We need tools that simplify upgrading, migrating, and managing, and VMware delivers. The recent launch presented the new version of the vSphere Update Manager (VUM) — vSphere Lifecycle Manager. Not only does it allow to upgrade vSphere clusters and ESXi hosts, it now has image management to keep the hosts in the desired state.

Deliberating about choosing the necessary suite should consider various issues. For Windows VMs it’s just VMware tools and that’s it. For Linux VMs, you have to abide by the VMware Compatibility Guide, which is very strict, as you know. Open-VM tools are not worse, even better at some points, than the VMware ones, but nuances are due.

Each new VMware vSphere release introduces new features and functions in addition to fixing the drawbacks that may have been in the previous version. With each new one, you need to upgrade VMware Tools in all your VMs and check if you need to upgrade their VM compatibility, otherwise they won’t have access to the desired perks.

Although you still won’t be able to install Veeam on Linux and the new Linux proxy won’t be superior to Windows Proxy in performance, there are certain benefits to consider still. For example, Linux has a smaller disk footprint, it doesn’t need a license, and it can act as a gateway server. Subsequently, there will be easier ways to maneuver within you backup.

If you want your IT infrastructure to go virtual, you need to know all the angles. However good your hypervisor may be, there’s always a catch. In this case, the potential of VMware ESXi doesn’t matter if the hardware is not up to date. For the highest performance possible, learn a few fine-tuning tricks!

Cohesiveness is something hyperconvergence vendors have been really going for this year. Recently, VMware has introduced its vRealize Operations Managers 8.0, an update of its “friendly admin” type of product. The new version has additions to workload planning, cost comparison, HCI nodes removal, scalability, on-prem/cloud health monitoring, and more.

Perfection knows no limits and so does Windows Server. Microsoft is on a crusade of ever-perfecting it, and the new version has something to say, indeed. It seems like the company might be coming after virtualization vendors. Why? Well, some of the new features include storage migration, Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, and ReFS deduplication… Just saying…

VMware snapshots are important part of vSphere infrastructure. Using snapshots is very flexible way of being able to go back in time and revert changes. VMware snapshots are used by admins, developers and other IT team members who are not all VMware specialists. As such it might be a good idea to learn some good practices about snapshots and this technology, to get the most out of it.

Even the least experienced users know a few things vital for an undisrupted working process if they are dealing with VMware vSphere infrastructure, one of those things being patching. Back in the good old days, risks of cyber threats were something that happens to people in the movies, but today you won’t go very far without security patches. Keep your environment up to date with patching VMware vCenter Server Appliance!