Introduction to VMware vSphere 4

VMware vSphere™ 4 is the industry’s first cloud operating system, transforming datacenters into dramatically simplified

environments to enable the next generation of flexible, reliable IT services. 

VMware vSphere components include:

• VMware® ESX™ and VMware® ESXi
• VMware vCenter™ Server Agent, which allows central management using VMware vCenter Server
• VMware® vStorage Virtual Availability Machine File System (VMFS), VMware Virtual SMP, VMware vCenter™ Update

Manager, VMware VMotion™, VMware Storage VMotion, VMware® High Availability (HA), VMware Distributed Resource  Schedule (DRS) with VMware Distributed Power Management (DPM), VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning, VMware® Data Recovery, VMware® vShield Zones, VMware® Fault Tolerance, VMware Host Profiles, VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch, VMware Hot Add, VMware vStorage APIs / VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) .

VMware vCenter Server is also a critical component of vSphere deployments, enabling central management and providing access to many of the features of vSphere.  VMware vCenter Server is purchased separately.

Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview 

VMware vSphere pricing, packaging and licensing simplify purchasing, deployment and ongoing support for customers.

 • Capacity pricing per populated processor socket. 

 VMware vSphere is licensed based on the number of processors on the physical host. Customers can purchase and deploy or redeploy any mix of servers, as required. Each processor in a socket may contain multiple cores. VMware customers may deploy vSphere on physical processors that contain up to six processing cores at no additional charge. vSphere Advanced and vSphere Enterprise Plus editions provide an expanded core entitlement and allow customers to deploy on processors that contain up to 12 processing cores.Additional information may be found at http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/multicore.html

 • VMware vSphere editions.

 

 To make the customer’s decision-making and purchasing process easier, vSphere is available in three main offerings targeted for various deployment scenarios: vSphere Standard, vSphere Advanced and vSphere Enterprise Plus1.

 • VMware vSphere for small business 

 For small businesses or small office environments looking for all-in-one solutions

for small deployments, VMware offers two new packages: vSphere Essentials and vSphere Essentials Plus.

 • Centralized licensing mechanism.

 VMware vCenter Server (purchased separately) provides central management of

vSphere hosts and central management of vSphere licenses as a native feature. No separate licensing mechanism (e.g., separate license server) is required.

 VMware vCenter Server

 

 VMware vCenter Server is a required component of a complete vSphere deployment and provides centralized management, provisioning, updating and orchestration of vSphere hosts. One instance is required to centrally manage and enable most features of vSphere. VMware vCenter Server is purchased separately.

 What’s New in VMware vSphere

 The new features in vSphere include:

 • VMware Data Recovery – provides simple, cost effective, agentless backup and recovery for virtual machines.

 • VMware Fault Tolerance – provides continuous availability, without any data loss or downtime, to any application, in the event of hardware failures.

 • VMware Hot Add – enables CPU and memory to be added to virtual machines when needed without disruption or downtime.

• VMware Host Profiles (available through VMware vCenter Server) – standardizes and automates configuration of vSphere hosts by capturing a reference host configuration and ensuring compliance for resource, networking, storage and security settings.

 • VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning – provides dynamic allocation of storage capacity, allowing storage purchases to be deferred until they are really required, reducing storage spending by up to 50 percent.

 • VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch – simplifies and enhances the provisioning, administration and control of virtual machine networking in vSphere environments. It also enables third-party distributed virtual switches such asthe Cisco Nexus 1000v to be used in vSphere environments, providing network administrators with familiar interfaces to control quality of service at the virtual machine level.

 • VMware vShield Zones – simplifies application security by enforcing corporate security policies at the application level in a shared environment, while still maintaining trust and network segmentation of users and sensitive data.

  VMware vSphere Editions

 vSphere Standard provides an entry-level solution for basic consolidation of applications to slash hardware costs while accelerating application deployment.

vSphere Standard includes:

 • VMware ESXi and VMware ESX (deployment-time choice)2

• VMware vStorage VMFS

• Four-way virtual SMP

• VMware vCenter Server Agent

• VMware vStorage APIs / VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)

• VMware vCenter Update Manager

• VMware HA

• VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning

vSphere Standard is available for USD$795 per one processor with up to six cores for use on a server with up to 256GB

of memory.

  vSphere Advanced

  provides a strategic consolidation solution that protects all applications against planned and

unplanned downtime to provide superior application availability.

 vSphere Advanced includes:

 • VMware ESXi and VMware ESX (deployment-time choice)

• VMware vStorage VMFS

• Four-way virtual SMP

• VMware vCenter Server Agent

• VMware vStorage APIs / VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)

• VMware vCenter Update Manager

• VMware High Availability (HA)

• VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning

• VMware VMotion

• VMware Hot Add

• VMware Fault Tolerance

• VMware Data Recovery

• VMware vShield Zones

vSphere Advanced is available for USD$2,245 per one processor with up to 12 cores for use on a server with up to 256GB of memory.

vSphere Enterprise

 provides key features for minimizing downtime, protecting data and automating resource management. 

 vSphere Enterprise includes:

 • VMware ESXi and VMware ESX (deployment-time choice)

• VMware vStorage VMFS

• Four-way virtual SMP

• VMware vCenter Server Agent

• VMware vStorage APIs / VCB

• VMware vCenter Update Manager

• VMware HA

• VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning

• VMware VMotion

• VMware Hot Add

• VMware Fault Tolerance

• VMware Data Recovery

• VMware vShield Zones

• VMware Storage VMotion

• VMware DRS

• VMware DPM

vSphere Enterprise is available for USD$2,875 per one processor with up to six cores for use on a server with up to

256GB of memory.

 vSphere Enterprise Plus

 Includes the full range of vSphere features for transforming datacenters into dramaticallysimplified cloud computing environments providing the next generation of flexible, reliable IT services.

 vSphere Enterprise Plus includes:

 • VMware ESXi and VMware ESX (deployment-time choice)

• VMware vStorage VMFS

• Eight-way virtual SMP

• VMware vCenter Server Agent

• VMware vStorage APIs / VCB

• VMware vCenter Update Manager

• VMware HA

• VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning

• VMware VMotion

• VMware Hot Add

• VMware Fault Tolerance

• VMware Data Recovery

• VMware vShield Zones

• VMware Storage VMotion

• VMware DRS

• VMware DPM

• VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch

• VMware Host Profiles

vSphere Enterprise Plus is available for USD $3,495 per one processor with up to 12 cores with no license limitation on the memory configuration. vSphere Enterprise Plus is also offered as a bundle with the Cisco Nexus 1000V. The price for this bundle is USD $3,995 per one processor with up to 12 cores with no license limitation on the memory configuration.

 Support and Subscription (SnS) is available for all the vSphere editions above. A minimum of one year of SnS is required for each license.

 VMware vCenter Server is a required and separate purchase in order to centrally manage and enable many vSphere features.