Posted in vSAN, vSphere

Unlocking New Possibilities: vSphere 8 Update 2 Unveiled!

   27 September 2023

Exciting news for all virtualization enthusiasts and tech aficionados – vSphere 8 Update 2 has landed, and it’s ready for you to explore! In this latest iteration, VMware has packed a slew of remarkable features, enhancements, and improvements that promise to elevate your virtual infrastructure to new heights. Among these, vSAN 8 Update 2 takes center stage by laying the foundation for VMware’s groundbreaking vSAN MaxTM – an innovative, petabyte-scale, disaggregated storage solution underpinned by the vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA).

Hold tight; the launch of vSAN Max is just around the corner. Stay tuned for updates on its availability, set to drop in the second half of VMware’s Fiscal Year 24. This exciting addition expands the vSAN family, providing customers with extensive scale-out and scale-up options to bolster their vSAN deployments.

Introducing vSAN Max

vSAN Max is set to revolutionize the way we think about storage in virtualized environments. With the capacity to scale to petabyte levels, it empowers organizations to effortlessly expand their vSAN infrastructure, ensuring they are ready to tackle the ever-growing demands of modern workloads.

But that’s not all; vSphere 8 Update 2 brings a myriad of other enhancements to the table:

  1. Integrated File Services: Seamlessly integrate file services into your virtual environment, catering to both cloud-native and traditional workloads.
  2. Improved Performance for Disaggregated Environments: Enhance the performance of your virtual infrastructure in disaggregated settings, ensuring smoother operations.
  3. New AF-0 ReadyNode Profile: Ideal for small deployments, this profile streamlines your setup, making it more efficient and manageable.
  4. Default Auto-Policy Intelligence: Achieve optimal vSAN SPBM policies effortlessly with enhanced default auto-policy intelligence.
  5. Improved Cluster Capacity Reporting: Gain clarity on your cluster’s capacity utilization, making resource management a breeze.
  6. Enhanced Key Management: Strengthen security through improved key management, safeguarding your virtualized environment against potential threats.
  7. Intuitive Resource Consumption Detection: Identify VMs and disks consuming the most resources, aiding in performance optimization.
  8. Performance Bottleneck Detection: Detect and resolve performance bottlenecks more efficiently, particularly in stretched clusters.
  9. Simplified Configuration: Streamline the configuration process for 2-Node and Stretched Clusters, saving time and effort.

For more in-depth information on these enhancements, head over to our vSAN 8 U2 announcement blog and dive into the details!

vVols and Core Storage

But wait, there’s more! In addition to the vSAN revelations, vSphere 8 Update 2 introduces significant enhancements to vVols and Core Storage, enriching your virtualization experience further. One standout feature is the ability to hot extend shared disks on vVols, a game-changer for users of clustered applications like Microsoft WSFC or Oracle RAC. Now, expanding shared disks is a breeze without the need for application shutdowns, closing the gap between vVols and RDMs.

Here are some additional enhancements to vVols and Core Storage:

  1. vVols NVMe In-Band Migration: Simplify data migration with in-band migration support for vVols NVMe.
  2. Automated Recovery from PDL for vVol PEs: Enhance data recovery capabilities with automated recovery from Permanent Device Loss (PDL) for vVol Protocol Endpoints (PEs).
  3. Support for vVols Online Disk Extension with Oracle RAC: Extend online disk support to Oracle RAC deployments with vVols.
  4. UNMAP Support for config-vVol: Streamline your virtual environment with UNMAP support for config-vVol.
  5. Support vNVME Controller Type for MS WSFC: Improve compatibility by adding support for the vNVMe controller type with Microsoft WSFC.
  6. Support Oracle RAC Clustering with vVols NVMe (FC, TCP): Elevate your Oracle RAC clusters with vVols NVMe support over Fibre Channel (FC) and TCP.
  7. Enable vNVMe Support with Oracle RAC (vVols): Enhance Oracle RAC with vVols support for vNVMe.
  8. Improved SE Sparse Snapshot Offline Consolidation Performance: Enjoy better performance during SE Sparse snapshot offline consolidation.
  9. DNLC Cache for NFS4.1: Boost NFS4.1 performance with DNLC cache support.
  10. NFS nConnect: Further optimize NFS connections with NFS nConnect.

For a comprehensive look at these enhancements, check out our vSphere 8 U2 vVols and Core Storage article.

Download Links:

It’s an exciting time in the world of virtualization, and vSphere 8 Update 2 promises to take your virtual infrastructure to the next level. Don’t miss out on the chance to explore these groundbreaking features and enhancements. Download now and embark on a journey towards a more efficient, scalable, and secure virtual environment!

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