Current version information VMware vSphere 5

Please note that this article / this category refers either on older software / hardware components or is no longer maintained for other reasons. This page is no longer updated and is purely for reference purposes still here in the archive available.

You will find current version information regarding VMware vSphere 5 in this article.

General Information regarding VMware vSphere 5

• VMware vSphere 5 Documentation: English
• Hardware Requirements:
  • ESXi 5.0 requires a 64-bit x86 CPU with at least two CPU cores
  • Detailed Hardware Requirements
  • VMware Compatibility Guide
  • Third Party Hardware and Software Support Policy

Versions

Current Patches

The current patches can be downloaded from here:

• http://www.vmware.com/patchmgr/download.portal

ESXi 5.0 Update 1, vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1

Important changes (extracts) in this version:

• ESXi: Support for additional guest operating systems – ESXi 5.0 Update 1 adds support for Mac OS X Server Lion 10.7.2 and 10.7.3.
• ESXi: New or upgraded device drivers – ESXi 5.0 Update 1 adds support for native storage drivers for Intel C600 series chipset and upgrades LSI MegaRAID SAS driver to version 5.34.
• vCenter: Guest Operating System Customization Improvements – vCenter Server adds support for customization of the following guest operating systems: Windows 8, Ubuntu 11.10/11.04/10.10/10.04LTS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2

Complete Release Notes with all changes:

• http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_esxi50_u1_rel_notes.html (15.03.2012, Build 623860)
• http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsp_vc50_u1_rel_notes.html (15.03.2012, Build 639890)

ESXi 5.0, vCenter Server 5.0, vCenter Server Appliance 5.0

Important changes (extracts) in this version:

• VMFS Version 5

Maximum LUN size: 64TB

Unified Block Size: 1MB

Maximum File Size: 2TB minus 512 Byte

The LUN must be re-formatted for migration

• Current VMware Storage DRS - vSphere 5
• Profile-driven Storage
• New virtual machine format (version 8) with support for 3D graphics for Windows Aero and USB 3.0 devices
• Newly developed VMware HA - vSphere 5
• vSphere Web Client
• VMware vCenter Server Appliance (Linux-based Virtual Appliance with vCenter Server)
• List of 140 changes: vSphere 5.0 Features (blogs.vmware.com, 24.08.2011)

Complete Release Notes with all changes:

• http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenter-server-50-release-notes.html (24.08.2011, ESXi Build 469512, vCenter Server Build 456005)

Additional Information

• What's New in VMware vSphere 5 - Technical White Papers (ntpro.nl/blog)
• vSphere 5.0 – up close and virtual (infosmackpodcasts.com), Podcast (Duration: 1h 16min)