VMware announced last year the new version of their virtualization platform. They claimed it was the most secure and versatile platform yet. We will take a look at what VMware did to vSphere in the most recent version and what it means for earning the updated VMware Certified Professional certification.
vSphere is VMware’s suite of products that enable a virtualized datacenter, and provide a foundation for cloud environments. Its core components are the type-1 hypervisor ESXi, and the vCenter Server management software. The suite of products that tie into vCenter Server is also included. ESXi hosts virtual machines on top of “bare metal”, and vCenter server is the central control interface for ESXi-hosted VMs and API provider.
vCenter Server is the management interface for multiple associated products, including VMFS (a high performance cluster filesystem), SMP and vSphere Storage vMotion. These are live migrations for virtual disks and configs, among others.
What’s new in vSphere6.5
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Start trainingIf you have vSphere 6.0 experience and your organization is moving on to 6.5, or if you simply want to obtain the most current VMware Certified Professional (VCP), certification for vSphere you will need to learn about the changes in 6.5 as well as their impact on your new certification.
The 6.5 release includes significant changes that aim to simplify the user experience, provide comprehensive built-in security and a universal app platform (specifically, better support of containerized apps). The following major changes are:
vCenter server: The standalone vCenter Appliance (VCSA), now has more features than the Windows service version. vCenter Server has high availability, including the ability to clone or cluster itself. This means that vCenter Server and its services no longer have one point of failure. vCenter Server also has a native backup/restore.
vSphere Update manager: The migration tool to move to 6.5 has been integrated into VCSA without the need for a separate Windows server nor plugins.
HTML5-based vSphere client: The transition from the Adobe Flash-based client (often called “fat client”) to a HTML5-based web client is happening quickly. The home screen of the web client has been reorganized to make it easier to perform common admin tasks. There’s also less need to rely on the command-line interface, CLI.
REST-based APIs – The transition to web- and API based tools continues with the addition vCenter REST APIs to manage VCSA and basic management of VMs.
Security: 6.5’s policy-driven approach towards security at scale includes secure information (VM encryption at hypervisor level), secure data (vMotion encryption with certificates from vCenter), secure infrastructure, secure boot providing a digitally signed chain of trust all up to EFI enabled VMs, and secure access (audit quality logging).
Containers: The Docker-compatible vSphere Integrated Container engine (VIC) is now available. It also includes a container management portal (Admiral) and registry (Harbor).

It’s time to get certified!
New product, new certification. This is IT. VMware is no exception. VMware offers a VMware Certified Professional 6.5 – Data Center Virtualization certification to get users up-to-speed on vSphere 6.5.
The updates to vSphere6.5 have shaped the significant changes in the VCP6.5 DCV Exam Guide objectives (versus the VCP6 DCV).
Section 1 – Configure & Administer vSphere 6x Security Deals with encrypted vMotion and VM encryption and secure boot for ESXi hosts.
Section 2 – Configure and administer vSphere 6.x Networking can be affected by various networking enhancements.
Section 3 – Configure & Administer vSphere 6.x Storage is affected by