vmware technical support. VMware vSphere Technical Support - Tiers and Policies

In 2018, it grew at a much faster rate in dollars than the world average, Alexander Vasilenko, head of the company in Russia and the CIS, told TAdviser. He chose not to disclose the dynamics in absolute terms, but described the growth as “very aggressive.”

VMware's global revenue in the reporting year that ended for the company on February 1, 2019 amounted to $8.97 billion, which is 14% more than a year ago. The rise was facilitated by VMware’s transition to a cloud business model, in which the vendor is actively attracting partners.

And secondly, there is a feeling that customers have become more trusting of external cloud solutions, Alexander Vasilenko noted in a conversation with TAdviser. If previously they preferred to store almost everything on their own infrastructure, now this has changed.

This was influenced by both a psychological factor and a financial one: customers saw that through the use of cloud infrastructure it was possible to obtain economic benefits in one form or another. This is especially true against the backdrop of economic uncertainty, when customers are afraid to make risky large investments - investing fixed assets in physical infrastructure. Clouds allow you to distribute investments over time and pay only for the amount of resources that are actually needed at a particular point in time.

At the same time, the Russian market is influenced by political issues that affect the composition of the main players. For example, Amazon does not have a data center in Russia, which is why its market share cloud services not as big as in Western Europe.

Against this background, local players such as MTS, DataLine, Rostelecom, SberCloud and others have more space, notes Alexander Vasilenko. Many of them understand that due to the political situation, global players are unlikely to come to the Russian market in the near future, and are actively developing. This is also supported by the VMware platform

One of the trends in the field of virtualization in Russia is the transition from basic virtualization to expanding the range of technologies that customers are implementing. For example, Vasilenko highlighted the fairly rapid adaptation of network virtualization technologies. At first there were many pilot projects, but there were no mass implementations, and now the NSX direction (network virtualization platform) is becoming mainstream among both large and medium-sized customers. Customers are also interested in hyperconverged systems, Kubernetes, etc.

Another trend, says Alexander Vasilenko, is a move away from component virtualization, when NSX, vSAN, basic virtualization, etc. were separate projects. Now we are seeing more and more projects where VMware Cloud Foundation is sold as the basis for the customer’s platform. In Europe and the USA, such a paradigm shift occurred 2-3 years ago. VMware Cloud Foundation, from the company’s point of view, is an “operating system” for SDDC data centers (Software-defined datacenter, software-defined data center).

Following the global trend, another trend can be called the spread of the use of Kubernetes technology in Russian organizations - open source platforms source code to manage containerized applications and their associated network and storage components. The Russian VMware office says that Kubernetes is already available almost everywhere. From communication with customers, it follows that someone has already deployed it, someone is planning it, someone is actively developing it. At the same time, government agencies are also adopting Kubernetes.

In October, TAdviser was also told about the increase in business volumes in Russia, despite the difficult political and economic situation, in another American company - Oracle. As with VMware, the cloud is an important growth driver for Oracle. Read more.

Demand for virtualization solutions in VMware is also noted in the segment of telecommunications companies. A major project for the company here was the network services virtualization project for one of the largest Russian operators, which began in 2016.

The VMware representative also notes the need for modernization in the Russian public sector, although here the process, in his opinion, is moving a little slowly. VMware’s business in the public sector in 2016 was supported by cooperation with the manufacturer computer technology"Aquarius", says Jean-Pierre Broulard. It has become an OEM partner of VMware and provides virtualization software as part of its products.

From a product point of view, the sales driver in Russia is the solution for virtualization of data storage systems vSAN, Broulard added.

Jean-Pierre Broulard notes that the sales level of 2015, from which the company grew in Russia, was reflected in the growth rate of 2016. In 2017, it will be difficult for the Russian team to maintain the same growth rates, he believes.

2015: VMware is waiting for a big “unfreezing” of projects in Russia

Some time ago, VMware sales in Russia in dollars decreased significantly, but now the situation is stabilizing, Luigi Freguia, vice president of VMware in the CEMEA region, told TAdviser in October 2015. According to him, VMware is satisfied with the current results of the Russian division both in dollars and in local currency.

