New Release Menu Nov 23rd

It's that time again, the bi-weekly New Release Menu covering VMware's publicly new and recent releases over the past two weeks. Today's edition delivers 2 Infrastructure releases and 4 EUC releases.

Below you'll find the product and it's version, a link to its Release Notes, and the date it was released. Enjoy!

vSphere Data Protection 6.1.1 [Infrastructure] (Nov 10)
vSphere Data Protection 6.0.3 [Infrastructure] (Nov 10)
Fusion 7.1.3 [EUC/OSX] Nov 12
Workstation Pro/Player 11.1.3 [EUC] Nov 12
VMware Identity Manager 2.4.1 [EUC] (Nov 17)
ThinApp 5.2.0 [EUC] (Nov 19)

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Authentication Chaining in vIDM 2.4.1

VMware Identity Manager 2.4.1 was dropped today with a single publicly documented new feature: Authentication Chaining.

For most, this feature alone probably isn't reason enough to upgrade from 2.4.0, but it does offer some pretty granular control over user authentication.

 

So what is Authentication Chaining?

Authentication Chaining allows you to enable 2-factor authentication from within Identity Manager, or with another Identity Provider (IdP). For example, you could have joe-user first authenticate with an RSA token, and then require joe-user to enter his password after providing the RSA token. If successful, joe-user has double-verfied his identity and can now access Identity Manager, or his entitled application.

The cool thing is you can still have authentication fallback configured so that if joe-user fails to authenticate with the configured authentication chain, there can be a fallback authentication method (let's say RADIUS) to give poor joe-user one last chance.

Where is this configured?

As you might have guessed, this is configured in the Access Policies section of the Identity & Access Management tab in the Admin Portal. You can simply Edit the default_access_policy_set to include the auth chain, or configure a new policy altogether.

For more info on Identity Manager 2.4.1, check out the Release Notes here. Furthermore, there is additional information regarding Authentication Chaining in the Administration Guide and on this blog post.

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New Release Menu Nov 10

VMware is constantly pushing new and updated software which can be a time consuming task to keep track of every new release. And there are lots of products to keep track of. In converstations with customers I often hear, "Oh when did that come out?" Or, "I heard about that version but don't know anything about it."

In the spirit of being helpful, I'm starting a new category called New Release Menu which I hope to publish every 2 - 3 weeks. Below you'll find a short compilation of VMware's New Releases over the past few weeks and links to their respective Release Notes. I will have each post titled with that day's date. Enjoy!

vSphere Data Protection 6.1.1 and 6.0.3 (Nov 10th)

vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5.0.3.3 Infrastructure (Oct. 29th)

vSphere Replication 5.0.3.3 Infrastructure (Oct. 29th)

Fusion 8.0.2 Consumer Desktop (Oct. 29th)

Workstation Pro/Player 12.0.1 Consumer Desktop (Oct. 29th)

Integrated OpenStack 1.0.3 Virtual Team (Oct. 23rd)

vCloud Director 5.5.5 vCloud (Oct. 22nd)

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Why VMware Premier Services?

VMware, not unlike most IT companies, offers multiple tiers of support. Two of which fall under the umbrella of Premier Services. These are the highest tiers available and are currently broken into what's known as Business Critical Support and Mission Critical Support.

Both offerings are all about the "white-glove" treatment. But which one is right for you? Let's break it down:

Business Critical Support (BCS)

Personalized support delivered by a designated team

Add-on to Production Support - this means BCS cannot exist without a valid Production Support Agreement. Generally speaking, these times will usually compliment one another so that you aren't left without a current support agreement - but it's certainly something to be aware of!

Designated Senior TSE for 6 Customer Contacts -  Each BCS customer is assigned a Senior Technical Support Engineer. This engineer is their dedicated point of contact into the Support Organization and is responsible for holding regular cadence meetings with the 6 Support Administrators (customer contacts entitled for BCS).

Technical Relationship - Your dedicated TSE is considered an extension of your IT team. With regular meetings in place and a deep knowledge of your VMware Infrastructure, your assigned TSE builds a invaluable rapport with the designated Support Administrators.

Mission Critical Support (MCS)

Priority access to senior-level engineers and proactive account management

Add-on to Production Support - Same situation as BCS above.

Designated Account Manager - MCS requires TAM services and many MCS customers utilize an MCS TAM that helps drive support success, as well as drive projects and regular environment reviews.

Senior TSE Team Routing for Unlimited Customer Contacts - The 6 "Support Administrator" limitation (like with BCS) is gone and an unlimited amount of contacts are entitled to MCS support.

Enhanced SR and Phone Response - All other support offerings have a Severity 1, 2, 3, and 4 level for SRs with response times of 30 min, 4 hours, 8 hours, and 12 hours, respectively. MCS, however, has 30 min, 2 hours, 4 hours, and 8 hour response times, respectively.

Onsite Support - In extreme situations when the customer would benefit from an onsite support presence, MCS will offer to send one if its Senior Resources who specializes in the subject matter at hand to help drive the current challenges to resolution.

All in all, VMware Premier Service's goal is to ensure the customer is nothing but delighted with the level of support they're paying for. For more information on the differences between the support offerings, check out the comparisons on VMware's website.

Speak with your TAM or VMware Sales Team if you have questions about VMware Premier Services.

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