A thread appeared on VMware VMTN online forums revealed the company is working to ESX Server 3.0.1 and VirtualCenter 2.0.1 minor updates while aiming to introduce a major feature.
The quoted company announcement reports:
The upgrade path in the ESX 3.0.1 release will significantly reduce the upgrade downtime in going from an ESX 2.x to ESX 3.x environment for customers using VirtualCenter. Using VMotion and Relocate, customers will be able to migrate their ESX 2 / VMFS 2 virtual machines to the new ESX 3 / VMFS 3 environment one at a time without any downtime.
This seems to be a move to directly compete with just released esxMigrator, from the VMware Partner vizioncore.
But Scott Herold, Director of Research and Development at vizioncore, partecipating in the discussion seemed very supportative of the coming update and hinted about a big change in the near future:
I can’t say too much, but the future of data streaming will likely change in the VI3.X lifecycle.
Rumors are already rising: is VMware going to buy vizioncore?
Read the whole thread at source.
Update: VMware customer who leaked the news is now reporting the 3.0.1 update will require a fresh installation, preventing the in-place upgrade for ESX 3.0 installations.