Key Takeaways from VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.6 Release

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VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.6 introduces a range of exciting new features and enhancements that further empower businesses to ensure the availability, reliability, and resilience of their cloud environments. Let's dive into the key highlights of this release:




vSphere to vSphere Recovery Plans:

With VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.6, the scope of recovery plans expands to encompass vSphere Disaster Recovery and migration between vCenter Server sites. This enhancement allows businesses to seamlessly orchestrate and execute recovery plans for vSphere environments.


Audit Logs:

Enhancing the security and transparency of your cloud operations, this version introduces the ability to audit VMware Cloud Director Availability events using the Cloud Director delivery channel. External events, including those from VMware Cloud Director Availability, are automatically marked as audit events. This feature ensures audit persistence, retention, and export capabilities through VMware Cloud Director's audit trail system.


Recovery Settings Enhancements:

Users can now conveniently map source and destination networks for selected replications in both on-premises to cloud and cloud to cloud replications. Additionally, vSphere DR and migration validate recovery settings based on replication settings such as data center, VM folder, compute, and more. This version also facilitates per-virtual machine network mapping, akin to Cloud Director sites.


vSphere to vSphere DR and Migration Public API:

VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.6 offers a comprehensive guide to configuring deployed appliances using the VMware Cloud Director Availability API. This step-by-step API reference empowers administrators to effectively manage vSphere DR and Migration configurations.


NSX-T vApp Edges Support:

Backed by VMware Cloud Director 10.3 or later, version 4.6 introduces support for replicating routed vApp networks and vApp network services to virtual data centers powered by NSX. This update also brings parity with NSX for vSphere by replicating the DHCP service on vApp isolated networks, provided the organization's virtual data center is configured with an edge cluster.


Guest Customization Global Setting:

A global setting has been added to control whether users need to manually activate or deactivate guest customization during failover. This streamlines the replication process and enhances the consistency of the failover experience.


Tunnel Appliance High Availability:

High availability for the Tunnel Service is enhanced with the introduction of active-active mode for a second Tunnel Appliance in Cloud Director sites. This is applicable to both new deployments and upgrades, offering improved availability and reliability.


vApp Template Replication:

Replicating vApp templates between Cloud Director sites now supports tracking changes in source templates. This allows for the creation of new destination template versions when changes occur, or overwriting the destination template as needed.


Improved Event Notifications:

Event notifications now include replication management events sent via email delivery channels. This provides a streamlined communication channel for subscribers who can now receive weekly summary emails to stay updated on replication activities.


vSphere to vSphere Bandwidth Throttling:

Bandwidth throttling extends its reach to vSphere DR and migration scenarios, enabling better control over data transfer rates. Note that applying the throttle limit requires external Replicator Appliance instances.


These are just some of the highlights from the VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.6 release, showcasing how VMware continues to evolve and enhance its offerings to meet the dynamic needs of modern cloud environments. For a comprehensive understanding of all the new features, improvements, and upgrades, make sure to review the official release notes and documentation provided by VMware. Embrace these advancements to elevate the availability and resilience of your cloud operations!

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