What's New in VMware vSphere 6.5

VMware vSphere 6.5 brings the new and most awaited coolest enhanced feature as described here:

• VMware vCenter Server Appliance will deliver a simplified building block for vSphere environments offering an easy to deploy and manage approach that reduces operational complexity by embedding key functionality into a single virtual appliance. The appliance will offer customers simplified patching, upgrading, backup and recovery, high availability and more, including a 2X increase in both scale and performance of their vCenter Server environments.
• Memory size per VM: 6 TB
• Upgrading via appliance model using the new vCenter Server Appliance Migration tool.
• vCenter Server Appliance Comes with a native HA.
• VMware vSphere Client will be based on HTML5 which will boost performance and provides a modern user interface experience that is both responsive and easy to use.
• New VM encryption will protect against unauthorized data access safeguarding data at rest as well as virtual machines that are moved with vMotion.
• Secure Boot – new feature will prevent the tampering of images as well as the loading of unauthorized components into vSphere environments. To secure data, vSphere 6.5 offers a new VM-level disk encryption capability designed to protect against unauthorized data access.
• VMware delivers vSphere Integrated Containers, the easiest way for vSphere users to bring containers into an existing vSphere environment.
• VMware vSphere Integrated Containers will allow IT operations teams to provide a Docker-compatible interface to their app teams enabling vSphere customers to transform their businesses with containers without re-architecting their existing infrastructure.
• Ability to encrypt any VM disk regardless of guest OS, and the ability to manage encryption at scale using the familiar vSphere storage policy framework.
• Combined with the new encrypted vMotion capability, vSphere can safeguard both data at-rest and data in-motion.
• To assure the security of the underlying infrastructure, vSphere 6.5 also adds a secure boot model to protect both the hypervisor and the guest operating system.
• vSphere 6.5 also delivers enhanced audit-quality logging capabilities that provide more forensic information about user actions.
• vSphere 6.5 also takes an API-first approach. REST APIs will improve both the IT and developer experience by enabling greater control and automation of virtual infrastructure for modern applications via new REST-based APIs.
• vSphere 6.5 introduces new REST-based APIs for VM Management that vastly Improve both the user and partner experience by enabling finer control of virtual infrastructure for apps.
• NSX and VMware Virtual SAN to support best-in-class network automation and scale out, high performance persistent storage, respectively.
• vSphere 6.5 also lets you run apps from any cloud, including your data center or in public cloud environments.
• vSphere 6.5 is available in both the private cloud and as a service through a public cloud.

VMware vSphere Web Client:

• Inventory tree is the default view
• Home screen reorganized
• Renamed “Manage” tab to “Configure”
• Removed “Related Objects” tab
• Performance improvements (VM Rollup at 5000 instead of 50 VMs)
• Live refresh for power states, tasks, and more!

VMware vSphere Client:

• Clean, consistent UI built on VMware’s new Clarity UI standards (to be adopted across our portfolio)
• Built on HTML5 so it is truly a cross-browser and cross-platform application
• No browser plugins to install/manage
• Integrated into vCenter Server for 6.5 and fully supported
• Fully supports Enhanced Linked Mode

VMware vSAN 6.5:

• iSCSI Support will enable Virtual SAN storage to be presented as an iSCSI target for external physical workloads including clustered applications such as Microsoft SQL Server with Failover Clustering on a limited number of physical servers.
• Virtual SAN will provide persistent data layer for containerized applications via VMware vSphere Integrated Containers.
• Two-node Direct Connect – new functionality will eliminate the need for routers/switches between Virtual SAN systems in ROBO sites.
• REST APIs and Expanded PowerCLI will help customers accelerate responsiveness with enterprise-class automation that brings cloud-like flexibility and management to Virtual SAN environments.
• Support for 512-byte emulated disk drives enables high-capacity drives.
• In addition, VMware is also announcing vSphere Virtual Volumes 2.0, which will feature enhanced enterprise-readiness through capabilities like native support for array replication.

Additional Information:

• What’s new in vSphere 6.5: Security
• What’s New in vSphere 6.5: Host & Resource Management and Operations
• VMware vSphere 6.5 Release Notes
• VMware vSphere 6.5 Documentation
• Download vCenter 6.5
• Download ESXi 6.5