Plain Virtualization

Recently a colleague hit into an issue with his setup on vCenter due to the expiry of license. A new license will be used however he is still hitting some problems. A quick check, he was using vCenter ROBO edition license and ESXi is running vSphere Enterprise Plus. So here is to clarify the different editions of vCenter from VMware and the features available and limitation. Do note some features is dependent on the vSphere editions. Refer to this KB for some of vSphere 6.x features comparison. I have also previously illustrated in vCenter 5.x here which basically stays the same other than new features in vCenter 6.x. For vCenter Desktop that would be another article here . vCenter Edition Essential Foundation Standard Availability Bundled in Essential/Plus Kit Sold separately. Manage up to 4 hosts (3 prior to 6.5 U1) Sold separately. Manage vSphere Essential/ Plus vSphere Standard and above vSphere St...

I got lot of ask and question regarding the new VCIX certification from VMware. So how do I get qualified? What do I need to do? Do I need to upgrade VCP first? I am confused which VCAP to take as I have already had one? The proper way to get to VCIX certification is stated here . The scenarios for VCP certification is stated here . So in the past, passing a VCAP allows you to upgrade your VCP.  However, with the expiry program and VCP certification article above on inheritance, only the expiry of existing VCP will be extended. No inheritance of VCP when passing a VCAP of the same track. Example: Hold VCP5-DCV, passing VCAP6-DCV Design, does not upgrade VCP5-DCV to VCP6-DCV.  Only VCP5-DCV expiry period is further extended. In order to attempt VCDX of any track, you will need to attain VCIX for that track.  Below is how you can attain your VCIX using Data Center Virtualization track as a scenario. Scenarios: For one who has valid VCP5-DCV, VCAP5-DCV D...

Like to share this incident which I encounter twice.  Once was during our ASEAN demo lab and the next is one incident that was reported by one user in our VMUG-ASEAN Group in Facebook. VMs started shutting down after 1 hour by itself automatically and on vCenter you start to see memory status changes. Source: VMUG-ASEAN group in Facebook From the above, you see that memory state changes.  The first thing most people thought was there must be some issue or misconfiguration on the vSphere portion. Further checks and view, the host and VM seems to be healthy and this is affecting a majority of VMs.  Further isolation, all these were running Microsoft Windows. The first thing I wanted to confirm was to run a VM that is non-windows to make sure this is not due to OS issue.  Instead of installing one, you can use a tiny VM version small and won't take up much resource from here . The VM runs normal and nothing happens.  This confirmed is not a vSphere ...

So you have been running the evaluation license.  The evaluation period would be 60 days for ESXi server and 30 days for vCenter. Say you like to run on evaluation while getting your license and you couldn't get the license in time and 30 days has reached and your vCenter is expired. What happens after the evaluation period? I did a test and these are my findings. vCenter remain to be operational. All features are still enabled. You will receive a notice below once in awhile. Any action that result in disconnection of the ESXi servers will not be able to join back to vCenter e.g. reboot of ESXi server.  A direct connection using vSphere client is required to manage the VMs on the host. Any changes in configuration will not be possible and can cause any licensed functions not to function. Powered Off VMs cannot be power on.  Refer to KB . In summary, after license expired, all operations remains as it is and no changes even with simple things like power on ...