VMware Opens Lab Manager For iSCSI

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VMware is making its Lab Manager virtual lifecycle management software more accessible with the release today of version 2.5

If an enterprise wanted to use VMware’s Lab Manager software before today and didn’t have a Fiber Channel SAN (define), time was, it was simply out of luck. That changes in the new version.

“We have expanded the storage options for users of Lab Manager,” James Phillips, senior director of virtual software lifecycle automation at VMware, told internetnews.com. “Lab Manager allows you to store a library of virtual machine images and check them out and deploy them. In 2.4 we required customers to have fiber channel SAN storage to maintain the library. We’ve now added iSCSI and NAS based NFS (define) storage options.”

Phillips noted that adding storage options by definition allows people to adopt the Lab Manager software more readily.

“Many of our customers of Lab Manager in many cases had to upgrade hardware in order to have the required physical infrastructure to execute Lab Manager 2.4 and that step was often times injected a hurdle that we had to overcome,” Phillips admitted. “By offering support for Fiber Channel, iSCSI and even just plain NFS there is no longer an issue. Everyone will have access to one of those storage subsystems and be able to use the product.”

VMware has also expanded the number of guest operating systems that Lab Manager supports. Version 2.4 now handles 64 bit operating systems and can support Windows Vista, Solaris 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Scale out management capability is improved in Lab Manager 2.5, according to Phillips, with new enhanced automation capabilities. The new version provides greater granularity and control over virtual machine resource usage, deployment and consolidation options. Integration with Borland SilkCentral and HP Quality Center test automation suites lets users test and then deploy virtualization scenarios to Lab Manager in an automated fashion.

The 2.5 release of Lab Manager is the second release of the virtual lifecycle management suite since it was first announced by VMware last year. Lab Manager is derived from assets VMware acquired with the purchase of Akimbi Systems and is a key component of VMware’s testing and lifecycle product portfolio.

Phillips declined to say what may be next in terms of Lab Manager development.

“It is safe to say that there is still plenty to be done we have a long list of things like we’d like to do to enhance this product.”

This article was first published on InternetNews.com.