Release: VMware Lab Manager 4.0 (merged with Stage Manager)

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Today VMware releases the fourth generation of its virtual lab automation tool Lab Manager.

The new 4.0 version (build 1140) introduces the following features:

  • Support for multiple workspaces (isolation of resources in multiple workspaces in the same organization, sharing of configurations across different workspaces)
  • Host spanning across network fencing (network-fenced virtual labs can see the same host) 
  • Resource usage monitor
  • Configuration history and archiving
  • Support for vSphere 4.0 (excluded VMware FT and Linked Clones technologies)

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The new Lab Manager pricing starts at $1,495 per CPU.

The biggest news anyway is that VMware killed the other product derived from Lab Manager: Stage Manager.
Stage Manager was launched 13 months ago and since then received just a single minor update.
At the launch time virtualization.info reported how this product was sharing much of the Lab Manager engine (and even its agents), wondering why VMware didn’t simply extend the former to provide the staging functionalities of the latter.
Over one year later the company seems to finally agree and merges back Stage Manager with Lab Manager 4.0.

The now defunct Stage Manager 1.0.1 is here.