VMware vSphere 6 introduces many new features and enhancements.
This article provides an overview of the new features and capabilites + links to other websites/blogs where you can read more about the individual topics.
vSphere 6 ESXi and VM enhancements:
- Cluster now supports up to 64 nodes and 8.000 VMs
- VMs now support up to 128 vCPUs and 4 TB vRAM
- Hosts now support up to:
480 pCPUs
12 TB RAM
datastores with 64 TB
1000 VMs - added guest OS support for FreeBSD10.0 and Asianux 4 SP3
- expanded support for the latest x86 chip sets
Links:
Summary of What’s New in vSphere 6 (vSphere-land.com)
vSphere 6 – new virtual hardware version 11 (vHW11) (Running-System.com)
vSphere 6.0 blog – Configuration maximums (VCDX56)
What’s new in vSphere 6 Scalability (VM Guru)
vSphere 6 ESXi memory states and reclamation techniques (Running-System.com)
Storage:
- Virtual Volumes (VVol)
- improved Storage IO Control
VVOLS – Improving Per VM Management (IT Blood Pressure)
vSphere 6.0 New Features – What is VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols)? (VMware Arena)
vSphere Virtual Volumes (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere Fault Tolerance:
- FT support for up to 4 vCPUs and 64 GB RAM
- new, more scalable technology: fast check-pointing to keep primary and secondary in sync
- continuous availability – zero downtime, zero data loss for infrastructure failures
- FT now supports Snapshots (Backup)
- Storage Fault Tolerance:
primary and secondary VM has its own .vmx & .vmdk files
primary and secondary VM can be placed on different datastores!
Links:
vSphere 6.0 blog – Fault Tolerance (VCDX56)
vSphere 6 Fault Tolerance highlights and improvements (Running-System.com)
vSphere 6: Multi-Processor Fault Tolerance (SMP-FT) (Cloud Fix)
VMware vSphere 6 – The new FT feature (vInfrastructure)
Troubleshooting with ESXTOP
vSphere 6 ESXTOP quick overview for Troubleshooting (running-system.com)
vMotion Enhancements:
- vMotion across vCenter Servers
- vMotion across vSwitches
- Long-distance vMotion – now support of local, metro and cross-continental distances (up to 100+ms RTTs)
vCenter Server Appliance:
- the configuration maximums of the vCenter Server Appliance will be extended:
The embedded DB now supports up to 1.000 Hosts and 10.000 powered on VMs (vSphere 5.5: 100 hosts/3000 VMs)
vSphere Web Client:
- long awaited performance improvements are implemented
- but nevertheless a Virtual Infrastructure Client 6.0 (C#) will be still available
Links:
vSphere 6 Web Client Shortcuts (Running-System.com)
vSphere 6.0 Web Client: Still Flash, but vastly better user experience (wahlnetwork.com)
Features and Enhancements of the new vSphere 6 Web Client (Running-System.com)
Improved vSphere Replication:
- Recover Point Objectives (RPOs) will remain at 15 minutes (was at 5 min in early builds – maybe it will be higher in later releases)
- support for up to 2000 VM replications per vCenter
VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN 6.0)
- new On-Disk Format
- Performance Snapshots – vsanSparse
- usability improvements
- supports Failure Domains (note: failure domains are NOT metro/streched clusters)
- new disk serviceability feature
Links:
vSphere 6 Features – VSAN 6.0 Technical Details (vladan.fr)
What’s New with VSAN in vSphere 6 (vSphere-land.com)