

Restarting virtual machines with Restart-VM.

Managing the power state of hosts using Start-VMHost, Restart-VMHost, Suspend-VMHost, and Stop-VMHost.

Managing guest networks with Get-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Set-VMGuestNetworkInterface, Get-VMGuestRoute, New-VMGuestRoute, Remove-VMGuestRoute, and Set-VMGuestRoute.

Retrieving and removing USB devices with Get-UsbDevice and Remove-UsbDevice.

Managing NIC customization settings with Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping, New-OSCustomizationNicMapping, and Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping.

Handling virtual machine questions with Get-VMQuestion and Set-VMQuestion.

Working with host storages and iSCSI HBA devices with Get-VMHostHba, Set-VMHostHba, Get-iScsiHbaTarget, New-iScsiHbaTarget, Remove-iScsiHbaTarget, Set-iScsiHbaTarget, and Set-VMHostStorage.

Moving templates with Move-Template and Move-Inventory.

Managing the access control system with Get-VIPrivilege, Get-VIRole, New-VIRole, Remove-VIRole, Set-VIRole, Get-VIPermission, New-VIPermission, Remove-VIPermission, and Set-VIPermission.

Managing DRS recommendations with Get-DrsRecommendation and Apply-DrsRecommendation.

Upgrading hosts with Install-VMHostPatch.

Managing virtual appliances with Get-VApp, Export-VApp, Import-VApp, New-VApp, Remove-VApp, Set-VApp, Start-VApp, and Stop-VApp.

Managing PCI and SCSI passthrough devices with Add-PassthroughDevice, Get-PassthroughDevice, and Remove-PassthroughDevice.

Running BAT (Windows) and BASH (Linux) scripts with Invoke-VMScript.

Granting and revoking shell access with New-VMHostAccount and Set-VMHostAccount.

Uploading firmware packages with Set-VMHostFirmware.

Creating virtual machines with thin provisioned disks with New-VM.

Cloning powered-on virtual machines with New-VM.

Resizing virtual disks and guest partitions with Set-HardDisk.

Extending, cloning, inflating, and reallocating virtual hard disks with Copy-HardDisk, New-HardDisk, and Set-HardDisk.

Managing the host time zones with Get-VMHostAvailableTimeZone and Set-VMHost.

Working with default Datastore Provider and Inventory Provider drives.

Working with files and directories in datastores by using the Datastore Provider.

Download is available here.

VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat 5.5 Update 2 improvements:

The features available depend on the version of vCenter Server installed.

Support for Windows Server 2008 SP1 and SP2 (x86/x64) — VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat now supports running on Windows Server 2008 SP1 and SP2 (including x86 and x64 versions) operating systems.

Support for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 (x64) — VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat now supports running on the Windows Server 2003 Enterprise SP2 (x64) operating system.

Protection of VMware vCenter Management Web Services — This release of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat adds the vCenter Management Web Server to its list of protected vCenter Server components.

Introduction of the WinZip Self-Extracting executable file for Setup — Installation and setup of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat is initiated through the use of a WinZip Self-Extracting executable file.

60-day evaluation mode — This release of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat provides a built-in 60-day evaluation mode that is triggered from the date of installation. Either prior to or upon expiration of the 60-day evaluation period, administrators will need to provide a valid license key to continue to leverage VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat functionality.

Tomcat Monitoring Rule — A new rule has been added for vCenter 4.0 Tomcat Web Server availability.

Note: The term vSphere Client is applicable to both vSphere Client and VI Client except where VI Client is specifically stated.

The next new version will probably the View 4 release on Monday.

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VMware VIEW 4 useful information

November 13, 2009

After attending the VMware View 4 Talkshoe podcast the following information about the announced VMware View 4 was discussed:

VM’s per core:

VM’s per core, In VMware View 3 the number was 6-9 VM’s per core, now in View 4 with for example the Intel Nehalem processors you can get to 12-16 VM’s per core. This number heavily depends for example on the application load inside the VM’s.

The PCoIP protocol does NOT support:

– Security Server;

– Smart Cards integration;

– Thinprint support.

Generally:

– The PCoIP protocol is not different in scalability than RDP;

– For the RDP protocol version 6 is used in VMware VIEW;

– Offline desktop support is still experimental;

– There’s no RTO Software Virtual Profiles in this release of VMware VIEW 4;

– Windows 7 is still experimental, official support will be around the begin of 2010;

– The Connection server must be installed on Windows 2003, support for Windows 2008 will be around the begin of 2010;

– Advise for virus scanning software is use VMware aware virus scanners (VMsafe), for example Trend Micro and McAfee have beta’s that use the VMsafe technology.

