After teasing us last week with a vSphere 5.5 pull-down under My VMware Downloads, but no content, today we have content! You can now download the GA bits for vSphere 5.5. Seems a little odd to go GA on a Sunday, but hey, I’m not one to complain! My 20Mbps cable modem is already saturated with the ISOs.
As always, vSphere-Land has a cornucopia of vSphere 5.5 links for you to check out. You can find his 100+ links here. Industry leading bloggers like Duncan, Cormac, William and others have been feverously posting great content so check them out. You can also get a good overview of what’s new in vSphere 5.5 in this VMware PDF. The full set of vSphere 5.5 documentation can be found here.
Now that vCenter 5.5 officially supports SQL 2012 failover clustering (about time!), I’m working up a multi-part series for how to install a SQL 2012 failover cluster on Windows Server 2012. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you want database redundancy for vCenter, that’s your only option today. The first two parts are up here, and there will be at least 10 more on the way. So stay tuned and they will all come out in the next week. I’ll probably accelerate their release so if you want to stand up a cluster you will have a full how-to guide.
Just like I did for vSphere 5.1, I will also do a complete soup to nuts install guide, including the infamous SSL certificates. I must say I was overwhelmed at the popularity of that series which you can find here, so I’ll be doing it again. At VMworld I was called “Mr. SSL” by several different people…thought that was funny. Thankfully the VMware certificate replacement tool makes it easier, so I doubt I’ll lose as much hair this time around trying to make it work.
Happy downloading, and follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you keep up with all the new SQL 2012 clustering and vSphere 5.5 installation how to posts that will be rolling out over the next few weeks. Every free minute will be taken up making sure you all get timely content in case you are eager to get started.
Thanks Derek. You definitely have the most thorough guides anywhere, and you have greatly reduced my pain and suffering at work countless times with your posts..
Installing the Hypervisor now, but very much looking forward to another full length guide of yours. That being said, if 5.5 turns out to be as bad as 5.1 then I swear to God I'm moving to RHEV!!!