vMA 4.0 Patch 2 has just officially been released. This release contains multiple bugfixes and security patches. Make sure to install the patch. KB article 1014689 describes how to do the upgrade from within the appliance.
update
ESX(i) 4.0 -> ESX(i) 4.0 U1 update
My colleague Lee Dilworth just emailed me the following. Those who are running vSphere ESX(i) and have the Cisco Nexus1000v installed might want to read this:
If your customers are on ESXi/ESX 4.0 and want to update to U1 using the vihostupdate then first they need to read this new KB:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1015879
From here you will see mention of a file VEM-4.0.0-update01.zip which is not on the U1 download page. One useful addition to the KB article would be to remind customers that to obtain this VEM update you need to navigate to: http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/download/
From here select “VEM” and “4.0.0” and search. You will then see VEM-4.0.0-update01.zip. Copy this to the same folder as your ESXi patch file (ESXi-4.0.0-update01.zip) and then run:
vihostupdate --server <server> --username <uname> --password <passwd> --bundle ESXi-4.0.0-update01.zip,VEM-4.0.0-update01.zip --bulletin VEM400-200911014-BG,ESXi400-200911201-UG –install
Let the install run….that’s it.
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vSphere CLI\bin>vihostupdate.pl --server 192.168.1.1 --bundle C:\Install\U1\ESXi-4.0.0-update01.zip, C:\Install\U1\VEM-4.0.0-update01-v100.zip --bulletin VEM400-200911014-BG, ESXi400-200911201-UG --installEnter username: rootEnter password: vmwarePlease wait patch installation is in progress ...The update completed successfully, but the system needs to be rebooted for the changes to be effective.
vSphere ESX/vCenter 4.0 Update 1
VMware just released ESX 4.0 Update 1 and vCenter 4.0 Update 1. Most people have already reported on this by now. Two things that stood out for me personally is the following:
- 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.
- 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 an 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.
Especially the first is important as many people have been building non DRS-HA clusters solely for MSCS VMs. As of now this is not needed anymore. You can simply disable DRS and HA via the Cluster properties to make sure your MSCS VMs do not move around. I think Update 1 is an important release for everyone running vSphere at this moment.
Of course you View guys were all waiting for Update 1 to drop:
- 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.
Full ESX 4.0 U1 Release Notes
Full vCenter 4.0 U1 Release Notes
Something else I noticed… The release notes for ESX talk about “vMotion” where the release notes for vCenter talk about “VMotion”. It seems that VMotion is about to be renamed to vMotion.
vSphere v4.? Beta coming up…
VMware employee Michael Adams just revealed that there’s a beta program for new features or a new release of vSphere.
We are looking for beta participants to test out some new vSphere features currently in development. Interested? If so, contact your VMware account team for further details.
Unfortunately there are no details disclosed at this point in time and of course I can’t comment… I suggest everyone to contact their local account team and try to be part of this beta program! There are some great new features being developed at the moment and participating in this beta is definitely worth it!
VMware vCenter Chargeback 1.0.1
VMware has just released a new version of VMware vCenter Chargeback. Below you can find the “what’s new” details from the release notes:
vCenter Chargeback 1.0.1 | 10/29/2009 | Build 204097
Last Document Update: 10/29/2009
What’s New in this Release
vCenter Chargeback 1.0.1 provides the following new features:
- Support for Windows Authentication
This release of vCenter Chargeback supports Windows Authentication for SQL Server databases. If you are using SQL Server for the vCenter Chargeback database or for the vCenter Server database, then you can configure the application to use Windows Authentication instead of SQL Authentication.- New computing resource and billing policies added
This release of vCenter Chargeback introduces a new computing resource, vCPU, and two new billing policies, vCPU Count and Memory Size and Fixed Cost and vCPU Count and Memory Size. These policies enable you to calculate cost based on the number of virtual CPUs and the amount of memory allocated to the virtual machines.- Resource Summary section lists rolled-up usage data for all entities
The Resource Summary section of the chargeback reports show the rolled-up usage data for all the entities.- Global fixed cost history is retained
This release of vCenter Chargeback lets you to set different cost values for different time periods on the same global fixed cost. The old values are retained and not overwritten.- Ability to undo to the most recent operation on the chargeback hierarchy
The most recent operation on the chargeback hierarchy can be undone. This undo feature is available for entities that are added or moved in the hierarchy. The undo option is not available for rename and delete operations.Ability to use the vCenter Chargeback APIs
vCenter Chargeback APIs provide an interface to programmatically use the various features of vCenter Chargeback. As an application developer, you can use these APIs to build chargeback applications or integrate vCenter Chargeback with your internal billing systems and compliance policies. Please do note that the APIs released with this version of vCenter Chargeback are only for a technical preview.