vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) 6.0 - What's New

What’s new in the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) 6.0:

• ISO with an easy guided Installer
• Different deployment options possible during the guided installer such as:
  • Install vCenter Server
  • Install Platform Services Controller
  • Install vCenter Server with an Embedded Platform Controller (default)
• Scripted install. Values can be specified in a template file
• Embedded vPostgres database. As external database Oracle is supported.
• IPv6 Support
• Enhanced Linked mode support
• VMware Data Protection (VDP) support for backup and recovery
• Based on a hardened Suse Linux Enterprise 11 SP3 (64-bit)
• The minimum (Up to 20 hosts and 400 VMs) appliance requirements for the VCSA are:
  • 2 vCPU
  • 8 GB memory
  • ~ 100 GB diskspace
• Is has the same feature parity as vCenter Windows:

What are we missing:

• Still no Microsoft SQL database support.
• Possibility to separate roles of the vCenter
• VMware Update Manager is not included in the appliance. Still need an additional Windows Server for VMware Update Manager (VUM)
• Clustering of the vCenter Server Appliance

RHELAH

Red Hat also saw the technical advantages of a lean, mean Linux. They started working on it in Project Atomic. This open-source operating system is now available as variations on Fedora, CentOS, and RHEL.

From this foundation, Red Hat built RHELAH. This operating system is based on RHEL 7. It features the image-like atomic updating and rollback. Red Hat has committed to Docker for its container technology.

According to Red Hat, RHELAH has many advantages over its competitors. This includes being able to run "directly on hardware as well as virtualized infrastructure whether public or private." In addition, Red Hat brings its support and SELinux for improved security.