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VMware View 4 announced

October 23, 2018November 9, 2009

Today VMware has View 4 announced. VMware View 4 is supported on VMware vSphere and has a new protocol named PCoIP (View 3 uses RDP).

Here’s a list of new and/or improved features:

FEATURE	NEW/IMPROVED	DESCRIPTION
Quad monitor support	New	Support 32-bit color with 1920 x 1200 display resolution and up to 4 monitors simultaneously.Benefit: True multiple displays allow you to “see more and do more” from a full desktop. This provides the ability to reproduce true color images with support for up to 4.2 billion distinct colors per pixel.
True multi-monitor support on L-shape configuration	New	Support 1 landscape display and 1 portrait display (with pivot monitors), variable resolution support, and auto fit to client.Benefit: Each monitor can be of a different size and be set to a different resolution. Auto Display Scaling/Dynamic Resizing helps desktop publishing, financial application, and high-end graphic design needs.
Guest desktop support Windows Vista and XP OS	New	Support for connecting to virtual desktops from Windows XP and Vista. The VMware View 4 PCoIP is a software-to-software implementation. However, it also supports hardware PCoIP hosts such as the Samsung SyncMaster 930ND 19″ monitor and Teradici Tera Portal. http://www.teradici.com/pcoip/pcoip-products/oem-solutions.php Benefit: Provides scalable support to both software and hardware on the local hosts.
Network characteristics and security	New	SSL protection on TCP for session management and AES 128-bit key encryption on UDP for media transfer between host and client system.Benefit: Provides comparable security and encryption found in other protocols.
Protocol intelligence	New	PCoIP protocol provides the intelligence to handle prioritization and quality of services (QOS) for video/mouse/keyboard/sound, etc.Benefit: This greatly helps the user experience by managing bandwidth and content variables.
WAN performance and optimization	New	Operate with up to 250ms of round-trip latency with tolerance on packet loss up to 5%.
VPN tunneling	New	Support Cisco VPN soft client.
RDP virtual channel compatibility for USB redirection	New	Support the comparable list of USB peripherals including biometrics, card readers, webcams, mass storage, flash devices, scanners, etc. The authorization can be done on a per-user/per-group basis to only accept specific devices.
Flash control support for PCoIP	New	PCoIP uses breakthrough graphics compression that is custom built for delivering a user desktop over IP networks. It works in such a way as to support all graphics (full-frame rate 3D for design engineering, video gaming, etc.), and media (HD video, Microsoft video formats, YouTube, Microsoft Silverlight, Google, QuickTime, or Adobe Flash).Benefit: By compressing the display image at the host PC/Server, you avoid application interoperability issues that have plagued thin clients for years and can quickly adapt to physical networks.
Audio redirection	New	New to PCoIP protocol. Redirect audio with dynamic audio quality adjustment on the WAN.
ClearType font	New	Subpixel rendering technology which may help to improve the apperance of text on some computer displays. Newly added to PCoIP protocol

Full clone pool with thin disk/thin provisioning	New	VMware View 4 provides seamless native support for thin provisioning with the vSphere server.Benefit: Helps reduce storage usage and allows more guest desktops per core while still providing high performance.
Mixed cluster support for backward – forward compatibility	New	This new option in View Administrator allows different versions of clusters to be managed via the same UI.
VWware VMsafe API for better anti-virus optimization and execution	New	VMware vSphere supports VMware VMsafe™ API Security virtual machine deployment, sold separately by security vendors, is consistent with desktop deployment. Protects the virtual machine by inspecting virtual components (CPU, Memory, Network and Storage).

Triple single sign — on (3SSO) for sessions/connections keep-alive	Improved	This setting enables “log in as current user” using Active Directory credentials or smart cards over Remote Desktop Protocol.Benefit: Helps eliminate redundant authentication steps or double PIN entry when using smart cards.
Tag-based pool access	New	Administrators can now assign “tags” to connect server and desktop pools. Tag matching rules can be applied to restrict or grant users access to certain desktops.
Smart card removal policy	Improved	This policy setting forces desktops to disconnect when users remove their smart card.
Delete script	Improved	This scripting capability cleanly deletes VMware View desktops and allows extensibility using visual basic scripting.

VMware View is available in two editions:

Offline desktop and Windows 7 support is experimental. This means it is not ready for production environments! There is a HCL for Thin clients that supports View, click here for the HCL. VMware View will be released and available for download on 19 November 2009.

Sources:

– VMware View 4 product page

– VMware View Datasheet

– Register for a 60 day trail when it comes available

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