Introduction
Today, I would like to discuss VMware’s solutions and certification system. My understanding of virtualization began with VMware. Despite numerous strategic adjustments and personnel changes over the years, whether as part of the EMC federation or operating independently under Dell, VMware has maintained its leadership in virtualization and private cloud solutions. As a pure software company, VMware has expanded its ecosystem by attracting and integrating hardware vendors through a comprehensive certification system and open interface policies. This approach is commendable both in terms of strategic vision and technical capability.
Overview of VMware Solutions
Next, I will follow my usual clear structure to introduce VMware’s overall solutions and then discuss the certification system.
Key Products and Services
- Data Center Infrastructure (IaaS): Provides enterprise-level infrastructure services.
- Hyperconverged Solutions: Includes EVO:Rail, Ready Nodes, and vSAN.
- Storage Technologies: Such as vSAN, vVOLs, and vFlash.
- Desktop Virtualization: Horizon (formerly View) offers flexible workspace solutions.
- Disaster Recovery: SRM (Site Recovery Manager) ensures business continuity.
- Network Virtualization: NSX provides comprehensive security and network virtualization.
- Cloud Management Platform: vRealize Suite offers a complete set of hybrid cloud management and automation tools.
- Hybrid/Public Cloud Solutions: vCloud Air allows organizations to easily extend to public cloud environments.
Today, we will focus on vSphere, vCloud Suite, and vRealize Suite.
vCloud Suite
The vCloud Suite is a software package that includes vSphere Enterprise Plus and VMware’s hybrid cloud management platform, vRealize Suite. It can simultaneously build and manage private clouds based on vSphere and multi-vendor hybrid clouds, providing the most comprehensive heterogeneous hybrid cloud management solution in the industry.
vSphere
vSphere is the core virtualization software platform, supporting advanced features such as:
- VMFS: Virtual Machine File System.
- vMotion: Live migration.
- Storage vMotion: Storage live migration.
- vSphere Storage API: Storage APIs.
- Thin Provisioning: Thin provisioning.
- High Availability (HA): High availability.
- Fault Tolerance (FT): Fault tolerance.
vSphere Enterprise Plus
vSphere Enterprise Plus adds many enhanced features to vSphere for cloud management, reliability, and efficiency, including:
- vSphere Distributed Switch: Simplifies and enhances virtual machine networking.
- vCenter Site Recovery Manager: Automated disaster recovery.
- vSphere Storage/Network IO Control: Sets storage and network quality of service priorities.
- vSphere Auto Deploy: Quickly deploys more vSphere hosts.
- vSphere Flash Read Cache: Virtualizes server-side flash for high-performance read caching.
- NVIDIA GRID vGPU: Supports NVIDIA hardware-accelerated graphics for virtualized solutions.
vRealize Suite
vRealize Suite is a management platform designed for hybrid clouds, enabling rapid delivery and management of infrastructure and applications. It includes the following components:
- vRealize Operations: Intelligent management of performance, capacity, and configuration across multiple vendor environments.
- vRealize Automation: Policy-based self-service infrastructure, application, and lifecycle management.
- vRealize Log Insight: Real-time log management and analysis.
- vRealize Business: Cost accounting, usage metering, and service pricing.
VMware Certification System
VMware provides a range of certification pathways and rich integration capabilities to facilitate seamless integration with third-party hardware and software. These certifications cover storage interface features (VAAI, VASA, PSA), vCenter management features, disaster recovery solutions (SRM), and data center management features.
VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration)
- Block Storage: Supports Assisted Locking, Full Copy, Block Zero, and Thin Provisioning.
- NAS Storage: Supports Space Reservation, File Cloning, Extended Stats, and Native Snapshots for Link Clone.
PSA (Pluggable Storage Architecture)
Supports VMware and third-party storage multipathing, improving storage I/O performance and reliability.
VASA (vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness)
Provides information on the health, configuration, and capacity of disk arrays, simplifying management and monitoring.
SRM (Site Recovery Manager)
Based on storage array remote replication and SRA plugins, it enables business continuity and data protection across multiple sites.
Conclusion
Through continuous technological innovation and a robust partner ecosystem, VMware continues to lead the IT industry. For enterprises looking to leverage virtualization and cloud computing, a deep understanding and adoption of VMware’s products and services are wise choices. Whether building private clouds, hybrid clouds, or optimizing existing infrastructure, VMware provides a wealth of tools and support to help businesses achieve more efficient and reliable IT environments.