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SharevSphere 4.0 Update 1: Seven Improvements In Internal Clouds
Posted by David Greenfield on November 24, 2009
Deploying internal clouds got a bit easier last week as VMware introduced vSphere 4.0 Update 1. Among the enhancements to VMware's cloud-computing OS are the support for 2008 R2 servers and numerous performance tweaks.
Announced last April, vSphere 4 is VMware's solution for managing large sets of virtual machines. The software allows enterprises to turn x86 servers into an internal cloud of systems. In this fashion, vSphere 4 enables data centers to respond to fluctuating workload requirements. Should the load on a server suddenly spike, vSphere can then utilize services in the private or public clouds.
The initial vSphere implementation could manage up to 1,280 virtual machines across 32 servers equipped with up to 65 cores and 32 TB of RAM. At the same time, the initial release fell short in seven areas addressed in the Update 1 introduction.
The first release neglected Windows 7 support and Windows 2008 R2 support. vSphere couldn't run virtualized 2008 servers (e.g. as a guest OS) while Windows 7 clients were unable to easily run the vSphere 4 management interface, the vSphere client. The new release adds support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 64-bit version of Windows 2008 R2 as guest OS platforms.
The 4.0 release of vSphere introduced support of Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) with Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 Failover Clustering, but it didn't support high availability environments. In Update 1, MSCS and 2008 Failover Clustering can run on VMware High Availability (HA) and Dynamic Resources Scheduler (DRS) for individual VMs or the entire host. Still, there are a number of known deficiencies including the lack of support for iSCSI or NFS disks.
Comment by Jason Boche on November 24, 2009 3:40 PM
This is not version 4.1. It is 4.0 Update 1. You are going to confuse your readers by calling it 4.1. Trust me.
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Comment by Ben on November 24, 2009 4:08 PM
What about PCI Passthru support for QLogic 8100 CNA? I can run PCI Passthru for QLogic 2500 HBA but not 8100 CNA. Anybody has successfuly story? THanks.
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Comment by Bill on November 24, 2009 10:25 PM
Nobody supports Windows 2007, not even Microsoft.
What is Windows 2007?
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Comment by Kevin on November 25, 2009 7:08 PM
This article is in serious need of fact checking and general editorial cleanup. Network Computing, you should seriously think about taking this down until it can be clarified and corrected.
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Comment by jbacha on November 25, 2009 8:09 PM
well said
Windows 7 64bit is more like it
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Comment by Mike Fratto on November 25, 2009 8:44 PM
Sorry about the mistakes. The fact checker (me) is on vacation. I fixed the problems.
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