What’s new in vSphere 6 (Features and Enhancements)

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)

 

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