With the latest version (5.0) of their vCenter product line, VMware released the new virtual appliance edition of the vCenter server solution.  Unlike the traditional vCenter installation that requires an underlying Windows operating system, the vCenter Server Appliance (vCSA) runs on SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 11 and can be easily imported into an existing vSphere environment.  This new virtual appliance represents VMware's direction away from Microsoft Windows based servers to lightweight, pre-configured Linux appliances.  While this may seem slightly unnerving to some System Administrators who have grown accustom to the Windows GUI, and the persistent patching required to keep their systems safe and stable; the ability to quickly deploy a reliable vCenter instance will eventually make any Virtualization Administrator's job much easier.

While the benefits to this model are fairly obvious, there are some limitations with the current release.  For starters (and for most this may be a "show-stopper"), the vCSA does not support Microsoft SQL databases.  Only an external Oracle instance and an embedded IBM DB2 database is currently supported, with the embedded database being only recommended for small pilot deployments.  The vCSA is also not recommended for VMware View environments, as the View Composer component currently requires a Windows Server to operate (View Composer must be installed on a vCenter server).  There are other drawbacks as well such as no single-sign on support for Windows session credentials, and no IPv6 support.  Yet, it's my opinion that the two issues mentioned previously must be worked out before  most organizations will begin adopt this new technology in their production environments.

There may be some roadblocks with the current release of the vCSA, but as VMware has proved with other technologies, they will eventually iron out the faults in future versions.  It is clear though that VMware is committed to providing their customers with the most efficient and  reliable technologies, while easing the hassle of system management and deployment.  More information regarding the vCenter Server Appliance can be found on the VMware vCenter Server webpage: <a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/overview.html">http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/overview.html</a>