VMware raises the bar again: The must-know new features of vSphere 5.5

It is that time of the year again ... Almost exactly two years ago VMware released vSphere 5.0 and almost exactly one year ago they announced vSphere 5.1 at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco. So it's not a big surprise that this week - at VMworld 2013 in San Francisco - VMware announced vSphere 5.5 (and other related product updates).

It is a only a minor update, but the version jump from 5.1 to 5.5 suggests that there are some important and exciting new features in this release. If you have not yet read one of the detailed lists of new features that many other bloggers have already published then you will find my short "must-know" list helpful to get started.

A myth busted and an FAQ: ESXi is *not* based on Linux! But what is it?

I have often heard or read the statement "ESXi is based on Linux" in this or some other variation when technical people discuss about how certain things work (or are supposed to work) in ESXi. This statement is not only plain wrong, but just doesn't make any sense! In fact it is like saying that horses developed from cows, because both have a head, a tail and four legs ...

In this post I will explain why, and I also answer some other questions that are closely related to this discussion. The first one - surprisingly - is ...

[Release] Veeam Backup & Replication v7

After a long lasting development phase, beta test and an impressive marketing campaign Veeam - the leader of VM Backup solutions - has released a new major version of its Backup & Replication product for VMware vSphere and Hyper-V.

Cool free tool (not only) for the lab: MobaXTerm

I am running quite a few Linux servers in my virtual lab and was always looking for a decent free X11 server software for my virtual Windows desktop that I use for managing the environment. So far I used Xming, but experienced frequent crashes with it.

But then a while ago I discovered MobaXTerm ...

[Release] vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1b

VMware has released vCenter server 5.1 Update 1b:

• Download
• Release Notes

There are some interesting and important bug fixes included. Here are some highlights: