Vmware vSphere
The industry-leading virtualization and cloud platform
Vmware vCenter Server
vCenter Server: Simplified and Efficient Server Management
Vmware vCloud Director
VMware Cloud Director: The leading cloud service-delivery platform
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VMware vSphere: The industry-leading virtualization and cloud platform
vSphere delivers essential services for the modern hybrid cloud. The new vSphere has been rearchitected with native Kubernetes to run existing enterprise applications alongside modern containerized applications in a unified manner
Features of vSphere
VMware vSphere 6 Enterprise Plus
- Scale Enhancements – New configuration maximums to support even the largest app environments
- VMware vCenter Server Appliance Linked Mode – Support linked mode for vCenter Server Appliance with embedded Platform Services Controller, link up to 15 vCenters with no load balancers needed
- VMware vCenter Server Converge Tool – Migrate topology from vCenter Server Appliance with External PSC into vCenter Server Appliance with Embedded PSC with ease
- VMware vCenter Server Appliance Back Up Scheduler – Schedule vCenter Server Appliance backups; Full REST APIs for Backup and Restore
- Single Reboot – Dramatically reduce upgrade times by skipping a host reset
- vSphere Quick Boot – Reduce patching and upgrade times by rebooting the ESXi hypervisor without rebooting the physical host, skipping time-consuming hardware initialization
- Support for 4K Native Storage – Enhanced performance at scale to better serve large infrastructures
- Fully Featured HTML 5 based vSphere Client – Added functionality and easy management of connected components
- Security-at-Scale – Policy-driven security that makes securing infrastructure operationally simple
- Support for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 and virtual TPM – Enhanced security to protect the hypervisor and guest operating system against unauthorized access
- Cross-vCenter Encrypted vMotion – Encrypted vMotion capability across different vCenter instances and versions
- Support for Microsoft’s Virtualization Based Security (VBS) – Run Windows VMs performant and securely on vSphere
- VMware AppDefense – Protect the integrity of applications running on vSphere to create better visibility, application control, and threat response
- NVIDIA GRID vGPU Enhancements – Support for suspend and resume capabilities for vGPUs, to improve host lifecycle management. Support for VMware vMotion and snapshot capabilities allows migration of vGPU powered VMs to another host during maintenance windows, reducing end-user disruption
- vSphere Persistent Memory – Support for persistent memory, exposing it as block storage or as memory, to enhance performance for new as well as existing apps
- VMware vCenter Server Appliance Hybrid Linked Mode – Unified visibility and manageability across an on-premises vSphere environment running on one version and a vSphere-based public cloud environment, such as VMware Cloud on AWS, running on a different version of vSphere
- Per-VM Enhanced vMotion Compatibility (EVC) – Seamless migration of workloads between on premises and the cloud
- Cross-vCenter Mixed Version Provisioning – Simplify provisioning across hybrid cloud environments that have different vCenter versions
New features in vSphere 7
- vSphere Lifecycle Manager
- Next-Gen Infrastructure Image Management Manage infrastructure images to patch, update or upgrade ESXi clusters using a desired state model
- vCenter Server Profiles Desired state configuration management capabilities for vCenter Server. It helps the user to define/validate/apply configuration for multiple vCenter Servers
- vCenter Server Update Planner Manage the compatibility & interoperability for vCenter Server for upgrade scenarios. We will allow users to generate the interoperability & pre-checks report, which will help them plan for upgrades
- Content Library Added administrative control and versioning support. Provides simple and effective centralized management for virtual machine templates, virtual appliances, ISO images, and scripts.
- Identity federation with ADFS Secure access and account management
- vSphere Trust Authority Remote attestation for sensitive workloads
- Dynamic DirectPath IO Support for vGPU and DirectPath I/O initial VM placement
- DRS Redesigned with a more workload centric approach, DRS balances resources allocated to workloads in a vSphere cluster.
- vSphere Bitfusion Delivery of elastic infrastructure for AI/ML applications using cloud pools of hardware accelerators such as GPUs.1
- vMotion® The recent enhancements in vMotion logic provides non-disruptive operations, irrespective of the size of VMs, specifically for large and mission critical workloads
Features of vSphere 7 with Kubernetes (available through VMware Cloud Foundation)
- VMware Cloud Foundation Services consists of two families of services - Tanzu Runtime Services and Hybrid Infrastructure Services. Powered by innovations in vSphere 7 with Kubernetes, these services enable a self-service experience through Kubernetes APIs.
- Tanzu Runtime Services allow developers to build applications with freedom using the upstream conformant Kubernetes distributions.
- Hybrid Infrastructure Services allow developers to provision and work with infrastructure such as compute, storage, and networking.
- Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service The Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service allows developers to manage consistent, compliant and conformant Kubernetes clusters
- vSphere Pod Service The vSphere Pod Service allows developers to run containers directly on the hypervisor for improved security, performance, and manageability
- Storage Service The Storage Service allows developers to manage persistent disks for use with containers, Kubernetes and virtual machines
- Network Service The Network Service allows developers to manage Virtual Routers, Load Balancers and Firewall Rules
- Registry Service The Registry Service allows developers to store, manage and secure Docker and OCI images
Benefits of vSphere 6.7 Enterprise Plus
Run any app, on any cloud
Turbo charge application performance
Seamless hybrid cloud experience
Efficient management at scale
Comprehensive built-in security
6x improvement in application performance with vSphere Persistent Memory
Benefits of vSphere 7
Simplified Lifecyle Management
Simplify vSphere software patching and firmware upgrades with the updated lifecycle manager and update planner. Automate lifecycle management using RESTful APIs and the industry standard JSON for added flexibility.
Intrinsic Security and Control
Protect your vSphere hosts and applications with a simple, comprehensive and policy-driven model. Perform remote attestation for sensitive workloads using vSphere Trust Authority. Secure your access and account management using vSphere identity federation.
Application and Hardware Acceleration
Deliver elastic infrastructure for AI/ML applications using cloud pools of hardware accelerators such as GPUs. Improve the performance and resiliency of applications using improvements in vMotion, DRS and persistent memory. Support for latency-sensitive applications with precision time protocol.
Benefits of vSphere 7 with Kubernetes
Streamlined Development
Deliver fully compliant and conformant Kubernetes for your development teams with the Tanzu Kubernetes Grid service. Enable self-service access to infrastructure using Kubernetes APIs.
Agile Operations
Manage role base access and quota allocation for VMs and containers using the familiar vCenter interface. Manage policies for an entire group of VMs, containers and Kubernetes clusters in vCenter.
Accelerated Innovation
Remove barriers between developer and IT with a unified platform for managing both virtual machines and containers in a single infrastructure stack that is available wherever you run vSphere.
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vCenter Server: Simplified and Efficient Server Management
Gain centralized visibility, simplified and efficient management at scale, and extensibility across the hybrid cloud—all from a single console. VMware vCenter Server is advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling your VMware vSphere environments, allowing you to automate and deliver a virtual infrastructure across the hybrid cloud with confidence.
Features of vCenter Server
Simple Deployment
Quickly deploy vCenter Server as a pre-packaged, optimized, and easy-to-maintain virtual appliance. Integration of vSphere Update Manager into vCenter Server Appliance makes patching and upgrading fast and easy. RESTful APIs allow for the easily repeatable deployment of vCenter Server Appliance from a template, speeding up deployment times as well as reducing human error.
Extensibility and Scalability Across Hybrid Cloud
Seamlessly extend your on-premises environment to vSphere-based public clouds, such as VMware Cloud on AWS, no matter which version of vCenter Server you are running. Large-scale management is now improved: Manage up to 2,000 hosts and 35,000 virtual machines with a single vCenter Server instance.
Centralized Control and Visibility
Administer your entire vSphere infrastructure from a single location. The HTML 5-based vSphere Client lets you manage the essential functions of vSphere from any browser, offering more responsiveness and usability than ever before. Assign users to custom roles, search vCenter Server inventory, or provision new virtual machines with the click of a button.
Improved Management
Use powerful tools to simplify management and extend your control. Use web services APIs to achieve cost-effective and flexible integration with existing systems management products. And use different VMware vCenter Server versions while allowing cross-vCenter, mixed-version provisioning operations, such as vMotion, Full Clone, and cold migrate.
Proactive Optimization
Allocate and optimize resources for maximum efficiency with our server management software. Manage up to 70,000 virtual machines and 5,000 hosts across 15 vCenter Server instances. Use vSphere HA and DRS clusters to support up to 64 hosts and 8,000 virtual machines. Replicate roles, permissions, and licenses across the infrastructure so you can simultaneously log in, view, and search the inventories of all vCenter Servers. Link multiple vCenter Server Appliances and increase visibility without using costly load balancers.
Native Elements
Protect the vCenter Server Appliance and related services with native high availability (HA) and a recovery time objective of less than 10 minutes. vSphere provides native active-passive HA capability, certified for vCenter Server Appliance.
Back up your appliance to a set of files while vCenter Server is still up and running with native backup and restore. Restore by simply pointing a fresh appliance to the backup location and files will be downloaded to the new vCenter Server Appliance. No third-party products required.
Schedule your vCenter Server Appliance backups and control the number of backups retained via the native backup scheduler.
Plug-in Extensibility
vSphere Client Plug-ins from VMware partners allow IT admins to manage third-party elements in their data center directly from vCenter Server. Our server management software has the largest partner ecosystem in the industry, with our open vSphere Client Plug-in SDK. As a result, vCenter Server customers can implement back-up, data protection, server management, network management and security management, directly from vCenter Server.
VMware launched the vSphere Client Plug-in Certification Program in 2016 to ensure a better end-user experience for customers. Certified Plug-ins deliver optimal performance, better security model, client isolation against failures in one plug-in, and enhanced vCenter Server Appliance scalability. Customers will be able to distinguish certified vSphere Client Plug-ins because only certified Plug-ins will carry the "VMware-ready" logo.