The VMguy

An update to the product that started it all.  VMware updated their oldest product to version 8.0.  You can head right to the download here.  Here’s the what’s new section from the release notes for all the details:

This release of VMware Workstation adds the following new features and support.

• Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards
• Virtual Hardware Improvements
• New User Interface
• What Happened to Teams?
• Shared Virtual Machines and AutoStart
• Remote Connections
• Upload to vSphere
• Documentation Changes

Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards

The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU. See Installation Requirements for details.

The keyboard filter driver is no longer installed by default. When the driver is not installed, the enhanced keyboard functionality is unavailable and you must press Ctrl-Alt-Ins instead of Ctrl-Alt-Del to send a Ctrl-Alt-Del keystroke to the guest. To use the enhanced keyboard functionality, you must perform a custom installation and select the component. If you select the component, you must reboot whenever you install or uninstall Workstation. Read the rest of this entry »

VMWorld keeps rolling on and on.  VMware has made Site Recovery Manager 5.0 available for download here.  As I’ve mentioned time and time again, SRM is my favorite non-vSphere product from VMWare.  This one does not disappoint.  You can grab the download here.  Here’s the What’s New Section from the release notes:

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0 enhances your ability to build, manage and execute reliable disaster recovery plans for your virtual environment. With the release of version 5.0, VMware has expanded the capabilities of Site Recovery Manager to provide unprecedented levels of protection. New use cases have been made possible through the addition of the following capabilities:

• vSphere Replication. When used in conjunction with VMware vSphere 5.0, Site Recovery Manager 5.0 introduces a new capability to utilize the vSphere 5.0 host to perform replication of powered-on virtual machines over the network to another vSphere 5.0 host, without the requirement for storage array-based replication. As virtual machines change with use, the changed blocks are replicated to a shadow copy of the virtual machine resident at the recovery site, in accordance with a Recovery Point Objective set as a property of the virtual machine itself.
• Planned Migration. A new workflow designed to deliver migration while minimizing the risk of data loss. Planned migration will stop the workflow from continuing if an error is encountered, providing an opportunity to fix the problem, ensuring that systems are properly quiescent and that all data changes have been completely replicated.
• Automated Re-Protection. Re-protection is a new extension to recovery plans for use only with array-based replication. Automated re-protect enables the environment at the recovery site to establish replication and protection of the environment back to the original protected site through a single click.
• Automated Failback. Automated failback returns the entire environment to the originally protected primary site. This can only happen after re-protection has ensured that data replication and synchronization have been established to the original primary site. Failback will run the same workflow that was used to migrate the environment to the protected site, ensuring that the critical systems encapsulated by the recovery plan are returned to their original environment. Automated failback, like re-protection, is only available for use with array-based replication protected virtual machines.
• Enhanced Dependency Definition. This includes the addition of more (5) priority groups, and the ability to set virtual machine dependencies within a priority group. Virtual machine dependencies can be defined to ensure that required systems are available before dependent virtual machines are powered on. This enables highly organized workflow control, ensuring that required services are available before dependent virtual machines are powered on.

Is VMWorld still going?  It seems the entire desktop line from VMware refreshed today.  You can grab the download for Fusion 4.0.1 here.  Here’s the what’s new section from the release notes:

This release of VMware Fusion adds the following new features.

• New Installation Experience
• New User Interface
• Designed for Lion
• Virtual Hardware Improvements
• Encrypted Virtual Machines
• Pause State for Virtual Machines
• Remote CD and DVD Drives
• Shrinking Disks with Snapshots
• Mirrored Folders
• OVF Support
• Other Technical Changes

New Installation Experience

VMware Fusion is now installed by dragging and dropping to the Applications folder. Users of older versions can upgrade using the included utility. VMware Fusion can be uninstalled by quitting the application and dragging it to the trash.

Read the rest of this entry »

VMware View 5.0 has been released and can be downloaded here.  For those customers using View over slow WAN connections, you are going to want to take a close look at this release.  Here’s the What’s New from the release notes:

VMware View 5.0 includes the following new features:

• PCoIP WAN performance optimization – Improves PCoIP protocol performance in low-bandwidth WAN environments. Users who connect to their desktops over an external WAN have enhanced desktop experience.
• Support for 3D graphics on vSphere 5.0 – This feature provides View desktops with vGPU graphics enablement available on vSphere 5.0 platforms. View users can take advantage of desktop graphics enhancements provided by AERO (such as peek, shake, and Flip 3D) and the 3D capabilities of Windows Office 2010 (such as picture editing, slide transitions and animations, presentation-to-video conversion, video embedding, editing, and 3D rotations).
• View Persona Management – The View Persona Management feature manages user profiles in a secure and centralized environment. (User profiles include user data and settings, application data and settings, and Windows registry settings configured by user applications.) View Persona Management allows IT organizations to simplify and automate the capture and management of a user’s persona while providing a rich user experience. View Persona Management offers the following benefits:
  • Provides a user profile that is independent of the virtual desktop. When a user logs in to any desktop, the same profile appears.
  • Lets you configure and manage personas entirely within View. You do not have to configure Windows roaming profiles.
  • Expands functionality and improves performance compared to Windows roaming profiles.
  • Minimizes login impact by downloading only the files that Windows requires, such as user registry files. Other files are copied to the local desktop when the user or an application opens them from the local profile folder.
  • Copies recent changes in the local profile to a remote profile repository at configurable intervals, typically once every few minutes.
• Updated client certificate checking for View clients – View clients now follow the well-known browser model for handling certificates, displaying errors detected in the certificate presented by View Connection Server, or in the certificate trust chain. Administrators can set the Certificate verification mode group policy to enforce strict certificate checking; if any certificate error occurs, the user cannot connect to View Connection Server. Alternatively, administrators can use the default Warn But Allow mode, which supports self-signed server certificates and lets users connect to View Connection Server with certificates that have expired or are not yet valid. If necessary, administrators can also set a No Security mode that lets users connect without certificate checking.
• Support for vSphere 5.0
• Support for hardware v8 – Remote View desktops can be hardware v8 virtual machines. Hardware v8 is not supported for desktops that run in local mode.
• Removed support for HP RGS display protocol
• Localization support for Korean. – View Client and the documentation, online help, and release notes are available in Korean.

Note: The version of View Client for Mac that was bundled with View 4.6 is also bundled with the View 5.0 release. This is the latest View Client for Mac and is compatible with View 4.6 and View 5.0.

This one’s for the Lab Manager Customers!  The ones who have been waiting for SQL support and linked clones!  vCloud Director 1.5 has been released and can be downloaded here.  Let’s get right to the What’s New section from the release notes:

• Fast Provisioning: Utilizing linked clones dramatically speeds up provisioning time and reduces storage costs.
• vApp Custom Properties: Allows developers and other users to easily pass user data into guest OSes using OVF descriptors.
• Blocking Tasks and Notifications: Programmatically connect vCloud Director to enterprise systems (e.g. CMDB) enabling end-to-end system automation.
• Expanded vCloud API: Additional commands added to the vCloud API namespace to include all GUI-accessible actions and enable broader integration and scripting using the API.
• Microsoft SQL Server Support: For new deployments of vCloud Director, Microsoft SQL is supported for the vCloud database in addition to the previously supported database servers.
• vShield Edge VPN integration: Programmatically create site-to-site IPSec-VPN tunnels to connect across clouds.