VMWare Support and Subscription

[DAckroyd]

Hi all - this may be one that a VMware reseller will know (not to say others wouldn't)...

 

I've just received a "courtesy reminder" that my support and subscription is set to expire on 03-DEC-2009

 

this (having read the date wrong yesterday I need to get the order into our finance and chased serveral times before that date - though it said 30-DEC) is something I need to sort but the bit where I have a quirey is the quote they sent with it has vSphere 4 and not ESX3.5 that I would expect...

 

So to my question (finally)... As it is a support and subscription does this mean that I have rights/licence to install the latest versions of ESX/vSphere? would I have to pay for the media? Can I do a straight upgrade (put disk it and click next, next, back, next etc.)? does vSphere work better than 3.5? can you have one server as 3.5 and one as 4 without buggering up the HA?

 

ok so my question became many a question and some are silly but answers would be useful still to even the silliest...

 

Thanks, Dave

[Duke]

DISCLAIMER - I'm not a reseller nor am I even using VMware yet, just investigating it currently.

 

Here's the reply I recieved from a reseller when I was asking about licensing and upgrade costs:

 

All of the license costs are one off, just the support is renewed annually.

 

With regards to the upgrade to ESX 4.5/vSphere 2 (for example), a like for like upgrade will be FOC, providing they keep their support in order. (by like for like, I mean they could move from, vSphere Advanced to vSphere 2 Advanced etc). Platform upgrades (i.e. moving from vSphere Advanced to vSphere Enterprise), are chargeable regardless of support.

 

So, if you have a current support contract and are upgrading from the same version (i.e. Advance to Advance as the example given above) it won't cost you to upgrade. There is a vSphere media Kit for around £110 but I'm not sure if you can just download it instead. I don't see why not as you can download a trial that seems to be the full version, and just give it your key.

 

I may be right in thinking you'll need to buy a copy of vCenter to manage vSphere. Not sure about doing the upgrade, but when I tried 3.5 and 4.0 I personally found 4.0 to be an improvement, and I've heard others have done it smoothly.

 

Chris

[DAckroyd]

I have both vSphere and vCenter down here as the latest versions so I would guess I can go for it

[Theblacksheep]

If you have a support contract your licences get upgraded automatically, so thats why they appear as vSphere/esx4 on your contact info from VMware.

 

vSphere does work much better than 3.5

 

 

ESX4u1 has just been released too (as of friday), but vcenter upgrade to the latest build is also needed for this. So you'll probably need to go: 3.5->4.0->4.0u1 on vcenter.

 

Fixes for windows7 vsphere clients, tools upgrade to fix win7 and 2008r2 VMs.... and vmware view 4 support (which is awesome).

[apaton]

DISCLAIMER - I'm a VMware Enterprise reseller & VCP (Which still means I can still get it wrong sometimes! )

 

Duke is correct, with regards the upgrades to vSphere. If you have an active subscription you should have already been send updated vSphere license keys. https://www.vmware.com/account/login.do

 

Also if you use VMware's "Update Manager" its a dream to upgrade. (Done a number of ESX upgrades without a hitch.)

 

Andy

[andyrite]

You can upgrade VC 3.5 direct to 4.0u1.

 

I've just upgraded to u1 from 4.0 with no downtime. (Well almost, you have to restart the vm's after a vmtools upgrade)

 

@Theblacksheep. Are you running View 4? Are you using thin clients?

 

Andy

[Theblacksheep]

@Theblacksheep. Are you running View 4? Are you using thin clients?

 

Yes, got view4 up and running yesterday.

 

no thin clients.. could do with a test one really.

 

just desktops.... i used these with view3 for providing custom tiny desktops for 'esm/gola/alan' test machines people contact via a webbrowser on the main network without having to play with the main machines. I'm also testing using these for specific curricular needs (the ones where the kids have to use CMD, modify the dekstop and time).

 

Linked mode with composer is awesome, you can set it to maintain a minimum spare amount of dekstops (1) then it'll dynamically create spare desktops as users login to the miniumum spare. Clean desktop build every boot... This'll be really handy in a larger VDI environment to update the clone and provision the desktops very, very quickly.

 

PCoIP ain't bad either, dynamically resizing the desktops and monitors.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Theblacksheep

[DMcCoy]

Make sure you get educational prices, VMWare insist on sending me renewals that are for the full price!

 

Due to their terrible changeover to a new system, licensing queries can take 3-4 weeks to be answered. I'm also now using a product that doesn't exist and has a special code (VSphere standard + vmotion/svmotion).

[DAckroyd]

Also if you use VMware's "Update Manager" its a dream to upgrade. (Done a number of ESX upgrades without a hitch.)

 

Andy

 

Thanks Andy, Where is the "update Manager"? and is it a case of click and boom it's vSphere from ESX3.5?

 

do I need to update vCenter first?

