The document summarizes new features in vSphere 5.1 that address common myths about virtualization limitations. It discusses that vMotion can now occur without shared storage using enhanced vMotion, vSphere management no longer requires Windows with the new web client, vSphere Replication provides site disaster recovery without SRM, the VMFS host limit for linked clones increased from 8 to 32, and distributed switch configurations can now be backed up and restored.

1. Mythbusting Goes Virtual
What’s new in vSphere 5.1
By Eric Sloof

2. HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/VMWORLDTV
JEREMY VAN DOORN AND ERIC SLOOF
Eric Sloof
VMware Certified Instructor
NTPRO.NL
Twitter: @esloof

3. Agenda/Myths
1) vMotion is only possible with shared storage.
2) You have to run Windows to manage vSphere.
3) You need Site Recovery Manager to protect your
virtual machines from a complete site loss.
4) Due to VMFS, the maximum number of host in a
cluster with linked clones is 8.
5) It’s not possible to backup or restore a
Distributed vSwitch configuration.

4. Myth 1
vMotion is only possible with shared storage

5. New Enhanced vMotion
• Combine vMotion and Storage vMotion.
• Migrate between hosts/clusters without shared
storage.

6. New Enhanced vMotion
• Enhanced vMotion allows you to combine a vMotion
and Storage vMotion into a single operation.
• Effectively enabling a “shared nothing” vMotion.

7. New Enhanced vMotion
• Use cases can be found in large datacenters and SMB
markets; Cross host and datastore vMotion allows
VM migration between clusters in a large
datacenters, which may not have a common set of
datastores between them.

8. Myth Busted
• Two Enhanced vMotion + 6 vMotions at the same
time or two Enhanced vMotions + Zero svMotions at
the same time.
• DRS or sDRS don’t use Enhanced vMotion
technology.
• Leverage the advantages of vMotion (zero-downtime
migration) without the need for shared storage
configurations.

9. Myth 2
You need Windows to manage vSphere

10. The VMware vSphere Web Client
• In vSphere 5.1, the VMware vSphere Web Client is
the new primary point for vSphere management.
• It has several advantages over the previous Microsoft
Windows–based VMware vSphere Client.

11. The VMware vSphere Web Client
Object Navigator Tabs
Inventory Objects Create custom actions
Sidebar Extension
Portlets
Add right-click extensions

12. The VMware vSphere Web Client
• In the Web Client, vSphere introduces a new feature
called “Work in Progress,” with which the user can
pause a current task to work on another task in the
UI and then later resume the original task at the
point it was interrupted.

13. Myth Busted
• All new vSphere 5.1 features are only available from
the Web Client.
• With the improvements added to VMware vSphere
5.1, the VMware vCenter Server architecture,
VMware vCenter Single Sign-On, VMware vCenter
Inventory Service and the VMware vSphere Web
Client, VMware has released a formidable collection
of tools for the administrator of a virtualized
environment.

14. MYTH 3
You need SRM to protect your virtual machines from
a complete site loss

15. vSphere Replication
• vSphere Replication is now a feature of the
vSphere platform.
• It copies a virtual machine to another location,
within or between clusters, and makes that
copy available for restoration through the
VMware vCenter Server Web Client.

16. vSphere Replication
• vSphere Replication is inherently a lightweight
replication protocol.
• By replicating only changed blocks on an on-going basis
network bandwidth can be saved and commit times for
data are minimized.

17. How to configure vSphere Replication?
• vSphere Replication is a
feature of the vSphere
platform.
• It copies a virtual machine
to another location, within
or between clusters, and
makes that copy available
for restoration through the
VMware vCenter Server
Web Client.

18. Configure the recovery point objective
• Part of this process is to select a recovery point objective
(RPO), which provides information to vSphere Replication
regarding an age limit for the copy of the virtual machine.
• It then attempts to replicate data to meet the RPO at all
times.
• Ensuring that the virtual machine data is never older than
the defined policy for each virtual machine configured for
replication.

19. Recovering a Virtual Machine
• Recovery of a virtual machine
might be necessary for a
number of reasons, ranging
from testing, impending
outages or even recovery
from a disaster.
• vSphere Replication is
designed to give
administrators the ability to
manually recover an
individual machine with a
small number of clicks in the
vSphere Web Client.

20. Myth Busted
• vSphere Replication enables efficient array-agnostic
replication of virtual machine data over the LAN or
WAN.
• vSphere Replication simplifies management enabling
replication at the virtual machine level and enables
RPOs as low as 15 minutes.
• Make vSphere Replication a part of your vSphere 5.1
deployment and improve your virtual machine
availability without introducing risk.

21. Myth 4
Due to VMFS the maximum number of host in a cluster is 8

22. VMware vSphere VMFS-5 file-sharing
enhancements
• Prior to vSphere 5.1, the maximum number of hosts
that could share a read-only file on a Virtual Machine
File System (VMFS) was 8.
• This is a limiting factor for virtual desktop
infrastructure (VDI) deployments using View.
• Because the maximum number of hosts in a cluster
that could share the same desktop base disk image file
was also 8.
• It is also a limiting factor for deployments of vCloud
Director, which uses linked clones for the fast
provisioning of VMware vCloud Director vApps.

23. VMware vSphere VMFS-5 file-sharing
enhancements
• In vSphere 5.1, the maximum number of hosts
that can share a read-only file on a VMFS is
increased to 32.
• This means that linked clones deployed from a
base image now can be hosted on any one of the
32 hosts sharing the datastore.
• This provides significant scalability for both View
and vCloud Director. This feature applies only to
hosts running vSphere 5.1 and higher on VMFS-5.

24. Myth Busted
• With vSphere 5.1 you’re able to Increase the
file share limit on VMFS-5 from 8 to 32,
making VMFS as scalable a storage solution as
NFS.

25. Myth 5
It’s not possible to backup or restore a distributed vSwitch
configuration.

26. DvSwitch Configuration
Backup and Restore
• Helps take snapshots of working VDS
configuration for deployments, rollback, and
sharing purpose.
• Take snapshot of VDS and dvPortgroups
configuration

27. DvSwitch Configuration
Backup and Restore
The Following operations are supported:
• Backup VDS/dvPortgroup configuration on
disk (Export).
• Restore VDS/dvPortgroup from a backup
(Restore).
• Create new entity from backup (Import).
• Revert to the previous dvPortgroup
configuration after changes are made.

28. Backup a VDS configuration

29. Restore a Port group Configuration

30. Restore a Port group Configuration

31. vSphere Distributed Switch
• Administrators can now save the VDS configurations
and use it to restore the exact same VDS setup after
any vCenter Server DB failure Scenario
• Network admins can also build a revision control
system over VDS configuration by saving configurations
after each change and use this to restore to any older
configuration
• Saved VDS configuration can be used as template to
create similar other VDS in any other deployment.

32. Myth Busted
• vSphere Distributed Switch – Enhancements
such as Network Health Check, Configuration
Backup and Restore, Roll Back and Recovery,
and Link Aggregation Control Protocol support
and deliver more enterprise-class networking
functionality and a more robust foundation for
cloud computing.

33. Free self-paced training - vSphere
What's New [V5.1]

34. HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/VMWORLDTV
JEREMY VAN DOORN AND ERIC SLOOF
Eric Sloof
VMware Certified Instructor
NTPRO.NL
Twitter: @esloof