This week VMware released vSphere Integrated Containers (VIC) version 1.1. Below are the product highlights and a small introduction to the new product.

Information about VMware Integrated Containers

vSphere Integrated Containers comprises three components:

• VMware vSphere Integrated Containers Engine, a container runtime for vSphere that allows developers who are familiar with Docker to develop in containers and deploy them alongside traditional VM-based workloads on vSphere clusters. vSphere administrators can manage these workloads by using vSphere in a way that is familiar.
• VMware vSphere Integrated Containers Registry, an enterprise-class container registry server that stores and distributes container images. vSphere Integrated Containers Registry extends the Docker Distribution open source project by adding the functionalities that an enterprise requires, such as security, identity and management.
• VMware vSphere Integrated Containers Management Portal, a container management portal that provides a UI for DevOps teams to provision and manage containers, including retrieving stats and info about container instances. Cloud administrators can manage container hosts and apply governance to their usage, including capacity quotas and approval workflows. When integrated with vRealize Automation, more advanced capabilities become available, such as deployment blueprints and enterprise-grade Containers-as-a-Service.

With these capabilities, vSphere Integrated Containers enables VMware customers to deliver a production-ready container solution to their developers and DevOps teams. By leveraging their existing SDDC, customers can run container-based applications alongside existing virtual machine based workloads in production without having to build out a separate, specialized container infrastructure stack. As an added benefit for customers and partners, vSphere Integrated Containers is modular. So, for example, if your organization already has a container registry in production, you can use that registry with vSphere Integrated Containers Engine and vSphere Integrated Containers Management Portal.

New features:

• A unified OVA installer for all three components
• Upgrade from version 1.0
• Official support for vSphere Integrated Containers Management Portal
• A unified UI for vSphere Integrated Containers Registry and vSphere Integrated Containers Management Portal
• A plug-in for the HTML5 vSphere Client
• Support for Docker Client 1.13 and Docker API version 1.25
• Support for using Notary with vSphere Integrated Containers Registry
• Support for additional Docker commands. For the list of Docker commands that this release supports, see Supported Docker Commands in Developing Container Applications with vSphere Integrated Containers.

For more information read the links below.

Links:

• GitHub – VMware VIC
• vSphere Integrated Containers 1.1 Delivers New User Experience Enhancements
• VMware vSphere Integrated Containers 1.1 Release Notes