Eric Sloof

July ’08 is a busy moth at Palo Alto, VMware just released the update 2 for VMware ESX server 3.5 and Virtual center Server 2.5 and the free VMware ESXi Installable.

VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 Server Latest Released Version: 2.5 Update 2 | 07/25/08

VMware ESX 3.5 Server Latest Released Version: 3.5 Update 2 | 07/25/08

VMware ESXi Installable Latest Released Version: 3.5 Update 2 | 07/25/08

What's New

·         Windows Server 2008 support

·         VMotion Compatibility

·         Storage VMotion

·         VSS quiescing support

·         Hot Virtual Extend Support

·         192 vCPUs per host

·         8Gb Fiber Channel HBAs

·         SAS arrays

·         10 GbE iSCSI initiator

·         10 GbE NFS support

·         IBM System x3950 M2

·         IPMI OEM extension support

·         System health monitoring through CIM providers

·         CIM SMASH/Server Management API

·         Display of system health information

·         Remote CLI

·         HP Management Agents

·         Solaris10 U5

·         SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2

·         Ubuntu 8.04

·         Driver updates

·         Library update

·         VMware High Availabilty (HA)

The benefits of virtual environments are widely known and accepted. However, Kroll Ontrack engineers have seen a ten-fold increase in data recovery needs in virtualised environments.  Data recovery from these systems is more complex and risky, because of the quantity and value of data residing on them.  To cater to this need Kroll Ontrack's R&D team have devised unique capabilities to recover data from virtual environments.

Do you think you have what it takes to be the best PowerShell scripter? VMware is challenging the world’s VI administrators to a contest of skill, creativity and raw scripting talent. If you think you have what it takes to be the best and an all expenses paid trip to VMworld Las Vegas is your cup of tea – this is for you.

Prizes:

First Prize: Airfare, hotel and admission to VMworld 2008 Las Vegas (up to $5,000 in value) or $5,000 USD Cash Prize

Second Prize: Macbook Air with VMware Fusion or $2,500 USD

Third Prize: Xbox 360 Elite or $500 USD

Make sure you use the Latest Released Version: 1.0 | 07/25/08 | 103777 | 2.54 MB  :-)

Jonathan Walz & Hal Rottenberg, the guys behind the PowerScripting Podcast interviewed Carter Shanklin. In Episode 34 they spoke with Carter, a Product Manager over at VMware about the VI Toolkit for Windows. The VI Toolkit will become general available this weekend and will contain a lot of new CmdLet’s. Here’s the output from a pre-GA build v1.0.101511 "Get-Command –psssnapin vmware*". Carter’s next project is the VIX API. The VMware VIX API allows you to automate VM and guest operations on VMware Server, Workstation and ESX. He started a blog about this subject recently. I also had the opportunity to ask Hal about the progress on his upcoming “Managing VMWare with Windows PowerShell�? book. Hal reported it's coming along. You can read his take on these and other technologies at his blog TechProsaic.

The VMware Infrastructure (VI) Toolkit (for Windows) 1.0 includes more than 120 cmdlets, a set of sample scripts, and a function library that make managing and automating the VMware Infrastructure easier than ever before.

Here's a link to my accidental discovery: Latest Released Version: 1.0 | 07/25/08 | 103777 | 2.54 MB

VMware's new Site Recovery Manager product automates failover from a production datacenter to a backup datacenter. VMware Customer Education introduces a two-day instructor-led, hands-on training course on this exciting new technology. The course covers the creation of disaster-recovery workflows, the setup of the SRM product, and testing and executing recovery plans.

View the course description and enroll in a public delivery today.

Today, VMware is taking another step towards making virtualization ubiquitous by announcing that VMware ESXi will be available for download at no cost as of the week of July 28, 2008.

VMware has always believed that virtualization needs to be ubiquitous. Since 2001, VMware has provided the industry's most popular and reliable hypervisor used by more than 100,000 customers. During this evolution, partners like you have been critical in educating and delivering virtualization to customers of all sizes. In December 2007, VMware announced significant improvements with ESXi - its third-generation, stand-alone hypervisor. With its smaller footprint and OS-independence, ESXi ensures even higher levels of security and reliability while making virtualization easier than ever to deploy.