3 Awesome New Virtualization Tools

They include a vCenter migration tool and Windows Server 2016.

• By Rick Vanover
• 09/28/2016

There's a lot going on in our industry right now. Whether it's big strategic things (which are important) or low-level details that solve immediate technical issues, it's been a busy last few weeks. Here are three new releases that could end up being being helpful for many environments.

1. vCenter Server Migration Tool. This has been a real difficult situation for many admins deciding between running the vCenter Server application on Windows or running the vCenter Server appliance. I've covered this appliance a number of times (Easy setup and Active Directory authentication in particular), and personally have favored using the appliance of late. As of vSphere 6.0 Update 2m, there now is a migration tool that will migrate the database to the vCenter Server appliance. (It's important to note that any existing database will be converted to the embedded vPostgres format).
   
   This is a boon for those who want the appliance yet have a lot of configuration and history in a vCenter Server installation; or environments with an inconsistent mix of vCenter Server appliances and vCenter Server application installations. This would be a good time to simulate a few of these migrations and allocate the requisite downtime; but it can really solve a problem for many organizations.


2. Windows Server 2016 is generally available. What's interesting is that it's available for evaluation now, but for sale in the October price list. Windows Server 2016 introduces Hyper-V Server and the ReFS 3.0 file system, two of my favorite features for this large release. If you haven't spent some lab time with Windows Server 2016 and Hyper-V yet, now is the time.


3. Cool RegtoText tool updated. One of the things I love about the Microsoft MVP program is that you have access to a very diverse and skilled set of technical experts worldwide that love to share tools and tips. MVP Mark Pahulje made the RegtoText tool, which was updated this month. It takes hexadecimal and decimal values and converts them to readable text, which can be helpful before implementing registry changes. There are plenty of things to do in the registry with Hyper-V, but do so carefully.

Which one of these is the most interesting to you and your daily tasks? Personally, I'm all-in on Windows Server 2016, so I'm happy for that to be released now. Share your favorite below.