VM /ETC

VMware has released Update 4 of the VirtualCenter Management Server (also now known as vCenter). The latest Release Notes detail a couple new features, several Plug-In updates, and numerous resolved issues. The current build of ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 3 has not changed as of this post.

The following cut and pastes were taken while skimming through the release notes and highlight the changes that caught my attention.

What’s New

• Guest Operating System Customization Improvements – VirtualCenter now supports customization of Windows Server 2008 guest operating systems.
• Performance Overview Charts – VirtualCenter 2.5 Update 4 introduces the Performance Overview plug-in, which provides a single view of key performance metrics for CPU, memory, disk, and network without having to navigate through multiple charts. The aggregated charts show high-level summaries of resource distribution.

Plug-Ins Updates

This release of the VMware Infrastructure 3 software suite also includes the following:

• An update to VMware Converter Enterprise. For more information, see the VMware Converter Enterprise Update 4 for VirtualCenter 2.5 Release Notes.
• An update to VMware Update Manager. For more information, see the VMware Update Manager 1.0 Update 4 for VirtualCenter 2.5 Release Notes.
• The Performance Overview plug-in.

Two builds of VMware Infrastructure Management Installer are available for download.

• VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-U4-English.iso or VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-U4-English.zip – These files include an English-only version of the VI Client, which runs in English regardless of the language of the Windows system. Use this installer to install a VI Client that will run in English on Chinese, German or Japanese versions of the Windows operating system.
• VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-U4-localized.iso or VMware-VIMSetup-2.5.0-U4-localized.zip – These files include a localized installer that installs all files needed to run in English, Chinese, German, or Japanese. The VI Client used at runtime will correspond to the locale of the current Windows operating system if the locale is Chinese, German or Japanese. On Windows operating systems set to locales other than Chinese, German, or Japanese, the English version of the VI Client will be used.

I am assuming it is also recommended that you upgrade all instances of the

VI Client after upgrading to vCenter U4. When I checked the ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and Virtual Infrastructure Client Compatibility Matrixes had not been updated to include U4 yet, but, judging by previous experience, refreshing the infrastructure client would be a wise move.

Previous versions of the Update Manager Plug-In are not compatible with U4. According to the release notes you must manually enable Update Manager from the Plugins Menu again after upgrading. During the installation of the new Update Manager Plug-in there is an option to install the experimental PowerShell Library set of commandlets

The update to the Converter Enterprise Plug-In adds all the new features announced in the recently released Converter 4 Standalone Edition. It is unclear to me if the previous Converter plug-in versions are updated / replaced, but the release notes seem to suggest that both version 3 and version 4 of Converter can coexist together. I have not had a chance to install U4 yet so this will become clearer at that time.

I look forward to checking out the new Performance Overview Charts. Personally, I was satisfied navigating through the various charts, but a single window with all information does not sound like a bad thing to me!

Microsoft changed the customization process for Windows Server 2008, and I am guessing that the latest vCenter has integrated the new sysprep process to fully support customization of Server 2008 VMs. This will be another wait to see what’s changed scenario for me after I get an instance of VC U4 running.

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