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At the end of August VMware finally released its authoring product Studio 2.0.

This new Studio introduces the support for vApps, the next incarnation of the VMware Virtual Appliances (VA), and a number of additional, welcome features:

  • Support for vSphere 4.0 (including both ESX and ESXi hosts), Server and Workstation as provisioning engines.
  • Support for OVF 1.0 and 0.9 formats
  • Support for VA/vApp customization (logo, EULA, first-boot script and user management capabilities)
  • Support for virtual machines (previously created with Studio) as input
  • Support for Windows Server 2003 and 2008 (32/64 bit)
  • Periodically publish critical updates to deployed VA/vApps through VMware Update Manager (VUM)
  • Authored VA/vApps have an agent built on a Common Information Model (CIM) Broker and CIM Provider for guest OS management