ESX is dead, long live ESXi!

VMware vSphere 4.1 is going to be the last release of ESX; there will be no ESX 4.2. From now on it will be ESXi all the way.



From: http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/vsp_esxi41_vc41_rel_notes.html

1) VMware ESX. VMware vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture.

2) VMware recommends that customers start transitioning to the ESXi architecture when deploying VMware vSphere 4.1.



From: http://www.kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/the-migration-from-esx-to-esxi-is-happening-moving-configurations.html

“What I don't get is how they link you to the VMware ESX to ESXi Upgrade Center and there is nothing there. Also, don' take this as a real "upgrade" per se, it's more of a side-grade. Digging a bit further and we get to the Upgrade from ESX to ESXi page which shows no real process of "upgrading". So from what I see, the only upgrade is to wipe and fresh install.”



vSphere 4.1 introduces an impressive number of new features


From: http://virtualization.info/en/news/2010/07/release-vmware-vsphere-4-1.html

• Scripted Install for ESXi
• vSphere Client Removal from ESX/ESXi Builds
• Boot from SAN
• Hardware Acceleration with vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI
• Storage Performance Statistics
• Storage I/O Control
• iSCSI Hardware Offloads
• Network I/O Control.
• IPv6 Enhancements
• Load-Based Teaming
• E1000 vNIC Enhancements
• Windows Failover Clustering with VMware HA
• VMware HA Scalability Improvements
• VMware HA Healthcheck and Operational Status
• VMware Fault Tolerance (FT) Enhancements
• DRS Interoperability for VMware HA and Fault Tolerance (FT)
• Enhanced Network Logging Performance
• Concurrent VMware Data Recovery Sessions
• vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) Enhancements
• vCLI Enhancements
• Lockdown Mode Enhancements
• Access Virtual Machine Serial Ports Over the Network
• vCenter Converter Hyper-V Import
• Enhancements to Host Profiles
• Unattended Authentication in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)
• Updated Deployment Environment in vSphere Management Assistant (vMA)
• vCenter Orchestrator 64-bit Support
• Improved Support for Handling Recalled Patches in vCenter Update Manager
• License Reporting Manager
• Power Management Improvements
• Reduced Overhead Memory
• DRS Virtual Machine Host Affinity Rules
• Memory Compression
• vMotion Enhancements
• ESX/ESXi Active Directory Integration
• Configuring USB Device Passthrough from an ESX/ESXi Host to a Virtual Machine
• Improvements in Enhanced vMotion Compatibility
• vCenter Update Manager Support for Provisioning, Patching, and Upgrading EMC’s ESX PowerPath Module
• User-configurable Number of Virtual CPUs per Virtual Socket
• Expanded List of Supported Processors
With vSphere 4.1 VMware is enriching its offering for the SMB market, adding VMotion to the Essential Plus license:

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