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VMware vSphere, the leading virtualization platform in the market, has come to version 6.0, which was released in February 2015.
In this article we will provide an overview of the main innovations with some considerations based on use experience and an analysis of the set of problems that can arise with un upgrade from previous versions

UPDATE: vSphere 6.0 U1 here's the news

 

The new numbers

Improvements are naturally of computational nature, as we expect in every upgrade to a new version. New number indicate that a single instance of VMware vCenter can host as much as 1.000 ESXi hosts, 15.000 registered VMs and 10.000 simultaneously powered on VMs. Each host can support up to 1024 VMs, can handle up to 480 CPU (from which 4096 vCPU can be exploited) and 6TB of RAM, which can get up to 12TB with certified hardware. Host clusters’ numbers are akin to that increase: it is possible to have 64 hosts and 8.000 VMs per cluster.

Like every release of vSphere, this one introduces an higher virtual hardware level with version 11, which allows each VM to handle up to 128 vCPU and 4TB of memory.


Architectural modifications

In the first releases of vSphere, the application layer (Management, Operations, etc) was tied with the services dedicated to security and authentication. VMware vSphere 6.0 bring a clear separation of these roles with two new components:

  • the vCenter Management Server, which consolidates the Inventory Service and Web Client services (and the traditional management modules);
  • the Platform Services Controller (PSC) that consolidates the Single Sign-On (SSO), Certificate Authority (VMCA) and Licensing services, dedicated to the security of the infrastructure.

The PSC is so important that it determines the functioning of the whole infrastructure according to the implementation choices made during the vCenter installation (Windows version and Appliance version). Two PSC implementations are proposed, and the choice is not reversible:

  • vCenter Server with integrated Platform Services Controller (Embedded).
  • vCenter Server with external Platform Services Controller (External). In the latter case, first the PSC installation must be performed, then the vCenter Server installation on another machine follows, connecting it then to the PSC. It is possible to connect more vCenter Server instances to the very same PSC.

img01 vsphereSelezione della modalità di implementazione del PSC

The following requests deals with the implementation under an SSO (Single Sign-On) domain. SSO version 6.0 inherits the multi-master functionality introduced with version 5.5. This mechanism permits the automatic replication among different SSO sites and eliminates the necessity of a database for the management of the information. The multi-master architecture is an information memorization model on its own, therefore an external database would be too much.

There are two options to distribute SSO 6.0:

  • A new SSO domain in the same vCenter Server machine is created.
  • A link with an existing SSO domain is made (that domain exists on another machine with a PSC installation)

Connecting to an already present SSO domain means to abilitate the new Enhanced Linked Mode functionality, an improvement of the previous Lined Mode. This technology allows to automatically replicate the data of the infrastructure, intended as roles, permissions, licenses, policies, etc, to all the vCenter Server connected and to login to a single instance, with the advantage of managing the inventory of all the instances.

In the previous vSphere versions the presence of a Windows vCenter Server was necessary because an SSO multi site solution in Linked Mode had to be implemented. With vSphere 6.0, the new PSC and the SSO mechanism have the same functionalities on both vCenter Windows and Appliance. Moreover, the difference Windows and Linux PSC can operate between them.

 

New features

vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA)

VCSA is one of the most renewed elements in this 6.0 release. Its scalability is now tied with vCenter Server for Windows, finally allowing to choose this distribution with regards of large installations: it is now possible to manage up to 1.000 ESXi hosts and 10.000 VMs. Those number are reachable thanks to the PostgreSQL integrated database as well as the external Oracle database. It is worth to mention that vCenter Server installed on Windows with the integrated PostgreSQL database supports just up to 20 hosts and 200 Vms, resulting way inferior to the Appliance under this aspect.

The installation method has changed too, according to the various possible modalities of implementing PSC and SSO that have already been described. The installer is provided as ISO image to mount as CD/DVD inside a Windows VM, which is by the way just a placeholder. The file that execute the installer (vcsa-setup.html) is found in the initial path of the ISO image; to continue with the installation it is necessary the Client Integration Plugin.

The setup requires the acceptance of the licensing conditions, the connection parameters of the ESXi host that will host the Appliance and the main parameters of the last. Then, a choice between implementation modalities of PSC and SSO has to be made. 

img02 vsphereSchermata iniziale del setup di vCenter Server Appliance

The setup requires the acceptance of the licensing conditions, the connection parameters of the ESXi host that will host the Appliance and the main parameters of the last. Then, a choice between implementation modalities of PSC and SSO has to be made.


vSphere Web Client

With regards to the previous versions, vSphere Web Client has been made 13 times quicker. The number is indicated by Vmware in its promotional documents, but it can be confirmed by anybody who has already utilized the new interface. The navigation of the various section has been improved thanks to a new menu with a foreground aperture (Home symbol on the right of the writing “vSphere Web Client”). The new menu still leaves the Navigator at sight (that is, the primary menu with the items Hosts & Clusters, VM and Templates, Storage and Networking). The Task Bar is positioned in the lower part of the screen, so the visualization is similar to the one of the classic vSphere Client, and it is now possible to customize the user interface with drag and drop in the main areas.

