The cost-prohibitive price increases of vCenter and other VMware products leading to a Broadcom exodus has been discussed at length, but I'm hoping for some real world experience before advising on some options.

We have a site with an MSP managed VMware environment. There are three host servers:

There's 17 VM's spread across them, one of which is a vCenter appliance (Photon OS). All other OSE's are Windows Server 2019 with one Server 2016 and a few Win 10 Pro (mostly test or legacy client app use).

The MSP has contacted us to tell us that they are not renewing the vCenter subscription which is due in January 2027. They also state that the HP hardware is out of warranty, requiring replacement. So they have quoted on a IAS migration to Azure as their first option. Other on-prem options are on the way from the MSP, but we suspect they will require significant outlay for new hardware.

The thing is, over the next 12-months, it is near certain that 2 of the production VMs which are core business functions will no longer be needed as the applications running on those will be changed to a completely different product which is SaaS hosted by the provider. Two more VMs have recently been made redundant for other web-app SaaS. Other VMs will become redundant or can be 'archived' as legacy systems that may only be required when accessing old data.

So we kind of only need a stop-gap for 6 to 12 months. Options I see for this stop-gap are:

1. Shuffle VM workloads around so one of the Gen9s can be rebuilt with Windows Server running Hyper-V. V2V some of the production VMs onto this server. Shuffle more, do another Hyper-V host, V2V more until no VMware is left. Requires a fair bit of professional services, and possibly some M$ server licences.
2. Use some capital to purchase refurbished server(s) to install Windows Server and Hyper-V as host(s). V2V the VMs.
3. Remove ESXI servers from vCenter and either licence them with the Free ESXI licencing if possible, or as standalone ESXI hosts with a new perpetual licence (is that a thing?).

For #3, yes, management becomes a tedious task and we lose features like vMotion, DRS, HA, VADP/API-based backup, and BroadCom support... But it seems like a cost-effective stop-gap to get is out of a pickle for the next 6-12 months, right?

Has anyone actually done something like #3?

I'd appreciate any comments or recommendations if there is a good argument or experience to go with it.

Cheers!

\* EDIT *\** Just a small note to let you know that these are not hardware or systems that I currently manage. The business has only recently reached out for help. Without any admin access, I've only been given piecemeal information by the MSP. Reading a few comments so far, it sounds like there is still a bit of discovery to do, and I'm going to need full access to get accurate information before advising on the options.

On my old computer I had VMware Workstation 16 and I had it set so that when I click inside the vm to grab the cursor, the cursor inside the vm stayed where it was when I clicked in to it, and started moving from that location on screen.

On my new computer I now have the VMware Workstation 17 and it's set in a way that when I click in to the vm, the cursor continues from where it was in my main pc when I clicked in to the vm.

Hope I could explain it well enough for you to understand.

I'd like to have it like it was on my old computer, but I can't find the settings to make it so.

Is that something I can have again, or is it an old feature?

Hello everyone,

In my ESXi 6.0 environment, when I run /usr/lib/vmware/vmsyslog/bin/vmsyslogd, I get the following error message:

Cannot open kernel log device!

After checking, I discovered that the symlink /dev/klog pointing to /dev/char/mem/klog does not exist. I tried recreating the symlink manually, but was unsuccessful.

Currently, the vmsyslogd service is unable to run.

Any help or suggestions on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

In Episode 129 of the Unexplored Territory Podcast Anoop Gunturi, vSAN Platform PM, joins me to explore how the vSAN roadmap focuses on lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the VCF platform. We dive into Enhanced Compression, QLC support for various workloads, vSAN over Fibre Channel, and various key architectural updates designed to optimize storage efficiency! This is a must-listen episode if you are a VCF architect / customer.

I understand ELM needs to be broken to get to VCF9.1.1, but still not clear order with NSX. In a multi vCenter 8U3 environment that has Enhanced Linked Mode, half the vCenters don't have NSX integrated and the other half does.

Is ELM supposed to be broken on all the vCenters before building the first management domain? Or can the vCenters alone be upgraded to 9.x, break ELM and then converge to the first management domain?

