Plain Virtualization

You hear me right. Was browsing through some documentation and wanted to see any storage vendor is supporting Proxmox, the new player in virtualization. To my surprise, NetApp not only support, but all functions of ONTAP are also supported just like how it supports other virtualization platforms such as VMware, RedHat, Microsoft. Any virtualization platforms that support external storage solutions.  Check the virtualization overview documentation site . NetApp has extensive partnership with VMware to support day zero feature function. This can be seen from the support of vSphere vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) on vVols. RedHat OpenShift, Microsoft Hyper-V and Promox. NetApp allows customers to choose to consume storage in any shape and form namely, on premies physical storage array, in the cloud as first party files services from AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, Cloud Volumes as third party service in CSP's market place and ONTAP Select (virtual appliance). With tr...

If you have not read this blog from Broadcom by Hock Tan check it out . It helps to outline few things that has been confusion for many. First, the old perpetual licensing from any vendor including VMware, are sold in two parts. 1. perpetual license, 2. Support and Subscription (SnS) Part 1, basically let you own the license and do what you deem fit with it. And part 2, allows you to log a case for support assistance, and upgrade or downgrade the license and have patches and security release whenever its available as long the product is still supported. From the blog, it clarify once again that part 1 is true, customers are allow to use the perpetual license even if its out of support as long as they deem fit. " To ensure that customers whose maintenance and support contracts have expired and choose to not continue on one of our subscription offerings are able to use perpetual licenses in a safe and secure fashion, we are announcing free access to zero-day security patches for sup...

The Truth Yes, the news of VMware acquired by Broadcom has come to a realization. We cannot denied the truth since 22nd Nov 2023. Prior the acquisition, if you have made a multi-year purchase before that, you will have whatever you can consume after the acquisition. VMware after the acquisition has release new bundle of all their offerings and end the perpetual licensing offer to the market. The individual products are not make available and cannot be purchase as a standalone. But are offered via two bundle namely; VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF), VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). Both of which are all subscription licenses. It also ends all sales and renewal of any perpetual licenses. Honestly, VMware has been trying to end its perpetual license and into subscription for the longest time. With the Broadcom acquisition, VMware has been one of the last major player that has moved to subscription license. Customer who are on VMware, has been enjoying the great pricing with no limit of cores...

With the release of vSphere 8 in October, 2022. Many would have asked how do you provide security configuration. Do note this is no longer named "hardening guide" since it is a configuration guide which need to be reviewed by individual organization and see if it deem fit for your requirements. The time have come and the security guide can be found here . Do note that this is an initial availability release. There might be more updates to it based on feedback, etc. so do check back for any updates. This time round, there are new PowerCLI commands that standardize on formatting. Also setting provided that can be modified for the virtual appliance such as vCenter Server. However, do handle with care else any wrong configuration can results in losing your support. Lastly, to reiterate, this is a guide and not an apply all setting runbook. You will have to review the requirements in terms of security requirements in your organization and apply those that are applicable. Do note a...

Having worked in few companies and handle tons of escalations, often realize how many customers are not aware that Support from vendors does comes with some differences. Not all support entitlements are the same. I also talk about the support severity while back you can read up here . Let use VMware Software Support for comparison here . Using only basic and production support. (This is not all the types of support but for this discussion we will use these two.) Although its very clearly stated the difference between Basic and Production support mainly due to the response time and the hours of operations. There is something in common which I often realize many customer due to their internal policy required. That is Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Both support entitlement does not include.  So if you need this, how are you going to go about it if you are not entitled. Many customer would use escalation as one channel. However, this can only be used that many times and not infinite. And n...

With the release of vCenter 6.5, a built-in native High Availability (HA) feature was introduced. This has been a long-awaited feature since the end of availability  of vCenter Server Heartbeat since vCenter 5.x. With the release of VCHA, I came across many times people asking how can we implement it? There are a few articles from VMware that show some of the supported topologies. However, with the realize of vSphere 6.7 U2, the recommended vCenter Server deployment is with embedded PSC. In this case, we will just look at the topology that has an embedded PSC. This is welcoming since we have less component to handle and need not require a load balancer just to load balance PSC. Let us go through some of the common questions been asked. How many instances does VCHA deploy? With VCHA, you would have three instances of vCenter namely: vCenter Server  (Active), vCenter Server (Passive), vCenter Server (Witness). How many vCenter Server licenses do I need and which edit...

While I was doing some presentation slides for one workshop, I happen to look for 3rd party virtual switches support on vSphere. This is the KB that is from VMware. Just for those who are not aware, VMware has announced the end of support for third-party virtual switches on vSphere and vSphere 6.5 Update 1 will be the last release to support these switches with vSwitch APIs. While reading through the pointers I came across one point that caught my attention: What about Cisco AVS, which is part of the Cisco ACI solution? Are you also discontinuing support for AVS?   VMware has never supported Cisco AVS from its initial release. This might come as a surprise but there are customers who have implemented the above without knowing that VMware does not support. Just by using the above for discussion. there are many solutions currently on the market that claims or market to support certain hardware or software. However, with further research, this has been a one-sided clai...