 

should vSphere sort out a problem I have with one of my SEX boxes restarting when it feels like it and occasionally not booting back? (been to both vmware and HP with the problem and it's neither of their faults)

[DAckroyd]

Make sure you get educational prices, VMWare insist on sending me renewals that are for the full price!

 

the renewal quote says "Gold Coverage Academic VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise for 1 processor (Max 6 cores per processor)" (with code at the end which I won't paste into here)

and "Gold Coverage Academic VMware vCenter Server 4 Foundation for vSphere up to 3 hosts" (again with code)

[andyrite]

Update vcentre first. You can then use update manager to update your hosts.

 

Have a look at:-

 

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_upgrade_guide.pdf

 

Andy

[DAckroyd]

Update vcentre first. You can then use update manager to update your hosts.

 

Have a look at:-

 

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r40_u1/vsp_40_u1_upgrade_guide.pdf

 

Andy

 

thanks, is this something best left 'til holidays or just go for it whenever?

[DMcCoy]

the renewal quote says "Gold Coverage Academic VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise for 1 processor (Max 6 cores per processor)" (with code at the end which I won't paste into here)

and "Gold Coverage Academic VMware vCenter Server 4 Foundation for vSphere up to 3 hosts" (again with code)

 

My last one didn't have any academic references and was for £7000, this included a reinstatement fee due to how long it was taking to get a response! Got it sorted out for the correct pricing in the end (still £3600 this year!)

[DAckroyd]

My last one didn't have any academic references and was for £7000, this included a reinstatement fee due to how long it was taking to get a response! Got it sorted out for the correct pricing in the end (still £3600 this year!)

 

would things go smoother with them if you said "microsoft Hyper-V"? or at least a sentence containing it in a way that would make it look like they were going to loose custom?

[DMcCoy]

would things go smoother with them if you said "microsoft Hyper-V"? or at least a sentence containing it in a way that would make it look like they were going to loose custom?

 

Due to the poor souls at vmware dealing with a new licensing system it wouldn't have made much difference, they just couldn't get queries resolved quick enough. It's been fine every other year. Prices have risen since vSphere though, along with the worse exchange rate.

[Theblacksheep]

thanks, is this something best left 'til holidays or just go for it whenever?

 

Done mine at the weekend, unless you need vCenter for 1-2 hours it can be done at anytime.... the hosts will carry on running their VMs.

 

Hosts can also be upgraded at anytime if you have the spare capasity to move VMs over.

[andyrite]

thanks, is this something best left 'til holidays or just go for it whenever?

 

Depends on your setup. I've got a SAN and 3 ESxi servers. I can just take vmotion the vm's off one and update it. Upgrading vcentre can be done anytime. It doesn't affect the running of the esx servers.

[DAckroyd]

any ideas where I download the vCenter Server 4 foundation from? I finnaly found all thevCenter4u1 links but no foundation listed

thanks

[andyrite]

VMware Infrastructure 3.x Foundation is VMware vSphere 4 Standard now.

[DAckroyd]

I have a vCenter server as a VM, we've got 2 ESX hosts and they are connected to a san

 

I'll start with the vcenre update and then go onto a Host update - can I update one host and have the HA/vmotion still work or will that only go between the same versions of esx?

[DAckroyd]

isit worth doing a snapshot of the vcenter server before updating it?

[apaton]

It can never harm to do a snapshot, but a rollback can make things worse. Especially if you run other services on your Virtual Center box.

 

Good resource for upgrade info can be found here, also includes upgrade training videos.

VMware vSphere Upgrade Center Resources for Cloud Computing

 

Andy

[DAckroyd]

in process of upgrading atm... the VI Client/server upgrade went smoothly and first of the ESX boxes is now upgrading

 

EDIT: Bugger... in the ESX upgrade process I have got a:

TSC: 34771057 cpu0 :0)Init: 461: The Execute Disable/No Execute CPU feature is not enabled for this machine.

 

Edit: Edit: For anyone who gets this error then make sure you have the memory execute thingy enabled in BIOS and also make sure you have VT enabled

 

thanks for everyones help on this one - one host upgraded and happy, one to go

Edited November 25, 2009 by DAckroyd

[DAckroyd]

ok... not good... any advice welcome...

 

I've got my vcenter updated and the ESX host are at version 4... however I haven't got the tools updated on all of them yesterday and one of the hosts dropped off over night and the hosts didn't migrate to the other host. I have the host that went down up but it's still showing as disconnected. and all servers that were on there are showing disconnected and I cant migrate them manually!

[Theblacksheep]

ok... not good... any advice welcome...

 

I've got my vcenter updated and the ESX host are at version 4... however I haven't got the tools updated on all of them yesterday and one of the hosts dropped off over night and the hosts didn't migrate to the other host. I have the host that went down up but it's still showing as disconnected. and all servers that were on there are showing disconnected and I cant migrate them manually!

 

Can you ping a host service console? is it alive?

 

Can you disconnect one host from vcenter and re-add i it in?