VMware updates vSphere, vSAN with more hybrid management features
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With the latest releases of vSphere and vSAN, VMware continues to build up support for customers interested in hybrid cloud options.
The updates included in vSphere 6.7, VMware's hypervisor and virtualization management platform, fall into four categories: enhancing performance, providing new security capabilities, accommodating both traditional and new applications and providing a seamless cloud experience.
In the category of performance, vSphere admins will get a faster experience using the vCenter Server Appliance -- twice the performance in vCenter operations per second when compared to vSphere 6.5.
Additionally, vSphere 6.7 significantly reduces reboot times. A typical patch or upgrade cycle takes two reboots. vSphere 6.7 takes just one. On top of that, vSphere Quick Boot further reduces the remaining reboot time by skipping hardware initialization steps. This should give IT teams more time to work on applying the latest security patches, said Himanshu Singh, group manager for cloud platform product marketing at VMware.
"This is all about efficiency and performance, not just making the experience better but also ensuring IT stays more secure," he said.
The new release also offers new Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 support and virtual TPM 2.0, improving protection and integrity for both the hypervisor and the guest operating system (OS). Specifically, this feature prevents VMs and hosts from being tampered with, prevents any unauthorized components from being loaded and enables guest OS security features.
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For VMs running on GPUs, vSphere 6.7 offers new suspend and resume capabilities that should improve host host lifecycle management and reduce end-user disruption.
Meanwhile, admins also get a more unified view of different versions of vSphere running on-premise and in the public cloud. With the new vCenter Hybrid Linked Mode, customers can maintain their current vSphere version on premise while adding capabilities in vSphere-based public clouds.
For vSAN 6.7, VMware focused largely on improving its ease of use. It includes vSphere HTML5 client support, so vSAN administrators have a more intuitive management experience.
Additionally, in response to customer requests, VMware integrated vRealize Operations Healthchecks in vCenter Server. Customers with a vSAN Advanced or vSAN Enterprise license get free access to vRealize Operations 6.7, which gives them six new performance and capacity dashboards.
For customers interested in running NoSQL use cases, vSAN 6.7 now offers Host-Pinning, which optimizes vSAN for NoSQL databases. It also offers support for clustered Windows Server environments.
The new version also offers enhanced encryption that meets US requirements with FIPS 140-2 validation to protect data from disruptive events.
Both vSphere 6.7 and vSAN 6.7 should be available by the end of VMware's first quarter for fiscal year 2019.