What's New: VMware vSphere 6.5

VMware 6.5 is not ‘just’ another update – it has many features that more than justify the effort. Allow me to highlight just a few of the exciting reasons why VMware 6.5 is NOT just another update. 

Firstly; 

The vCenter Server Appliance is taking charge in this release with many new features.: 

• The appliance comes with a built in Migration Tool (So those of you with older versions) (5.5 and 6.0) that are currently running on a Windows Operating System can easily migrate to the improved vCenter Appliance. 
• vCenter Server 6.5 has a new (native) High Availability (HA) solution that is available exclusively for the vCenter Server Appliance. This solution consists of Active, Passive, and Witness nodes. The VMware vCenter® High Availability (vCenter HA) cluster can be enabled, disabled, or destroyed at any time. 
• The Update Manager (VUM), which previously was a stand-alone installable solution is now an integral part of the vCenter Server Appliance. 

Secondly; 

The vSphere client has been replaced with an Operating System agnostic vSphere Client. The new replacement is an HTML5-based vSphere Client that will run alongside the vSphere Web Client. The vSphere Client is fully integrated into vCenter Server 6.5 (for both the Windows vCenter and the vCenter Appliance) and is enabled by default. The vSphere Web Client will continue to be accessible via the url: “http:///vsphere-client” while the NEW vSphere Client will be reachable via the url: “http:///ui”. 

Security Innovations; For customers operating in the high security (ie: financial) realm, vSphere 6.5 now allows you to apply an encryption policy to a VM. What does that even mean? Once a VM is encrypted, the VMDK’s and the VM files are securely encrypted. Furthermore, should you want to migrate a VM from one host to another (in a secure manner), then vSphere 6.5 offers vMotion encryption. vMotion encryption does not encrypt the whole vMotion network, it encrypts the vMotion data. 

For compliance in the security realm, vSphere 6.5 introduces audit-quality logging. Prior to vSphere 6.5, logs were more focused on “troubleshooting” rather than on IT operations or security use cases. Logs coming from vCenter Server via Syslog are now enriched with data from vCenter Server events. These logs clearly show “before” and “after” setting changes. The information provided allows users to understand exactly what changed in the vSphere environment and enhances the ability of IT and security administrators to troubleshoot issues. 

vSphere 6.5 supports HA Orchestrated VM Restarts, where you can define in what order a specific multi-tier app needs to boot. Our two VMware courses: “Whats New 6.5” and “vSphere 6.5 Install Configure and Manage” will help you upgrade and continue to effectively and securely manage your VMware installation.  

We’ll show you how to use all of these great features (and many more) coupled with plenty of hands on lab time to ensure you leave with the knowledge AND skills to make your VMware installation a success.