Can someone tell me the the quickest way to go if i just have 1 vcenter and 5 hosts on 9.02 ? i have operations, thats clear. Ive read so many upgrade guides that i feel like i might be faster if i just redeploy a new 9.1.1 vcenter. That said: what are my steps for this ? Install vcenter, deploy operations and then license server or what order do i need what ?
Goal is just vcenter and licensed hosts, not vcp or anything :) thanks

So, i got my chance and just fired my shots. I got the required certifications and VCAPs. I made the lab demonstration and the guy who saw it said that i did well. But i'm still waiting for news.

What happens if i get in? Maybe i should expect to defend my lab demo once more before i actually get in?

Hey everyone! I'm looking to set up a few VMs on my Linux laptop and I'm currently deciding between VMware Workstation Pro and QEMU/KVM + virt-manager. My main use case is Windows 11 for MS Office, plus some Linux distros to experiment with. No gaming or GPU passthrough.

I've seen a lot of people recommending KVM on Linux, but I'd also like to hear from those who prefer VMware Workstation. What do you like about it compared to virt-manager? Is Windows 11 easier to set up and use? I'm especially interested in things like shared folders, clipboard sharing, automatic resolution changes and how smooth the guest OS feels in everyday use.

My setup: CachyOS with Hyprland (Wayland), running the CachyOS BORE LTO kernel. MSI GE70 2QE laptop, i7-4720HQ, GTX 960M 2 GB + Intel HD 4600, and 16 GB RAM. Hardware virtualization is enabled.

I'm leaning towards KVM because it's built into Linux and doesn't require separate kernel modules, but I'm still considering VMware. For those running Workstation Pro on Linux, especially Arch-based distros, how has your experience been? Are kernel updates and Wayland still causing issues, or is it pretty reliable these days? I'd appreciate any firsthand experiences, both good and bad.

Hello,

Im unable to launch any vm after upgrading to am5 with windows 11 iot, im always getting this error:

Failed to power on 'C:\Users\Workstation\Documents\Virtual Machines\Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx'.

Usually it works on first installs but somewhat gets broken after some time, im unable to locate the cause.

Current System:

9950X3D

64GB Ram

X870E msi tomahawk wifi

Windows 11 Enterprise IOT LTSC 24H2 26100.9711

VMware® Workstation Pro 26H1 - 26.0.0.25388281

VBS, Hypervision disabled, vmware has been installed with its own nested virtualization, i even turned hypervision launch off before installation of vmware.

I have never had any of these issues on my 5900X cpu

Update;

I do run AV on my system, but core isolation is disabled even before AV work. Also normally in the first fresh windows install vms work, after that this issue starts either some update making some things turn on. the AV is bitdefender and it caused no issues on my am4 system.

You encrypt data at rest and in transit. But what protects it while your applications are using it?

Reading through Broadcom docs there is this disclaimer:

The ESXi NVMe over TCP implementation does not support Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), port-channel, or EtherChannel configurations on physical switches. NVMe over TCP relies on VMware Storage Multipathing to provide high availability, failover, and load balancing. Do not configure LACP or other unsupported configurations for VMkernel adapters used for NVMe over TCP.

Is that just for the first step out of the host, and not for the whole path to storage?

We'll be using HPE Synergy, and really the first step out of the host is to the two Virtual Connects for "Fabric A" and "Fabric B" - One "Fabric" per VC, mimicking what's configured for Fiber Channel.

Then I'm planning on two uplinks per VC to two separate switches for redundancy. Can these two uplinks (per VC) be aggregated in some way?

With Adobe suite and now CAD software Fusion 360 being reverse engineered by reverse engineer anything, is it even possible to reverse engineer VMware?

The reverse engineered and vibecoded Adobe suite copy and CAD software has been making waves.

Basically as AI is being used by coorporate to replace workers, workers are now using AI to replace corporations with the slogan going from "you will not own anything and be happy" to "you will own everything and be happy"

Just what the title says. I’ve noticed on a windows 11 VDI when launching at RDP connection through MSTSC the vdi locks up can access anything within the VDI until the rdp session disconnects.

