Vsphere features

Here are 10 features we feel are worth highlighting:

vCenter server linked mode

This mode allows you to connect multiple vCenter servers in a “linked” fashion.

Doing this allows them to share licenses and roles and provides them with an

“overview” of the entire virtual environment.

Host profiles

Host profiles are provided in Enterprise Plus to make it easy to push a template of

an already existing ESX host to a new server. This feature is a huge benefit, as it

means you no longer need to manually configure networks, storage, and so on in

your new ESX Servers.

Performance, graphs, and events

CPU, memory, storage, and networking graphs are now displayed on one central

page. In additional to improved graphs, customers will benefit from improved

event messages, alarm settings, and error reporting.

Storage VMotion within vCenter

You can initiate a storage VMotion within the vCenter client. This takes away the

need for the command-line management or third-party plug-ins that were popular

with the ESX 3.x versions.

Enhanced VMotion

Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) allows customers to initiate VMotion

between Intel FlexMigration and AMD-V Extended Migration technologies. In essence,

this means you can now move a running server between hosts using different

CPU technologies.

Virtual machine hot add support

You can add CPU and memory resources to an existing virtual machine without

having to reboot.

Virtual machine hardware improvements

Virtual machines can now scale up to eight virtual SMP processors and up to 255GB

of RAM. vSphere supports IDE devices, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and VMXNET

Generation 3 network support.

Physical node improvements

Physical hosts can now have up to 1TB of memory, 64 logical CPUs, and 320 virtual

machines. The 64-bit architecture of ESX4 allows greater memory capacity, better

performance, and seamless hardware support compared to previous releases.

Storage improvements

ESX 4.0 brings a huge set of improvements to the realm of storage within ESX.

Thin provisioning for virtual disks enables virtual machines to utilize storage on

an as-needed basis, eliminating a major source of wasted space on a storage area

network (SAN). The VMFS Volume Grow feature allows you to dynamically grow

a Virtual Machine File System without interrupting the running virtual machines.

There is also enhanced support for NFS and iSCSI software initiators, which now

supply support for jumbo frames on 1GB or 10GB local networks.

Distributed switch

A distributed switch is provided on Enterprise Plus to let customers create a virtual

switch for all their ESX hosts to connect to and utilize. This helps reduce network

maintenance and allows virtual machines to be moved to any host using VMotion

without having to worry about network connections