vsphere51

Upgrading to vSphere 5.1? Check your third party software

Before upgrading to vSphere 5.1 it is important to check your existing hardware, firmware levels, drivers, vSphere versions, other VMware products that integrates and third party software if it is compatible with vSphere 5.1. Here is a list of  third party software and it’s support for vSphere 5.1 .

Software Version vSphere 5.1 Support Comment
Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 yes  
CommVault 9 SP8 yes 3 extra SP8 post patches needed
PHDVB 6.1 yes  
Trilead Explorer 4.1.010 yes  
Quest vRanger Backup & Replication 6 no  
Trend Micro Deep Security 8 SP2 yes *4
NetApp Virtual Storage Console 4.1 yes Including SnapManger for Virtual Infrastructure (SMVI)
Symantec NetBackup 7.5.0.4 yes *3
Symantec Backup Exec 2010
2012		 no Beta for Backup Exec 2010 R3 SP3 and Backup Exec 2012 SP2*2
HP Insight Control for VMware vCenter server 7.1 yes  
EMC NetWorker 8.0 SP1 Yes  
Citrix VDI-in-a-Box 5.2 Yes  
Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 No *1
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 6.4 Yes  

 *1 Citrix XenDesktop and Provisioning Services support for vSphere can be found here: Link

*2 More information can be found here: Link 

*3 More information: Link

*4 Trend Micro Deep Security vSphere support: Link 

If other third party software vendors have support for vSphere 5.1 please let me know so I could add them to the list.

 

Last Updated:

February 2 2013, Added Trend Micro Deep Security support link

Manage Hyper-V from vSphere with VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager

VMware released the first version (1.0) of the vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager (MHM). MHM makes it possible to manage multiple heterogeneous hypervisors in VMware vCenter server.

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MHM supports only Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008  and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2  as hypervisor! MHM requires vCenter Server 5.1 and can manage 20 Hyper-V hosts with up to 500 VMs running.

As minimum vCenter Server Standard edition is needed. The vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager is not available with the vCenter Server Foundation or Essentials edition!

The installation of MHM consist of two components:

  • vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager Server
  • vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager Plug-In

After the installation of the plug-In it appears in the inventory tab of the vSphere Client. The MHM Plug-in s not compatible with the vSphere Web Client.

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The following tasks can be performed by MHM:

  • Third-party host management including add, remove, connect, disconnect and view the host configuration.
  • Ability to provision virtual machines on third-party hosts.
  • Ability to edit virtual machine settings.
  • Integrated vCenter Server authorization mechanism across ESX and third-party hosts inventories for privileges, roles, and users.
  • Automatic discovery of pre-existing third-party virtual machines
  • Ability to perform power operations with hosts and virtual machines.
  • Ability to connect and disconnect DVD, CD-ROM, and floppy drives and images to install operating systems.
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Conclusion

Before MHM VMware released vCenter XVP Manager and Converter as Fling in 2011. The fling can be found here. MHM is not changed that much from vCenter XVP Manager and Converter. MHM  has no support for Microsoft Server 2012 Hyper-V or Hyper-V 3.0  and the tasks that you can perform on Hyper-V are limited.

Some suggestions for the next release:

  • Support for Hyper-V 3.0
  • Ability to perform a live migration
  • Console access to the VM
  • Hyper-V to VMware migration (V2V)
  • Update integration components

More information

  • VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.0  Release Notes. Link
  • VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager Documentation. Link
  • VMware vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager 1.0 Download Link
  • vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager FAQ Link
  • Installing vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager plug-in best practices Link
  • Installing vCenter Multi-Hypervisor Manager best practices Link

Migrate to a new vCenter server with the vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) enabled in vSphere 5.1

Migrating to a new fresh vCenter server using the vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS) prior vSphere 5.1 is not a easy task. The VDS is part of the vCenter configuration. If you try to import hosts that have a VDS configuration to a new vCenter server the following warning will appear:

The distributed Virtual Switch corresponding to the proxy switches d5 6e 22 50 dd f2 94 7b-a6 1f b2 c2 e6 aa 0f bf on the host does not exist in vCenter or does not contain the host.

Kenneth van Ditmarsch describes in his blog post “ Migrate to new vCenter Server while using dvSwitches” how to migrate from a vCenter 4 server with a VDS switch to a new vCenter 5 server. This can be a risky and time consuming task task.

vSphere 5.1 supports to backup and restore the VDS configuration. This makes it possible to migrate the VDS configuration on a new vCenter  server very easily, without to migrate the VDS first to the vSS on the old vCenter server and on the new vCenter server migrate the vSS to the VDS. 

Here are the steps:

  • Upgrade the old vCenter server to version 5.1
  • Install a new vCenter 5.1 server and create a datacenter and cluster
  • Export the DVS configuration on the old vCenter server
  • Disable HA on the old cluster(s)
  • Disconnect all the hosts on the old vCenter server
  • Import all the hosts  on the new vCenter server. The following warning is displayed and it is safe to ignore the warning:

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  • Import the VDS configuration on the new vCenter server
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  • Remove the disconnected hosts on the old vCenter server

After the VDS import, the warning will disappear and the VDS configuration is migrated to the new vCenter server.

More information

VMware vSphere 5.1 – Network Config Backup and Restore video