vCenter Server Enhancements 6.0

vCenter Server Architecture Changes

There are 2 different new vCenter Deployment Models.

vCenter with an embedded Platform Services Controller
vCenter with an external Platform Services Controller

One of the Considerable Change, you will notice with vCenter Server installation is deployment models and embedded database. Embedded database has been changed from SQL express edition to vFabric Postgres database. vFabric Postgres database embedded with vCenter installer is suitable for the environments with up to 20 hosts and 200 virtual machines and vCenter 6.0 continuous to support Microsoft and Oracle Database as external database. with vCenter Upgrades, where SQL express was installed will be converted to vPostgres. Let’s review the System requirements to install vCenter 6.0:
Supported Windows Operation System for vCenter 6.0 Installation:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 64-bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 64-bit
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit

Supported Databases for vCenter 6.0 Installation:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
Oracle 11g R2 11.2.0.4
Oracle 12c

Components of vCenter Server 6.0:

There are two Major Components of vCenter 6.0:

vCenter Server: vCenter Server product, that contains all of the products such as vCenter Server, vSphere Web Client,Inventory Service, vSphere Auto Deploy, vSphere ESXi Dump Collector, and vSphere Syslog Collector

VMware Platform Services Controller: Platform Services Controller contains all of the services necessary for running the products, such as vCenter Single Sign-On, License Service and VMware Certificate Authority

vCenter 6.0 Deployment Models:

vSphere 6.0 introduces vCenter Server with two deployment model. vCenter with external Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller.

vCenter with an embedded Platform Services Controller:

All services bundled with the Platform Services Controller are deployed on the same host machine as vCenter Server. vCenter Server with an embedded Platform Services Controller is suitable for smaller environments with eight or less product instances.

vCenter 6.0 with an embedded Platform Services Controller

vCenter with an external Platform Services Controller:

The services bundled with the Platform Services Controller and vCenter Server are deployed on different host machines.You must deploy the VMware Platform Services Controller first on one virtual machine or host and then deploy vCenter Server on another virtual machine or host. The Platform Services Controller can be shared across many products. This configuration is suitable for larger environments with nine or more product instances.

vCenter 6.0 with an External Platform Services Controller

What’s New with vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) Installation:

As compared with the deployment of previous version of vCSA, vCSA 6.0 is different. Prior to vSphere 6.0, vCSA can be deployed using OVF template but It should be deployed using ISO image in vCSA 6.0. You need to download .iso installer for the vCenter Server Appliance and Client Integration Plug-in.

Install the Client Integration plugin and double-click “html” file in the software installer directory,which will allow access to the VMware Client Integration Plug-In and click Install or Upgrade to start the vCenter Server Appliance deployment wizard. You will be provided with various options during the deployment including the Deployment type of vCenter Server.

vSphere 6.0 New Features – What is VMware Virtual Volumes (VVols)

Virtual Volumes (VVols) is one the new feature addition with vSphere 6.0. Virtual volumes are encapsulations of virtual machine files, virtual disks, and their derivatives. Virtual volumes are stored natively inside a storage system that is connected through Ethernet or SAN. They are exported as objects by a compliant storage system and are managed entirely by hardware on the storage side. Typically, a unique GUID identifies a virtual volume.
Virtual volumes are not preprovisioned, but created automatically when you perform virtual machine management operations. These operations include a VM creation, cloning, and snapshotting. ESXi and vCenter Server associate one or more virtual volumes to a virtual machine.

Picture thanks to VMware.com

Currently all storage is LUN-centric or volume-centric, especially when it comes to snapshots, clones and replication. VVols makes it storage VM-centric. With VVols, most of the data operations can be offloaded to the storage arrays. VVols goes much further and makes storage arrays aware of individual VMDK files.Virtual volumes encapsulate virtual disks and other virtual machine files as natively stored the files on the storage system.

vSphere 6.0 New Features – Content Library

Content Library is the new feature introduced with vSphere 6.0. vCenter’s Content Library provides simple and effective management of VM templates, vApps, ISO images and scripts for vSphere admins. Content Library centrally stores VM templates, vAPPs, ISO images and scripts. This content can be synchronized across sites and vCenter servers in your organization. In many environment, NFS mount has been used to store all ISO images and templates but Content Library will simply the management of storing VM templates , vApps and ISO images either backed up by NFS mount or Datastores. Contents of Content library are synchronized with other vCenter Servers and ensure that workloads are consistence across your environment.