VMware today announced VMware vSphere 7 Update 3 and VMware vSAN 7 Update 3. The new releases include enhancements that deliver developer-ready infrastructure, simplify operations and enable customers to scale without compromise. Together, they further enable customers to innovate and accelerate their app modernization needs in today’s fast-changing environments.
These updates help IT simplify management of on-prem and cloud environments, increase application performance, and provide a single platform for VMs and containers. Additionally, they support both traditional and modern workloads such as AI/ML.
Delivering Developer-Ready Infrastructure
The new releases introduce:
- vSphere VM Service Support for vGPUs: Using the VM Service through Kubernetes API, developers can provision VMs that leverage underlying GPU hardware resources.
- Simplified Setup of vSphere with VMware Tanzu: Faster and easier setup of networking with fewer steps and inputs needed.
- vSAN Stretched Clusters for Kubernetes Workloads: Users can extend a vSAN cluster from a single site to two sites for a higher level of availability and intersite load balancing. VMware now supports Kubernetes workloads in a stretched cluster deployment.
- Kubernetes Topology Support in vSAN: Enables Kubernetes to see the underlying topology and manage data placement across availability zones (AZs). This provides availability in case of a planned or unplanned outage.
Enabling Customers to Scale Infrastructure without Compromise
VMware vSphere 7 Update 3 delivers:
- Improved Resilience and Monitoring for Persistent Memory Systems in vSphere: Snapshot support for systems using Intel(R) Optane(TM) memory in app-direct mode and better monitoring of memory performance to help optimize utilization.
- NVMe/TCP Support in vSphere: Allows vSphere customers a fast, simple and cost-effective way to maximize their existing storage investments. VMware has collaborated with Dell Technologies to deliver first-to-market support of this capability.
Further Simplifying Operations
The new releases combine to offer:
- Easier Setup of NSX Security from within the vSphere Client: VMware NSX-T plugin is installed within the vSphere client. This removes the need to bounce between vSphere client and NSX Manager to setup and configure NSX--eliminating multiple authentication steps. Note that this enhancement requires a license of an upcoming release of VMware NSX-T.
- DRS Configuration Enhancements: Easier to configure DRS to avoid moving (and disrupting) larger or more critical workloads whenever possible.
- Easy vSAN Cluster Shutdown / Startup: Introduces an “easy button” workflow that shuts down the cluster in an orderly manner.
- vSAN Network Monitoring & Troubleshooting: New vSAN Health Checks avert common networking deployment challenges, such as duplicate IP addresses, avoiding downtime and support requests.
- vSAN Health Check Correlation: Enables easier troubleshooting by highlighting the root cause of health alerts. This helps customers address all of the underlying health checks and avoid a support request.
Boosting Infrastructure and Data Security
vSAN 7 Update 3 also includes platform enhancements designed to provide customers with greater resiliency and security such as:
- Stretched Cluster Site / Witness Failure Resiliency: Workloads stay available despite multiple planned or unplanned outages.
- Nested Fault Domains for 2-Node: Workloads remain available despite an outage of one of the two nodes in the cluster and a disk or disk group failure on the second node.
- Access-Based Enumeration for File Services: Restrict the ability of users to view only the files they are authorized to see.
- Support for Key Persistence: Store keys in dedicated security hardware – the TPM chip. This enables secure and persistent storage for keys to avoid loss in the event of an outage or loss of connectivity.
Dell Technologies to Leverage NVMe/TCP Support in VMware vSphere
As the first company to offer NVMe/TCP support in vSphere, Dell Technologies is introducing Dell EMC SmartFabric Storage Software (blog). This helps organizations transition to high-performance, low-latency and cost-effective Ethernet-based storage area networks with automation capabilities using centralized discovery controller functions.
“As organizations continue to move towards the cloud, technologies such as standards-based NVMe/TCP will be critical to revolutionize storage connectivity, with high-performance, scalability, automation and cost savings across Ethernet-based fabrics,” said Ihab Tarazi, SVP and CTO Networking, Dell Technologies. “Working closely with VMware to couple vSphere 7 Update 3 release with Dell EMC PowerStore storage, we are leading the effort together to help our customers implement powerful, next-generation IT infrastructures.”
Learn more about vSphere 7 Update 3 here and vSAN 7 Update 3 here. Both releases are expected to become available by the end of VMware’s Q3 FY22 (Oct. 29, 2021).
VMware, vSphere, vSAN, Tanzu, NSX, and NSX-T are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.