img03 vsphereSchermata iniziale di vSphere Web Client con il nuovo menu in vista


vNUMA

vNUMA, the optimization system for memory access introduced by Vmware in vSphere 5.5, introduces an important news: if memory is added with the “hot add memory” function to a VM with vNuma abilited, said memory will be equally distributed among all the vNUMA nodes in the physical host. As a reference, in the previous vSphere versions new added memory was assigned to the first vNUMA node available. In order to take advantage of vNUMA, both the Operative System and the applications must be NUMA compatible (NUMA-aware).


vSphere vMotion

vSphere vMotion, the live migration mechanism that allows to transfer an entire VM from one host to another without powering it off, has been improved in order to make long distances migration between different datacenters possible. The only constraint is not exceeding the 150ms Round Trip Time (RTT) limit, so the feasibility depends on the quality of the connection being in use. vMotion’s new possibilities permits not to have planning restriction in metropolitan infrastructures anymore. It is also possible to perform migration between different vCenter distributions, that, from a Windows version to an Appliance and vice-versa.


Fault Tolerance

The Fault Tolerance (FT) service guarantees the continued availability of the VMs, without causing downtime or data losses in case of a host failure. With FT enabled on a VM, vSphere duplicates that very VM on another host, keeping both VMs powered on. In the event of a crash of the server hosting the main VM, the secondary VM (which is powered on and already functioning) is promoted to primary. FT is a service conceived for those mission-critical applications that can’t stand any interruption or data loss, but in the previous versions it was strongly limited by handling VMs with just one single vCPU.
FT 6.0 is finally able to manage VMs with up to 4 vCPU and 64GB of memory; it also features a snapshot full supports, thus making possible to use those backup tools that leverage their operations on snapshots.


Virtual Volumes and storage management based on policy

VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) is probably the most innovative aspect of vSphere 6.0. It enhances the Software-Defined Storage paradigm which is so close to VMware, permitting to align the storage to the applications requests thanks to the functions offered by the devices compatible with this technology.

How do VVols work in practice? A Virtual Volume is an object that encapsulates virtual disks and VMs configuration files, it directly resides in the physical storage (SAN, NAS, etc.) and it does not require a filesystem to be managed. In this way every virtual disk of the various VMs can be natively hosted on the storage with the greatest flexibility, and the storage itself can manage the single objects that compone VMs performing granular operations.

VVols gets with SPBM, Storage Policy Based Management, which identifies the storage management based on policies. SPBM allows the administrators to create templates (policies) to associate with VMs using the vSphere Web Client; templates define parameters like performances, capacities and reliability level. Once a policy is established for a VM, the storage autonomously performs the operations that guarantee the expected service.


Thoughts on upgrading: pros and cons

The question that has to be asked when facing a new product, whom we have the previous version in production, is why dedicate days of work for a complex update, whose outcome might be to lose the stability reached with the version in use?

Some considerations arise in favour to an upgrade. In the first place, those who still have 5.0 and 5.1 versions in production should acknowledge that those products will lose their official support next year (August 2016), which is enough to ponder about an upgrade now. Those who manages more physical data centers, localized at different sites, can leverage the new vMotion on great distances after evaluating the latency and bandwidth requisites. New VMs disks can reach 62TB (by the way, that was already possible in vSphere 5.5), and the long awaited improvements of FT (backups with snapshots and multi-processors support) are finally available. The new Virtual Volumes framework is one of the most appealing innovations: if supported by your storage it can stand as a solid reason to an upgrade because it remarkably simplifies the physical storage (SAN and NAS) management. If the storage in use is virtual and leverages the vSAN introduced in vSphere 5.5, the 6.0 version includes many improvements in terms of performances and stability.

Nevertheless, there are some considerations in favour of a waiting time. Let’s state that if the functionalities and services offered by the previous version fully satisfy the needing of the business, then you can wait. But that is a rule of thumb that applies to every product. As it has already happened in the past, a further update is to be expected after a year or less from the release date of the latest version. A vSphere 6.1 that strengthens the stability and abandons the old tools like the vSphere Client which is still used for a complete management of updates. In the next future a complete and definitive integration of Update Manager into VCSA is to be expected as well as an improved Web Client: its speed has been bettered but it’s not available for all Operative Systems as it’s developed with Flash.

The last consideration concerns the hardware compatibility: it’s highly suggested to check the hardware (HCL) and software compatibility lists to prevent yourself from having products that work with vSPhere 5.x but may present some troubles with vSphere 6.0. Most of the new features are available only with the Enterprise Plus license like the 4 vCPUs FT support (the support is limited to 2 vCPUs in the Standard and Enterprise licenses). Virtual Volumes are supported by all the new editions of vShpere 6.0, but being a new technology, only the time will tell us if they are really fundamental to improve the management and use of the storage resources in datacenter sphere.

 

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