In this post, we give you a taste of what’s new in Embotics V-Commander 4.6.
Expanded provisioning capabilities
Multiple VMs in a single service. Multiple VMs can be requested, approved, deployed and completed as a single unit. Create a multi-tier application service that contains several VMs, and completely automate provisioning through completion workflows.
vApp support. Embotics V-Commander fully supports vApps as a vehicle for deploying multiple VMs. Setting expiry dates and owners, cloning, powering on and off, setting start order, and decommissioning workflows – it’s all possible right from Embotics V-Commander.
Enhanced naming conventions. Customize the global VM and vApp naming conventions or assign a naming convention to individual Service Catalog entries. Create distinct naming conventions for individual VMs and vApps.
Unmanaged assets as services. Add unmanaged components like a telephone or database instance to the Service Catalog.
Faster provisioning and deployment. Embotics V-Commander supports both manual and automated deployments for multi-component services. Deploy a multi-VM service as standalone VMs or as a vApp. Set startup and deployment order for VM and vApp service components. Service-level completion workflows allow you to automate post-deployment tasks for multiple VMs, such as configuring a load balancer or a firewall.
Service Request Management
From creating the Service Catalog to deploying service requests, service request management is smarter and easier. End users can quickly make requests that are completely tailored to their needs.
Set up a highly flexible Service Catalog. The Form Designer provides fine-grained control of Service Request forms for vApps and other types of multi-component services. Display aggregate costs for an entire service on the New Service Request form. Test customized forms using the entries from your own Service Catalog.
Easily request a service. A shopping cart-style Service Catalog interface allows users to request multiple instances of a service as well as multiple services in a single request. A new icon view of the Service Catalog allows easier browsing of a long list of services. Service Catalog search and category filtering allow requesters find the services they need. Aggregate service costs show requesters the entire cost of their request.
Track service requests. Each item in a service request can be tracked in a request details tree that provides administrators with a clear indication of where their attention is required.
Chargeback and IT Costing
Display aggregate or individual custom attribute costs. For a more granular cost display in the service request process, you can specify that service-level and component-level custom attribute costs are displayed as individual “slices” of costing pie charts rather than totaled into a single slice.
Enhanced Corporate Presence
Brand Service Catalog entries with custom icons. Assign custom categories to services to help requesters find the services they need. Assign custom icons to service workflows, so that Service Portal users see these icons in the list of commands available for a VM or vApp.
New Supported Platforms
This release introduces support for running Embotics V-Commander on Microsoft Windows Server 2012. We now support use of the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 database. Embotics V-Commander now works with VMware vSphere 5.1.
Other Cool Stuff
Linked clone support. We’ve added support for clones that are created from a snapshot of a parent VM and that share virtual disks with the parent VM. For linked clones created within Embotics V-Commander, you can specify that VMs and templates in the Service Catalog be deployed (automatically or manually) as linked clones, as well as manually create a linked clone from a VM or from a template with a snapshot. Display whether a VM is a linked clone and display how many linked clones were created from a VM.
Free disk space calculations for Linux and FreeBSD VMs. Guest OS scanning for Linux and FreeBSD VMs provides disk space usage values for VMs where VMware Tools isn’t installed, as well as for VMs with XFS partitions. These values are used in reports showing disk usage information, such as the Guest OS Disk Usage report.