Luigi Fregua believes that VMware in Russia is doing better during the crisis than its competitors

Specific data on the company's sales dynamics in Russia in 2014-2015. Fregua and the local VMware division refused to provide TAdviser. Earlier, speaking about the interim results of VMware, its CEO Pat Gelsinger cited data that in the 3rd quarter of 2014, the volume of orders in Russia decreased year-on-year by more than 50% due to geopolitical tensions. Later, following the results of the 2nd quarter of 2015, VMware President and COO Carl Eschenbach noted that Russia remains a difficult region due to the economic situation.

Due to the devaluation of the ruble VMware in 2014-2015. faced the “freezing” of projects from customers in Russia - their postponement or suspension for some period of time, Alexander Vasilenko, head of the Russian division of the company, told TAdviser. The first thing customers do is freeze investment projects designed for the long and medium term, and look at what they could do on their own, without an IT supplier. At the same time, in the regions, projects are “frozen” more harshly than in the center, says Vasilenko.

Alexander Vasilenko stopped providing data on VMware sales dynamics in Russia, citing the fact that the company’s information disclosure policy has become more stringent

He could not give an assessment of the scale of the “frozen” projects, but noted that in the 4th quarter of 2015 one can expect large pent-up demand for virtualization solutions due to such projects.

“Our projects are usually frozen last, because it is easier for us to show the impact of the project directly.” We are the type of company that, even in a crisis, can reasonably explain to customers not only at the CIO level, but also the CFO and others, why they need to buy our products,” says the head of VMware in Russia.

Alexander Vasilenko also said that taking into account the difficult economic situation and rising prices for products due to the rise in the dollar exchange rate, VMware at the end of 2014 developed special program for the Russian market, within which customers can purchase its products on special, more flexible terms.

He added that VMware technologies can be assessed by the total cost of ownership and calculated how much money will be saved through virtualization, and usually these parameters cover the costs that go into acquiring these technologies, even taking into account the fallen ruble exchange rate.

According to Vasilenko’s observations, against the backdrop of a difficult economic situation, the pace of virtualization in Russia has increased: “during a crisis, it is easier to convince the company’s management that something needs to be changed.” According to his estimates, the average level of server virtualization in the Russian market has exceeded 40% and is approaching 50%. In companies with more than 1 thousand IT users, this figure can be higher – up to 80%.

Against the backdrop of the crisis, according to Vasilenko, customers began to pay more attention to solutions based on open source software as an alternative to vendor products. At the same time, he believes, it is an illusion that such software is absolutely free: in reality, it may turn out that additional development will cost more than purchasing proprietary solutions. In addition, costs are required for specialists who can support open source solutions. He added that in many cases, customers use both open source software and VMware technologies in projects.

2014: Growth in demand for virtualization software in the regions

In 2014, in the Russian regions there was a significant increase in demand for virtualization solutions, and therefore, during this period, the share of regional business in the overall structure of the company’s revenue increased, the head of the Russian office of VMware told TAdviser Alexander Vasilenko in February 2015.

According to him, if you look at the top 10 VMware projects in the field of implementing virtualization technologies for end users in Russia in 2014, then three of such projects are in the regions, while a year ago all ten projects were in Moscow and St. -Petersburg. At the same time, even St. Petersburg accounted for a small share of them, says Vasilenko. The largest regional projects at the end of 2014 took place in the telecom sector and the banking sector.

Alexander Vasilenko also told TAdviser that in 2014, a special structure was allocated in the Russian representative office of VMware, which is engaged in regional development, and virtual offices appeared in Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. If previously business development in all regions was carried out from Moscow, now local representatives have appeared in these cities.

In 2014, VMware opened virtual offices in Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. The company still has physical offices only in Moscow, Kyiv and Almaty.

Earlier, in 2014, the company told TAdviser that demand in the regions is growing both for solutions for basic server virtualization, as well as for software for managing and securing private clouds, which is installed on top of the main platform, and for desktop virtualization products .

The company called the increase in demand for virtualization software in the SMB segment particularly noticeable. As for the industries that are experiencing the highest sales growth, these include the financial and telecom industries, as well as the public sector.

Among the reasons for the increase in demand, according to company representatives, is the high level of technology saturation in Moscow and St. Petersburg; now the regions are being “brought up” to the level of these cities.

