What's new in vSphere 5.1

One certainly nice change
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-what-is-new-vsphere51.pdf
I am still annoyed how often VMWare is now being upgraded, some changes being quite big
Can't wait for 100s of VMs with ghost nic issues
Zero-downtime upgrade for VMware Tools – After you upgrade to the VMware Tools available with version 5.1, no
reboots will be required for subsequent VMware Tools upgrades.
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-what-is-new-vsphere51.pdf
I am still annoyed how often VMWare is now being upgraded, some changes being quite big
New virtual machine format – New features in the virtual machine format (version 9) in vSphere 5.1 include
support for larger virtual machines, CPU performance counters and virtual shared graphics acceleration designed
for enhanced performance.
Can't wait for 100s of VMs with ghost nic issues

My own knowledge base made public: http://open902.com 

Comments
For very small companies not "needing" shared storage to release the benefits might be the final push they need to get into the virtual world. I would also like to have a play with the VCSA again and see if its moved on any I would really like to not be quoting windows cals for vcenter for my clients if at all possible.
Dale Scriven
Twitter:dscriven
Blog: vhorizon.co.uk
I also like the VDP application. Looks very promising, however 2TB of deduplicated space is just not enough. vMotion without shared storage is pretty huge. This is something that is pretty awesome for my remote sites that don't warrant shared storage.
Recent: 11/2019 - RHCSA (RHEL 7); 2/2019 - Updated VCP to 6.5 (just a few days before VMware discontinued the re-cert policy...)
Working on: RHCE/Ansible
Future: Probably continued Red Hat Immersion, Possibly VCAP Design, or maybe a completely different path. Depends on job demands...
September 11
The Storage appliance is very expensive though - last time I checked at least $4k (haven't checked since GA of 5.0 though)
That's not new with 5.1 tho, the storage appliance came with 5.0 - the VMware one anyway - EMC / HP also have virtual VSAs ...
vSphere 5.1
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-what-is-new-vsphere51.pdf
vSphere 5.1 Networking
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vSphere-51-Network-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf
vSphere 5.1 Platform
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vSphere-51-Platform-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf
vSphere 5.1 Storage
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vSphere-51-Storage-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf
vSphere 5.1 Performance
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vSphere-51-Performance-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf
vCloud Director 5.1
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/Whats-New-VMware-vCloud-Director-51-Technical-Whitepaper.pdf
Quite a few new certs coming too
Certification Roadmap
VCP5-IaaS
VCP-Cloud
VCAP-CID
And VCP5 now seems to be VMware Certified Professional 5 – Datacenter Virtualization (VCP5-DV)
http://vmtoday.com/2012/08/vsphere-5-1-announcement-features-and-specifications/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vsphere-5-1-announcement-features-and-specifications
Oh, I missunderstood ... So it doesn't even require a VSA any more .. neat ...
It was only a matter of time before they started messing with the certification routes. I think alot of it will change again before it's solidified.
I've stated before, I almost wish VMware would move to a "renew every 3 year" certification model all across the board. I'd dare say more changes in vSphere in a 3 year span than Cisco IOS does in the same time frame.
Kind of disappointed to see multi CPU fault tolerant VMs not among the new features. I keep hearing that it's on the roadmap, and that it had just barely missed making into 5.0. Was really hoping to see it in 5.1.
Overall, I'm just glad the vRAM licensing is gone.
Yes I was referring to the fact that you can vmotion between local datastores in 5.1. Its going to be a very interesting release indeed.
Dale Scriven
Twitter:dscriven
Blog: vhorizon.co.uk
Whilst I can usually install the client on a server, even just temporarily, is fine, Flash is a big no no in our environment so we'll have to stick with the installable version ...
MCSA 2003, LFCS, LFCE (expired), VCP6-DCV
The heat is on in the virtualization world. Before my current job vSphere was my exclusive hypervisor but I am in a Hyper-V shop now. The pending release of Server 2012 has really lit a fire under VMWARE - the changes in 5.1 constitute a major numbered release, but they can't do that since they just released 5. That might leave the impression they were holding technologies back.
I was going to launch my soapbox about how live migration (or vmotion) without shared storage really isn't a high availability solution but I decided not too. It is pretty amazing that we have gotten to the point where we can have a rapid enough memory snap between the two servers that we can keep the machine alive while the virtual disks are actually moving from one disparate array to another. When you install Hyper-V on Server 2012 it gives you a big warning about how you should still use shared storage if you want high availability.