VMware vSphere enables customers to bring the power of cloud computing to their IT infrastructures. Building on the power of VMware Infrastructure, VMware vSphere dramatically reduces capital and operating costs, and increases control over IT infrastructures while preserving the flexibility to choose any OS, application and hardware.
Build on a proven virtualisation platform to provide the foundation for internal and external clouds, using federation and standards to bridge cloud infrastructures—creating a secure private cloud. Organisations of all sizes can achieve the full benefits of cloud computing, delivering the highest levels of application service agreements with the lowest total cost per application workload.
Available in several different editions, VMware vSphere delivers targeted benefits to small business and mid-size and enterprise business customers.
Product Variants - VMware vSphere
-
Back to top
Other product variants may be available, please contact us or request a call back if you cannot see what you are looking for.
Documents & Downloads
-
Back to top
» vSphere 4 Datasheet
» vSphere 4 Edition / Feature Comparison
New Features
-
Back to top
What's new in VMware vSphere 4.1
- Performance and scalability enhancements mean vSphere can now support three times more virtual machines (up to 10,000 per vCenter Server instance) and new compressed memory techniques improve application performance
- Expanded Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) supports even more operating systems, devices and applications
- Active Directory integration allows for seamless authentication and user management
- DRS Virtual Machine Host Affinity Rules enable you to place restrictions on virtual machine movement in a cluster, e.g. for licensing reasons or to ensure a set of virtual machines run on the same systems
- IPv6 and E1000 vNIC support brings support for Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and jumbo frames
- Network I/O control allows partioning of physical bandwidth between different traffic types, e.g. virtual machines, vMotion and IP storage traffic
- VMware vMotion - performance enhancements means machines can be migrated up to 5 times faster and up to 8 vMotion events can be conducted in parallel
- VMware High Availability - improved diagnostics and health checks help ensure virtual machine availability
- VMware Data Recovery - protect even more virtual machines with new support for VSS, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2
- APIs - use new storage APIs for array integration and use the new vCloud API for an open and interoperable computing model in the cloud
- Support for Windows Failover Clustering - clusters using Windows Failover Clustering/Microsoft Cluster Service are now supported in conjunction with VMware HA
What's new in VMware vSphere 4
- VMware Fault Tolerance - Provides zero-downtime and zero-data-loss continuous availability in the case of hardware failures
- VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch - Provides a central datacenter level aggregated control point for virtual machine networking and enables the use of third party virtual switches such as Cisco Nexus 1000v in vSphere environments
- VMware Host Profiles - Allows creation of “golden' profiles of ESX hosts and their application to existing or new hosts
- VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning - Defers the allocation of storage to virtual machines until it is needed and uses monitoring and alerting capabilities to trigger proactive procurement of storage
- VMware Hot Add - Allows CPU and memory to be added to running virtual machines without disruption or downtime and allows virtual HBAs and NICs to be added to or removed from virtual machines without disruption or downtime
- VMware Data Recovery - Provides backup to disk and simple recovery at a file or image level for small environments
- VMware vShield Zones - Enforces corporate fi rewall security policies at the application level in a shared environment, while still maintaining trust and network segmentation of users and sensitive data
- VMware vSMP (8-way) - Allows a single virtual machine to use up to 8 virtual CPUs at a time (this was previously 4 vCPUs in VI3)
- Performance and Scalability - 255GB of RAM in virtual machines (previously 64GB) and 64 cores and 512GB of physical RAM supported by ESX hosts. Over 8,900 database transactions per second per virtual machine – sufficient to run annually the entire transaction traffic of VISA. 3x increases in network transmit throughput increase over VI 3.5 and increased throughput efficency for MS SQL, Citrix XenApp and iSCSI.
Features
-
Back to top
VMware vSphere for Small Business - Essentials and Essentials Plus Editions
Designed especially for small IT environments with fewer than 20 physical servers, the Essentials and Essentials Plus editions of VMware vSphere 4 deliver enterprise-class capabilities in a cost-effective solution for organisations that want to optimise and protect their IT assets with minimal up-front investment.
Included Components:
- VMware ESX and VMware ESXi provide a robust, production-proven, high performance virtualisation layer that allows multiple virtual machines to share the computing, networking and storage resources of a single physical server.
- VMware vCenter Server for Essentials provides rapid provisioning, centralised management and performance monitoring, with physical-to-virtual (P2V) machine conversion, wizard-based deployment and a host of other features.
- VMware vCenter Update Manager provides automated patch and update management for VMware ESX hosts, as well as for virtual machines running select versions of Windows and Linux.
- VMware High Availability (HA) provides hardware-independent failover for virtual machines on VMware ESX hosts without the cost or complexity of traditional solutions for physical systems.
- VMware Data Recovery provides simple, cost effective, agentless backup and recovery for virtual machines that optimises backup storage usage and complements existing data protection solutions for backup and archival to tape.
