VM /ETC

VMware’s simulcast event was about a revolutionary Cloud OS and how Vsphere is a visionary, data center changing software release. Now that it has been officially announced, there are posts everywhere about the features and functionalities of VMware vSphere 4. Those discussions are exciting and true, but I feel the fact that vSphere is simply the latest release of ESX and VMware Virtual Infrastructure (VI) gets lost in the fanfare. I tend to think at the upgrade and implementation level, so this post quickly focuses on how current customers will get their new licenses along with a few changes to consider before upgrading. The Cloud will happen, and there is no doubt that VMware vSphere will be instrumental in that, but for now, VMware customers need to understand what is involved in transitioning existing virtual infrastructure to vSphere 4.

Current VMware VI customers with active SnS contracts will automatically receive vSphere 4 licenses per the chart below. (click for a larger view)

VMware has mostly done away with the a la cart features licensing model and has standardized on the 6 editions above – 2 for SMB customers and 4 for Enterprise customers. More about licensing upgrade paths and the costs of the new versions can be found in this whitepaper.

Jason Boche points out some deeper details about the new licensing in his post vSphere licensing notables.

64 bit hardware

If your current ESX hosts are running on 32 bit hardware you will need to purchase 64 bit hardware for vSphere. There is not much else to say about that.

Fault Tolerance

While you are pricing new 64 bit hardware, if you want to take advantage of the Fault Tolerance (FT) feature (zero down time and lockstep fail over to a shadow VM) you will need CPUs with virtualization assist. Eric Sloof provides a table of compatible processors in his post CPU compatibility with VMware Fault Tolerance that is worth checking out.

Upgrades

Be sure to understand the new licensing model before you upgrade. The FlexLM centralized licensing server will be removed and could present some challenges if you plan to co exist between the current ESX version(s) and vCenter/vSphere 4.

For those that are not sure if they need to upgrade or are considering other alternatives, check out Mike D’s post. For a more conservative viewpoint check out Eric Seibert’s post Upgrading to VMware vSphere: Test first, deploy later.

Resources

To be prepared for when vSphere is finally generally available, customers should start exploring publicly available vSphere resources.

If you are a new customer, most of the considerations mentioned above still are appropriate.

Related Posts

• vSphere Migration Checklist (3)
• Determining VMware Data Recovery’s Use Case (5)
• Likewise Agreement Means Active Directory Integration In Future vSphere Versions (0)
• Design Challenges Of Virtualized vCenter With A vNetwork Distributed Switch (13)
• 24 Hour Timeout Prevents Removing ESX vNetwork Distributed Switch (1)
• VMware VCB To Be Replaced by VADP. Does That Mean vDR Is The VMware Alternative? (16)
• VCP4 Upgrade Deadline Extended to January 31st, 2010. Second Shot Testing Program Extended Also. (5)
• Strategic Implementation Differences Between Hyper-V and vSphere (8)
• VMware vSphere Client Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts (5)
• Comparison Table of VMware vSphere Versus Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V (5)