Release: VMware View 4.6

 Desktop Virtualization, Software Releases, VMware News  2 Responses »
Feb 252011
 

Some nice new items in this one.  If you like, you can proceed straight to the download here.  Here’s the what’s new section from the release notes:

VMware View 4.6 includes the following new features:

  • Security servers can now accommodate PCoIP connections – Security servers now include a PCoIP Secure Gateway component. The PCoIP Secure Gateway connection offers the following advantages:
    • The only remote desktop traffic that can enter the corporate data center is traffic on behalf of a strongly authenticated user.
    • Users can access only the desktop resources that they are authorized to access.
    • No VPN is required, as long as PCoIP is not blocked by any networking component.
    • Security servers with PCoIP support run on Windows Server 2008 R2 and take full advantage of the 64-bit architecture.
  • Enhanced USB device compatibility - View 4.6 supports USB redirection for syncing and managing iPhones and iPads with View desktops. This release also includes improvements for using USB scanners, and adds to the list of USB printers that you can use with thin clients. For more information, see the list of View Client resolved issues.
  • Keyboard mapping improvements - Many keyboard-related issues have been fixed. For more information, see the list of View Client resolved issues.
  • New timeout setting for SSO users - With the single-sign-on (SSO) feature, after users authenticate to View Connection Server, they are automatically logged in to their View desktop operating systems. This new timeout setting allows administrators to limit the number of minutes that the SSO feature is valid for.

    For example, if an administrator sets the time limit to 10 minutes, then 10 minutes after the user authenticates to View Connection Server, the automatic login ability expires. If the user then walks away from the desktop and it becomes inactive, when the user returns, the user is prompted for login credentials. For more information, see the VMware View Administration documentation.

  • VMware View 4.6 includes more than 160 bug fixes – For descriptions of selected resolved issues, see Resolved Issues.
  • Experimental support for Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 RC operating systems

Release: vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.3 Update 1

 Software Releases, VMware News  2 Responses »
Feb 132011
 

VMware sneaked out a few releases on Firday.  vCenter Server Heartbeat was also released and can be downloaded here.  For those interested, here’s the what’s new section from the release notes:

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

Features

  • Enhanced passive server management capabilities — A new deployment option allows the passive server to be managed and monitored remotely, this includes receiving file level antivirus updates. This option is only available for:
    • vCenter 4.0 U1 and its updates, 4.1 and its updates
    • Remote SQL Server 2005, 2008 only

    Please refer to install documentation for detailed requirements and install procedure specifically around DNS and changes required to Active Directory during installation.

  • Secure Client Server Communications — vCenter Server Heartbeat now provides secure client server communications with SSL Encryption using a 2048-bit key.
  • Support for View Composer — This release of VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat now provides support for View Composer v2.5

Release: VMware vSphere 4.1 Update 1

 Software Releases, VMware News  1 Response »
Feb 112011
 

As many have posted, vSphere 4.1 Update 1 was released last night.  I did notice that the release notes for ESX and ESXi are different in this release.  You can head straight to the download section here.  Here is the what’s new section of the release notes for ESX:

The following information describes some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESX:

  • Improvement in scalability — ESX 4.1 Update 1 supports up to 160 logical processors.
  • Support for additional guest operating systems — ESX 4.1 Update 1 adds support for RHEL 6, RHEL 5.6, SLES 11 SP1 for VMware, Ubuntu 10.10, and Solaris 10 Update 9 guest operating systems. For a complete list of guest operating systems supported with this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
  • Inclusion of additional drivers — ESX 4.1 Update 1 includes the 3ware SCSI 2.26.08.036vm40 and Neterion vxge 2.0.28.21239-p3.0.1.2 drivers. For earlier releases, these drivers were only available as separate downloads.

Resolved Issues – In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in the Resolved Issues section.