High-Performance Server Virtualisation
- Record-breaking performance for resource-intensive workloads
- Ability to configure virtual machines with up to 4 virtual CPUs each
- Advanced virtual machine memory management capabilities
- Support for 64-bit server hardware with up to 512GB of physical RAM
Integrated High Availability and Data Protection
- Hardware-independent virtual machine failover with VMware HA
- NIC teaming and HBA multipathing to protect against hardware failures
- Efficient, integrated backup with VMware Data Recovery
- Support for all major third-party backup solutions
Centralised Management Capabilities
- Rapid wizard-based provisioning and virtual machine templates
- Automated patch management with VMware vCenter Update Manager
- Operational automation with task scheduling and alerts
- Integrated physical-to-virtual machine conversion capabilities
Security and Control
- Integrated network security and firewall protection for virtual machines
- VMware VMsafe security APIs for third-party security products
- Role-based access control and integration with Microsoft Active Directory
- SSL encryption for secure remote access to VMware ESX and ESXi hosts
Broad Hardware and Software Interoperability
- Compatibility with the widest range of server hardware in the industry
- Certified integration with Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, IBM, NEC, and Sun servers
- Certified support for SATA, NAS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel storage equipment
- Support for broadest range of 32- and 64-bit x86 server operating systems
- Ability to run any standard software application without modification
VMware vSphere for Mid-size and Enterprise - Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus Editions
The Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus consist of a number of different components that can be classified into 2 key areas:
Infrastructure Services - Virtualise and Aggregate Hardware Resources
VMware ESX and ESXi - provide a robust, production-proven, high performance virtualization layer that abstract server hardware resources and allow their sharing by multiple virtual machines.
VMware DRS - aggregates compute resources across many clusters and dynamically allocates them to virtual machines based on business priorities, reducing management complexity through automation. VMware DPM, included with VMware DRS, automates energy efficiency in DRS clusters by continuously optimizing the power consumed in a DRS cluster.
VMware vStorage VMFS - is a high performance cluster file system which abstracts away the complexity of storage hardware from applications. VMFS allows efficient sharing and controls concurrent access to storage by virtualized servers.
VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning - allows storage purchases to be deferred until they are really required, reducing storage spending by up to 50%.
VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch - simplifies and enhances the provisioning, administration and control of virtual machine networking in VMware vSphere environments.
Application Services - Built in Service Level Controls for Applications
VMware vMotion - eliminates the need to schedule application downtime due to planned server maintenance through live migration of virtual machines across servers with no disruption to users or loss of service.
VMware Storage vMotion - eliminates the need to schedule application downtime due to planned storage maintenance or during storage migrations by enabling live migration of virtual machine disks with no disruption to users or loss of service.
VMware HA - provides cost effective, automated restart within minutes for all applications in the event of hardware or operating system failures.
VMware Fault Tolerance - provides continuous availability, without any data loss or downtime, to any application.
VMware Data Recovery - provides simple, cost effective, agentless backup and recovery for virtual machines.
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 VMSafe - enables the use of security products that work in conjunction with the virtualization layer to provide higher levels of security to virtual machines than even physical servers.
VMware DRS - dynamically load balances server resources to deliver the right resource to the right application based on business priority; allowing applications to shrink and grow as needed.
Editions
-
Back to top
Included in each edition:
Vmware Enterprise Plus Acceleration Kit for 8 Processors - includes vSphere Enterprise Plus for 8 Processors and 1 vCenter Server Standard
Vmware Advanced Acceleration Kit for 6 Processors - includes vSphere Advanced for 6 Processors and 1 vCenter Server Foundation
Vmware vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus for 1 Processor - Max 12 cores per processor - Includes 8-way vSMP, VC Agent, VCB/Storgae API's, Update Manager, High Availability, Thin Provisioning, Vmotion, Hot Add, Fault Tolerance, Data Recovery, vShield Zones, Storage VMotion, DRS/DPM, Distributed Switch, Host Profiles.
Vmware vSphere 4 Enterprise for 1 Processor - Max 6 cores per processor - Includes 4-way vSMP, VC Agent, VCB/Storgae API's, Update Manager, High Availability, Thin Provisioning, Vmotion, Hot Add, Fault Tolerance, Data Recovery, vShield Zones, Storage VMotion, DRS/DPM - For Existing VI3 ENT Customers.
Vmware vSphere 4 Advanced for 1 Processor - Max 12 cores per processor - Includes 4-way vSMP, VC Agent, VCB/Storgae API's, Update Manager, High Availability, Thin Provisioning, Vmotion, Hot Add, Fault Tolerance, Data Recovery, vShield Zones.
Vmware vSphere 4 Standard for 1 Processor - Max 6 cores per processor - Includes 4-way vSMP, VC Agent, VCB/Storgae API's, Update Manager, High Availability, Thin Provisioning.
Vmware vSphere 4 Essentials Bundle for 3 Hosts - Max 2 processors and 6 cores per processor - Includes ESX or ESXi for 3 hosts, 4-way vSMP, VC Agent and Update Manager - (Please note, Data Recovery and High Availability is only available in the high end edition of this product).
Subscriptions
-
Back to top
Basic Support
- 12x5 Mon-Fri support for 1, 2 or 3 years
- Unlimited support via phone or Web (target initial response time for severity 1 issues: 4 business hours)
- Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
- Product updates and upgrades
- Up to 4 support admins per contract
Production Support
- 24x7x365 support for 1, 2 or 3 years
- Unlimited support via phone or Web (target initial response time for severity 1 issues: 30 minutes)
- Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
- Product updates and upgrades
- Onsite Support for Exceptional Escalations
- Up to 6 support admins per contract
Per-Incident Support
- Buy as a single pack, 3 or 5 pack
- Provides support for a specific issue and may involve several interactions with technical support before resolution
- Please Note: VMware does not offer incident based support on all their products.