New Runecast Analyzer 3.0 with vSAN HCL Checks and more!

Yesterday we launched Runecast Analyzer 3.0, providing (among other things) scalability improvements, faster configuration analysis, and production-ready Hardware Compatibility Analysis and Upgrade Simulations that now include vSAN.

We are happy that Runecast 3.0 has already received kind words from a few experts in the vCommunity, including Duncan Epping, VCDX #007 and Chief Technologist at VMware. Duncan wrote in his blog post Runecast Analyzer 3.0!:

“some of you may say that VMware has similar capabilities in their product, but the Runecast appliance doesn’t need to be connected to the internet at all times. You can regularly update the dataset and run these compliancy and upgrade checks (or any of the other checks) regularly offline. Especially for customers where internet access is challenging (dark sites) this is very helpful.”

Version 3.0 also provides VMware administrators with several forward-looking capabilities to significantly reduce time and hassles that typically accompany host upgrades and security compliance.

New features and improvements in Runecast Analyzer 3.0 include:

• Increased visibility & transparency of how your environment is set up

Runecast Analyzer 3.0 delivers an aggregated view of vSAN disk info – you can now find, all in one place, the firmware level, tier, model number (truncated by ESXi to 16 characters), and to which Controller the disk is connected. Additionally, all of your upgrade information can be exported in a CSV file to provide more-detailed reporting on drivers, firmware, and aspects related to vSAN.

• Enhanced predictive analysis with expanded HCL upgrade simulations

To save IT admins much time and effort in the upgrade planning stage, Runecast Analyzer 3.0 enhances the earlier beta version of its ESXi host upgrade simulation feature to check compatibility against the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) with the addition of vSAN checks. The combination of vSAN and ESXi upgradeability simulations gives admins a significant advantage in terms of reliability of their environment and issue prediction.

• Customized PCI-DSS checks to align with your specific environment

As companies that need to comply with stringent PCI-DSS regulations often require company-specific analysis, Runecast Analyzer 3.0 offers editable PCI-DSS security checks as well as faster configuration analysis and testing against compliance regulations specific to your virtual environment. This means that you can customize criteria such as password policies, session timeouts, maximum number of login attempts, or NTP server. Checks can be customized with different granularity levels, for example globally, for vCenter, for cluster, etc. Even organizations that do not need to comply with PCI-DSS specifically can benefit greatly from customizing the checks.

• New Web Client plug-in

Runecast Analyzer 3.0 comes with a new and improved vSphere Web Client. It is one of the first plugins to feature Dark Theme mode, as well as new Summary widget and performance optimizations.

• Enterprise-grade security and scalability improvements

Keeping in line with security information and event management (SIEM), Runecast Analyzer 3.0 provides audit logs for all user actions, which can be forwarded externally. Additionally, version 3.0 adds DISA STIG 6.5, updated DISA STIG URLs, and additional files collected for analysis.

The rich Runecast Analyzer REST API now comes with API-driven token creation and expiration configuration.

Additionally, the Runecast Analyzer scanning algorithms underwent a substantial optimization to allow greater scalability, even for the largest VMware deployments globally.

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What our thinking was behind Runecast Analyzer 3.0

In our press release about Runecast Analyzer 3.0, Stan Markov, CEO and Co-Founder of Runecast, said:

“With 3.0, we are continuing to remove any uncertainty in maintaining a fully operational and compliant VMware SDDC. Thanks to the virtualization community, we receive great feedback on a daily basis, which helps us address the biggest pain points in VMware operations.”

And Aylin Sali, CTO and Co-Founder of Runecast, added:

"vSAN is one of the trickiest components when it comes to upgrades, as you may lose data even if you have backups or it may take a long time to recover and troubleshoot. The new production-level release of the upgrade-simulation feature enables better planning also in your vSAN environment, with valuable information on the compatibility of your Controllers."

Companies benefit from Runecast intelligence

Some organizations already using Runecast Analyzer to manage their VMware environments include: Amadeus, Chevron, Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, de Volksbank, Fujisoft, Scania, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). 

For an in-depth look at how your company can benefit from Runecast, check out our Case Studies.

For a free trial of Runecast Analyzer, download here!

Then let us know what you think (we want to hear it) from directly inside the UI.

Your Runecast Team