I don’t have any VMware hosts to manage but I wanted to know what ones are supported by Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Finding that information wasn’t so quick and easy. The supported hosts are:
- VMware ESX Server 3.5
- VMware ESX Server 3.0.2
- VMware ESX Server 3i
None of the official sites I’ve seen mention vSphere 4.0. However, it has been said by Microsoft people (and quoted by the online press) that any functionality that works with earlier editions will work in vSphere 4. New functionality does not yet work.
VMM 2008 R2 adds something that VMM 2008 didn’t have; that is the ability to use VMware port groups.
As my friend Monika recently tweeted, VMM is “One Console to rule them all, One to bring them all and in the darkness bind them In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie”. VMM gives you to manage other virtualisation managers. You can manage many VMware managers. The listed ones are:
- VMware VirtualCenter 2.5
- VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.1
That allows you to use VMM as your central point for day to day operations. And if you’re tempted, you can even migrate your virtual machines from VMware to Hyper-V or Virtual Server.