Well this year I did not have the chance to go to VMworld SF, or lets say can’t afford to go every year. So the things I found are from the Web and not from VMworld and don’t have to be true. I will list a few things I found very shortly and I will comment them.
Simplified configuration
vCO 5.5 should by default use SSO and an embedded database, so as I understand you should be able to power it up and be ready to go. Of course in a production environment you should use an external database so my guess, for a production environment you still need to do some tuning.
High Availability
Supposedly you should be able to install vCO 5.5 in cluster mode. Active-Active or Active-Passive. An external database is needed for this. Well where I use it, there isn’t really a need for HA but I can picture that there are shops that need this.
Resume failed workflows
If a workflow failed you should be able to pick up the workflow and resume it. You can change the parameters before doing so. I cannot really picture this yet but sounds interesting.
New UI
It seems there were some complains about the new UI. I actually didn’t mind. I found the “for each” loop a little difficult to use but in general I thought it was an improvement over the old one. Seems they have changed it again and I am interested to see the changes.
Forward/Backward navigation through API browser.
This I find really exciting. Now you should be able to go back and forward in the API Browser. Before I clicked my self through the API and then needed to go back but couldn’t. You would need to search for your object again and start over from there. I have asked for this improvement last year when I was at VMworld and it seems I was not the only one. Very helpful, saves a lot of time. Actually I have also asked for the possibility to copy and paste from the API browser to the scripting pane. We’ll see if this will be possible as well. Really great news in my eyes.
That’s all for now on vCO 5.5 from my side. Waiting to get my hands on it in my new personal test lab once it is out.
TXUSA 