Recently, I get a lot of questions regarding vSphere Enterprise Edition and some confusion around it. The reason of these questions because VMware announced the end of availability (EOA) of vSphere Enterprise Edition on 9th Feb.  What this means that if you want to purchase vSphere Enterprise, this will no longer be available, you are left with only 3 options; vSphere Standard, vSphere Enterprise Plus or vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus (vSOM) (excluding all those small kits e.g. vSphere Essentials, etc.). What will happen to vSphere Enterprise in terms of support? Support will still be valid until March 2020 as long support and maintenance is still valid. Can I upgrade/downgrade my existing vSphere Enterprise to a valid edition? You can only upgrade but not downgrade.  In this case, you can only move up to vSphere Enterprise Plus or vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus (vSOM). Am currently on vSphere 6.0 Enterprise or below, can...

Previously I have talked about the difference between an Open and OEM licensing here .   Why OEM license are cheaper in general since they are provided by OEM vendor instead of direct from the Principle.  This applies not to just software but also hardware although I used software as a subject in writing. Following on the different support structure contact point between Open and OEM licensing here . Support are typically directly from OEM rather than from the original Principle vendor of the hardware of software. Question why would OEM support cost cheaper than Principle support or why Principle support is more expensive than OEM support?  Is it because the Principle owns the product (software/hardware) that makes it more expensive? There are several reasons why OEM is less expensive if you do a study.  Below is what I have observed: 1) Principle vendor owns the product, in such, it cost more.  OEM vendors use their own support and only to a certain lev...

Many like me are not aware of that VMware only support patches release of OS or minor update release of OS e.g. Windows 7 to Windows 7 Service Pack 1, RHEL 6 to RHEL 6.1 as refer to this KB . So what does this means?  If you are doing an in place upgrade of OS from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 which is considered a major update release, this will not be supported by VMware although OS vendor supports this.  To be specific, the whole VM is not supported right after you have did an in place upgrade. As stated in the KB, it is recommended to install major update release in a new VM.  I see this a hassle as most users would just do an in place upgrade as long their software still works in the latter version.  In such a scenario, during an in place upgrade, any issue will need to be supported by the OS vendor and not VMware.  This is something I am totally caught unaware and not agreeable. However for customers upgrading form Windows 2003, due to the large dema...

Often come across this confusion between VMware License and VMware OEM License.  I wrote previously here the use of Open and OEM where VMware OEM license is some what different from other software OEM license e.g. Microsoft. Now what about support.  What do you get from VMware OEM license support?  Here is an article from VMware and an uploaded copy here . For VMware Support, you will contact VMware Support hotline or via myVMware license portal to seek for support request.  Level 1 to Level 3 support will come direct from VMware. For VMware OEM Support, you will contact through respective OEM partner support center route.  You can refer to Page 7-8 of the above document, you can see that Level 1 and 2 will be provided by the OEM partner and ownership is by the partner. Upon required the need of a Level 3 support, will it route to VMware Support as extracted the statement from the document.  At Level 3, the communication is only between customer ...

If you are not aware, the vSphere Beta Program is not available to the public.  This is beta 2 where beta 1 was via invite or to VMware employees only. This is the first product from VMware where beta is free for sign up.  Do not miss this if you are a interested with the next release of vSphere. To sign up, head on here . By participating in the beta program, as always you need to be able to install this in some environment.  This can be your home lab or an isolated environment at your work place.  It can also be nested however if any issues resulted from nested will limit the support you reeive. So help sign up in this beta program and provide all your feedback and issues you encounter so that vSphere can remains as resilient, reliable and stable.  VMware will need any inputs possible to better this release so do not hesitate to provide. You will find all the documents and guides from the landing page upon signing up completion.

Before I started Presales role, I do not know the difference between OEM and Open (some call it volume license) License means.  It was something I never bother as I was doing professional service I just implement and license was not something I need to understand as long my customer bought them and hand me the serial keys to setup.  Doesn't matter is it Microsoft, VMware, Symantec or whatsoever software. After being a Presales consultant for a while now.  I have to understand licensing and able to explain when asked and one of the most talked and confused topics is always on OEM and Open licenses.  Been able to understand them more easily helps me to advise my customer not just in solution but also in terms of compliance not to violate any licensing agreements they have. Here I must state the disclaimer, purpose of this post is to clarify all the doubts on what have you got confused with and as well as the references from the various vendors so none of this is N...

This has nothing to do for technology but for charity. This year I decided to do something to contribute back to the society. I have sign up Hair for Hope and will be doing my part to shave my hair.  I would like to seek anyone to do their part but do any amount of donation. Your support is greatly appreciated.