Any ideas?

I've been trying to download “VMware Workstation Pro for Windows” for an hour now, and I'm stuck in a loop.

Whenever I try to download it, it redirects me to the “Trade Compliance and Download Conditions” page.
I fill out the fields, click “Submit,” and get the message “Account verification is successful for the user.”

Then I’m taken back to the download page. I try to start the download again, and it says, “Prior to downloading this file, additional verification is required. Proceed?” which takes me back to the “Trade Compliance and Download Conditions"...

Thank you for any help (I tried on firefox and chrome)

Wondering if anyone else can't boot their windows 11 vms from fusion on macOS 27.2 (M4 Mini). I updated to RC this morning of macOS 27.2 and when I try to boot my win 11 vms it crashes vmware fusion. I can boot my linux vm just fine though.

I have a relatively small environment that has a Powerstore 3000 and few bare metal servers. I have great networking (at least I think) and we do just basic stuff. RDS servers, file sharing, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. We are VMFS 6. We have LUNs and a 30TB of raw storage.

Anyways, we are on VCenter 8, using ESXI 8 and now looking to get a replacement SAN. As we have been getting quotes they’ve been doing LiveOptics on our SAN and the thing isn’t even breathing hard. It does a max of like 100-200mb/s in bandwidth, low latency at about 0.4 to 2ms and I think maxed out at 4000 IOPs during backup.

My question is why isn’t it using the full potential of bandwidth during peak times (like backups, etc). We have 100GB break out cables to the SAN and each connection supplies 25GB, there are 4 of them on each node of the SAN. Why aren’t I getting 100,000 IOPs and like 1 or 2gb of bandwidth. Is something not setup properly in my VMWare?

I thought I'd make it clear what the licensing limitations on them are:

Any customer that had perpetual licenses that had SnS after October 2022 possibly still has a perpetual license for VMware 8 products, unless they converted through the Subscription Upgrade Program without amending the terms to retain perpetual licenses. If anyone wants more detail/ backing info for this DM me. I'm not a lawyer, so not legal advice.

Any customer using a perpetual license must:

• use a perpetual license key from the contract/ transaction/ site that held the perpetual licenses.
• must be compliant with the terms of the original license (geography, entity, deployed quantity etc)
• Can use any version released and downloaded prior to perpetual SnS end date or released as a critical build (ESXi 8.0 U2d, U3d, U2e, U3f and vCenter U2d, U3d). This is based on a Broadcom policy at https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/314603/zero-day-ie-critical-security-patches-fo.html/ I recommend reviewing the policy for changes before applying a build to check it has not changed.
• If you are on a later build, its not very easy to downgrade. The most effective way is to rebuild each host/ vCenter one by one. If on VxRail, you need to "de-VxRail" and rebuild as if they were just the Poweredge servers that are underneath. If on build later than SnS entitled, but earlier than a critical build, upgrade to a critical build.
• In the EEA/UK/Switzerland it is also possible to buy 2nd hand perpetual licenses. Make sure you do that carefully with a reputable company!
• In a hybrid situation, where some licenses have active support and some don't, all licenses in a functional environment must have the same support level; so all VMware components must be seperated, and automated vMotion etc between those environments switched off.
• Using a trial is not compliant. Continuing use of the crippled software after subscription expiry is not compliant.
• Use of the various 3rd party support organisations on perpetual licenses can be compliant if they pay attention to licensing and respect IP laws. Disclaimer: I work for one of them.
• Use of perpetuals is most likely governed by either the original contract or old VMware EULA rather than Broadcom EULA, but you need to read your contracts and transaction documents to confirm.
• Broadcom still has rights to carry out a license audit on the Licensee. I have never seen a VMware contract without an audit clause.

I am not seeing any advisories from Broadcom, however my security teams are in full blown tin foil hat mode and made us shut down a bunch of our apps, now they're asking me about the load balancer.