Here is the what’s new section of the release notes from ESXi:

The following information describes some of the enhancements available in this release of VMware ESXi:

  • Enablement of Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 can be configured to boot with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). This boot option can protect ESXi in some cases where system binaries are corrupted or have been tampered with. TXT is currently available on Intel Xeon processor 5600 series servers. For more information, see KB 1033811.
  • Improvement in scalability — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 supports up to 160 logical processors.
  • Support for additional guest operating systems — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 provides support for RHEL 6, RHEL 5.6, SLES 11 SP1 for VMware, Ubuntu 10.10, and Solaris 10 Update 9 guest operating systems. For a complete list of guest operating systems supported in this release, see the VMware Compatibility Guide.
  • Inclusion of additional drivers — ESXi 4.1 Update 1 includes the 3ware SCSI 2.26.08.036vm40 and Neterion vxge 2.0.28.21239-p3.0.1.2 drivers. For earlier releases, these drivers are only available as separate downloads.

Resolved Issues – In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that are documented in the Resolved Issuessection.

vCenter 4.1 has also been updates to Update 1 and the what’s new section of the release notes reads like this:

This release of VMware vCenter Server 4.1 Update 1 offers the following improvements:

  • Additional Guest Operating System Customization Support: vCenter Server now supports customization of the following guest operating systems:
    • Windows 7 SP1 (x32 and x64)
    • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (x32 and x64)
    • RHEL 6.0 (x32 and x64)
    • RHEL5.5 (x32 and x64)
  • Additional vCenter Server Database Support: vCenter Server now supports the following databases:
    • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
    • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP3
    • Oracle 11g Standard/Enterprise Release 2, 11.2.0.1.0 or later,  (x32 and x64)
    • IBM DB2 9.7.2 Express C (x32 and x64)
    • IBM DB2 9.7.2 Enterprise (x32 and x64)
      For more information about using IBM DB2 – 9.7.2 database with vCenter Server 4.1 Update 1, see KB 1033201.
  • Resolved Issues: In addition, this release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in theResolved Issues section.

VMware Partner Exchange 2011 – Thursday General Session

 Partner Related, VMware News, VMworld  Comments Off
Feb 102011
 

I personally anticipated Thursday’s general session mostly because I like to hear Carl Eschenbach speak. Carl started as a SE for EMC a long time ago. He’s very comfortable speaking to a large room and it shows. The session was in the same large room as the first which houses about 4,000 people.
Thursday started off like this:
The usual disclam was posted about forward looking features. Dale Irvin started the general session with a few jokes about his experiences the night before. Funny stuff to wake the crowd.  First up was Carl Eschenbach, President, Customer Operations.

Carl Eschenbach

Carl begins by describing how the name of partner exchange was chosen and a recap of why we are here. Last week, Vmware had 3,300 of their worldwide sales force come to Las Vegas to train them on the company message. This week is the “second week” of vmware’s kickoff sales training as per Carl. He talks about some of the numbers: 63 countries represented, 3,300 attendees. Carl asks the top partner award winners to come on stage.  The partners represented are from a variety of awards, Best Infrastructure Partner, Best BC/DR Partner, Best Distributor, etc.
Carls then goes on to discuss some of the awards that vmware has won in 2010. Continue reading »

VMware Partner Exchange 2011 – Wednesday General Session

 Partner Related, VMware News, VMworld  4 Responses »
Feb 092011
 

As I’m sure most are aware, today began the majority of the content for VMware’s Annual Partner Exchange Conference.  This year’s event is located in Orlando, FL and runs thru Friday February 11,2011.  Today began with a formal general session from 9am to 11am.  My comments/thoughts are included in parenthesis.

The session kicked off with a introduction and recap of the VMware vision by Paul Maritz, Chief Executive Officer, VMware.

Paul described 2010 as a breakout year for VMware. VMware accomplished $2.9 billion in revenue, up 41 percent over 2009. He mentioned that international revenues were up 43 percent to $1.4 billion. He then thanks the audience, composed of partners and resellers, for that achievement. Paul also thanks the sponsors for the event including EMC, HP, NetApp, Cisco among others. After the thank yous are completed, Paul asks a rhetorical question of the crowd specifically if they know what customers want.  Paul says that customers want greater business agility while improving efficiency.  He says that in the next five years there will be a transformation in IT.  Specifically around Integration and Automation, New Application Platforms, and Device independence in what he referred to as a “post-Windows world” (love that term).  He reviews the chart of new server deployments by year and highlights 2009.  That was when VM deployments surpassed physical server deployments.  He thanks the partners again and exits the stage. Continue reading »