VMware released vSphere 4.1 with a couple of new features like “Memory compression”, “Storage I/O Control” and much more. I’m not going to repeat all the information, because you can already read it here:

• Gabesvirtualworld
• Jase’s Place
• vSphere-Land
• VMware

One thing that I don’t read is that vMotion is now part of vSphere Standard edition. And that’s a big improvement for a lot of organizations who don’t need all the features of Advanced or Enterprise (Plus), but do need vMotion for maintenance for example. 

Yesterday I had a presentation (not under NDA) from VMware about the improvements and features that we can expect with View 4.5 (no guarantees) and I was impressed as well as disappointed.  Impressed by the small additions/improvements that together create a more mature and complete Desktop Virtualization solution. Disappointed about the fact that the feature that really drew my attention : Virtual Profiles (the RTOSoft acquisition) has some big disadvantages which gives me the feeling I still need a “real” Profile Virtualization solution.

It’s my personal guess, not mentioned by VMware, that View 4.5 will be released at VMworld 2010 San Fransisco in August 2010.

First thing: the client hypervisor.  Read the rest of this entry »

VMware released VMware View 4.0.1 yesterday:

What’s New in View Manager 4.0.1

VMware View 4.0.1 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues in the previous releases. For details, see the Resolved Issues section.

This release includes the following new features.

Localization of VMware View

The View Client and online help for View Client are now available in Japanese, French, German, and simplified Chinese. The View Manager Administration Guide, View Manager Release Notes, Getting Started with VMware View document, View Upgrade Guide, and View Architecture Planning Guide are also available in these languages.

VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 and ESX 3.5 Update 5 Support

View Manager 4.0.1 includes support for VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 6 and ESX 3.5 Update 5.

Enhancements to the PCoIP Display Protocol

PCoIP now supports the following features:

• Virtual Printing, which allows end users to use local or network printers from a View desktop without requiring that additional print drivers be installed in the View desktop.
• Single sign-on support for third party providers such as Sentillion and Imprivata.
• View Client supports international keyboards when using PCoIP.

For PCoIP-related bug fixes, see the View Client Resolved Issues section.

NetApp just announced the release of the Rapid Cloning utility (RCU):

NetApp is proud to announce the release of the Rapid Cloning Utility 3.0.  This release brings many new features to assist virtual data center administrators with managing their server and desktop environments to further reduce management overhead associated with traditional storage deployments.

Here is a list of some of the new or expanded features and support for RCU 3.0:

• VMware vSphere 4.0 support  
• VMware vApp support
• Data ONTAP 7.3.2, 7.3.3, and 8.0 7-mode support
• MultiStore support (requires Data ONTAP 7.3.3)
• 64-bit platform support
• Automatic import wizard into VMware View 4
• Create export file for Citrix XenDesktop 4.0
• Re-deploy VMs from a baseline image
• Create clones in qTree-based datastores
• Create clones in designated VM folders
• vCenter alert for misaligned source VM
• ‘Add storage system’ wizard with option to change attributes
• API enhanced to create, destroy and resize datastores, as well as re-deploy VMs
• Select virtual hard drive type (thin or thick) for clones
• Match guest host name to VM name when using a Customer Sysprep Answer File
• Clone nvram with VM
• Improved security for NFS datastore export

Read the rest of the announcement of the release of NetApp Rapid Cloning Utility.

The “Project Virtual Reality Check” team just released a new whitepaper: “Hyper-V 2008R2, vSphere 4, XenServer 5.5 on Intel ‘Nehalem’ Xeon 5500“. 

 “If you are looking for an independent advise and a ‘Reality Check’ in relation to Virtualizing Terminal Server and Desktop workloads, if you are curious about the impact of different hypervisors and the performance differences with various hardware and if you are searching for best practices for your virtual Desktops … Project VRC whitepapers are a must read!”

• Highlights, performance differences and best practice conclusions for Terminal Services workloads on:
  • Bare metal Terminal Services; 2003/2008/x86/x64
  • Hypervisors: Citrix  XenServer 5.5, Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2 ‘Hyper-V’ and VMware vSphere 4.0
  • Performance impact using different HP Proliant state-of-the-art hardware using Intel Xeon ‘Nehalem’ x5500  Read the rest of this entry »