Quest Software

vRanger Backup & Replication 5 will be available for download January 31st, so let's see what is new:

• vReplicator integration 
   o vRanger Pro customers get replication at no additional cost
   o Shared advanced resource scheduler to minimize backup and replication window

• Linux File Level Restore 
   o Restore single files or folders

• Cataloging
   o Search files across all your savepoints, simplifies and make File Level Restore procedure much faster

• Fibre restore 
   o Restore your images over fibre
   o Faster and LAN-free

• Repository support for NFS and FTP
   o Additional protocol support to existing CIFS and SFTP

• vRanger PowerPack
   o Manage vRanger with PowerShell in PowerGUI
   o Does not require any PowerShell skills as it´s provided in the PowerPack
   o Allows you to do things not possible to do in the product

• Bugfixes

Scott Herold is happy to announce the release of the vEcoShell 1.2.6. It’s out of beta and officially has been deemed as a stable release. The list of features is quite limited, but the biggest change is multi session management which makes copying and pasting from the web and PS1 files possible. Under the hood every single script in the function library was re-written from scratch. Scott also has transferred the community homepage of The vEcoShell Initiative to Vizioncore’s vCommunity.



What's New with 1.2.6?

•Completely rewritten PowerPack to support VMware PowerCLU 4.0 Update 1 and its ability to manage connections to multiple $viServer objects.
•Ability to copy and paste code from "PowerShell Code" tab directly into standalone PS1 files (Will still need to Add-PSSnapin and Connect-VIServer for script to function).
•Ability to copy and paste code snippets from the internet and they will work without needing to add the $managedHost.connection code everywhere.

Download the latest version of vEcoShell and additional PowerPacks here.

Scott Herold about the GA: I am happy to announce that the 1.2.6 version of vEcoShell is now available on the Downloads Page. This update brings us into full compatibility with VMware PowerCLI 4.0 U1. In addition, we have decided to remove the product from beta and have provided our first stable release , which has been rigourously tested by the Vizioncore QC team. vEcoShell will remain Freeware, and continue to have a community support policy. The major difference in 1.2.6 is in how connections to multiple vCenter or ESX Servers are managed. In previous versions, vEcoShell maintained all session management and required custom code in nearly all of it's scripts to function properly. These scripts could not run externally to vEcoShell, so the PowerShell Code tab provided limited value. With the 1.2.6 release, vEcoShell now lets PowerCLI manage all connections. This means we were able to remove all custom code from our script library. Nearly every script that is in vEcoShell today can be run externally. Simply copy a code block from the "PowerShell Code"...

A few days ago, Scott Herold has released version 1.2 of the Virtualization EcoShell. This new version contains a very cool feature called “Best Practice Filters”. These filters allows you to easily perform daily checks of common faulty configuration issues like a Snapshot hunter, VMs with CROM Connected and Hosts with NIC at Half Duplex. I’ll give a demo of the Virtualization EcoShell 1.2 at the Dutch VMUG event and Scott is joining me on stage to do a sneak peak of the 1.3 version.  I couldn't wish for a better side-kick :-)

http://thevesi.org

New in the Virtualization EcoShell 1.2 Release

•Charts Tab allowuing users to graph any information presented in the grid view using various chart formats
•Best Practices Filters allow customers to easly perform daily checks of common misconfigurations
•Custom Attribute Manager allows users to view all custom attributes and quickly modify custom attribute values against multiple entities
•Hyper-V PowerPack allowing administrators to manage indivdual Microsoft Hyper-V installations using PowerShell

David Feathergill, Chief Software Architect, Vizioncore, about the vAPI web service interface. While the vAPI web service interface acts as a facade, exposing services in the vRanger Pro 4.0 DPP platform to the outside world. The main areas that these services cover are: inventory, repositories, connections, and jobs. Developers can choose to expose functionality in their clients as they see fit. For example, an application may choose to observe events relating to jobs and display notifications about their completion and result. Another could create backup and/or restore jobs in vRanger and run them. For the administrator, we’ve created special vAPI clients, the PowerShell cmdlets.

The vAPI web service interface is developer focused, the PowerShell cmdlets are administrator focused. The set of cmdlets that we have created give the administrator open-ended access to the platform. By using these, we allow the administrator to integrate vRanger with third-party software and to create scripts automating the protection of their virtual infrastructure. The administrator’s abilities have been greatly enhanced compared to previous releases. We expose much more of our platform functionality than ever before, with 33 cmdlets covering the main functional areas of the vRanger platform.

Vizioncore's vControl is a multi-hypervisor virtual machine (VM) management tool that provides self-service provisioning, multi-VM control and task-based automation to reduce VM administration costs and improve consistency. vControl lets VM consumers build and deploy VMs for themselves, while providing administrators and datacenter managers with a single interface for task-based administration of VMs. Supporting VMware ESX/ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Sun Solaris Zones, and featuring out-of-the-box automation workflows, vControl offers users the power to dramatically reduce time wasted on unnecessary repetitive tasks across multiple platforms and to help reduce common administrative errors.

Key features of vControl include:

• Self-Service Provisioning
• Multi-VM Control
• Task Automation
• Task-Based High Availability (HA)
• Virtual Infrastructure Discovery

Continue reading "The launch of vControl" »

From April 28 to July 7, 2009, watch the video clues from the vzGirls - released every Tuesday and Thursday - and complete the entry form in its entirety. Download your official entry form here. There will be 15 winners that will each receive an iPod touch.

Chris Akerberg, President & COO, Vizioncore is pleased to introduce Vizioncorum – the official blogging site of Vizioncore. Why did Vizioncore take this step to launch this site now? As virtualization becomes more mainstream, they felt it would be very valuable to the community to voice their expertise and knowledge and make it available to both those new to virtualization and those longer-term users of the technology.

The Vizioncorum Blog Panelists are Jason Mattox, David Feathergill, Scott Herold, Thomas Bryant, Brad Wagner and the Vizioncore Sales Engineers.

http://vizioncorum.com/

Vizioncore has added ESXi support to vRanger Pro and improved the speed of the P2V engine.  In order to use vRanger Pro with ESXi hosts, you will need both vRanger 3.2.8.1 and the new VCB Plugin 3.0.0.1.