VMware quietly sneaks out NSX 6.2 update and/or bug-blast

Buy more hardware and cross NSX off your list of big VMworld announcements

VMware has quietly let NSX 6.2 out the door, so those of you hoping for a big software-defined networking (SDN) announcement at VMworld next week can probably resign yourself to a dull keynote.

The biggest change is that you'll need more memory and CPU cycles to get NSX working. VMware says you'll now need at least 16GB of memory for NSX Manager 6.2.x. For a “large” installation, add another 8GB of RAM and prepare to throw at least eight CPUs at the software.

What's “large”? VMware says any of the following tips you over into more-RAM-and-CPU-please bigness:

• 100 hypervisors
• 100 NSX Edges
• 1,000 universal distributed firewall rules
• 10,000 distributed firewall rules (non-universal)

Is this an upgrade or a bug fix release? You be the judge. On the “upgrade” side of the ledger you'll find plenty of new features that let NSX work across multiple vCenter instances, lots of new tools for administrators including a single CLU spanning several NSX edges, the ability for bridging to participate in distributed logical routing and better IP address discovery to help NSX impose security policies.

Buttressing the bug fix argument is a list of over 50 fixes and improvements, but there's also a long list of unresolved issues that VMware knows about but is leaving for another day.

With SDN likely off the news agenda at VMworld what can we expect from the show? Your correspondent's been briefed, but only after signing in blood and promising not to tell. Suffice to say that the Steve Ballmer play book's been perused. Three times. ®