In addition, a very large number of customers in the regions previously used free demo licenses of VMware software, which provide functionality up to a certain level. Now, when they needed more complete functionality, they began to purchase solutions, and this became noticeable in the volume of license sales.

2013: Growth rates of VMware sales in Russia are approaching the global ones

At the end of 2013, Vmware expects revenue growth in Russia at the level of 20-25%, said the head of the Russian representative office Alexander Vasilenko in October 2013. At the end of 2012, the company reported a growth in turnover in the region of 50%, and in 2011 the growth figure was announced at about 100%.

VMware does not disclose local revenue in absolute terms. The company's global turnover in 2012 amounted to $4.61 billion, an increase of 22%. In 2011, the company's revenue grew by 32%, and by the end of 2013 it is expected to increase by 14-16%.

Alexander Vasilenko associates the decline in sales growth rates in Russia and their approach to the global ones with two main factors: the fact that the Russian market is becoming saturated with virtualization tools, as well as a general strong slowdown in the IT market in Russia.

At the same time, Russia remains the fastest growing market for VMware in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa), he notes. He cites Turkey as another example of one of the fastest growing markets in the region.

The company’s global business indicators are determined, among other things, by extensive growth – entry into new markets, notes the CEO of VMware in Russia. When they run out, there will be less growth, he adds.

A year earlier, VMware co-president of operations Karl Eschenbach(Carl Eschenbach) stated that in 2-3 years he sees Russia in the top three in EMEA in terms of revenue for VMware. Alexander Vasilenko believes that this will not happen in the near future: “if we take, for example, countries such as Germany, Great Britain, France, then we do not even come close to them economically, since the share of IT in GDP in Russia is much lower.”

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VMware vSphere is recognized as the most popular virtualization platform for creating cloud infrastructure. The use of this platform provides a high level of security, stable operation of business applications, the ability to implement cloud computing and complete control of corporate assets. In addition, it reduces operating costs and greatly simplifies the management of geographically distributed environments.

Levels

VMware vSphere is intended for organizations whose task is to virtualize their data centers in order to provide IT services. Given the importance of this platform, users of this product require high-quality technical support from experts.

VMware provides several levels of operation:

• Basic. Provides technical support for standard systems for 12 hours on weekdays.
• Production. Production work environments are supported 24/7 for Severity 1 issues.
• Business Critical. Personalized service provided by a dedicated team of specialists.
• Mission Critical. Offers 24/7 priority access to senior engineers.
• Extended. Provides protection against security threats after product support ends.

Any of the above options can be purchased for a period of one to three years. If the client wishes, technical support is automatically extended. It is worth adding that VMware provides other types of services. Separately, we can note the technical support for users testing products using Workstation, VirtualCenter, Fusion and other platforms.

Peculiarities

The main feature of VMware products, including vCenter, is the fact that they are not sold without support and a subscription to at least the basic level. Purchasing technical support for at least one year is mandatory with two exceptions:

• vSphere Essentials is sold with only 1 condition - subscription to updates;
• VMware SnS is purchased for a period of 2 months in cases where all components of the virtual infrastructure are being updated.

Advantages

Purchase latest versions VMware platforms have a number of advantages. First, it is worth noting the ability to control network I/O in accordance with existing business rules. Secondly, the necessary level of protection for virtual machines is ensured. Thirdly, the continuous availability of applications is guaranteed, as well as the prevention of possible data loss in the event of a server failure.

Additionally, the following advantages of technical support in Moscow can be noted:

• eliminating the cost of additional replication solutions;
• ensuring reliable data storage and the ability to assign storage access priorities;
• regular storage monitoring;
• protection from the load of antivirus programs;
• reducing the time spent on routine upgrades.

To provide technical support, the VMware user must provide such specialists as the administrator of the support service and VMware licenses.

Technical support VMware vSphere - tiers and policies.

Article:

VMware is currently the undisputed leader in the virtualization market. Many customers who purchase its products are interested in technical support and subscription to updates for the most popular products VMware vSphere, VMware View and VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM).

In this article we will try to explain all the main points regarding support and subscription to updates for VMware products (Support and Subscription services, SnS).

1. Terms of sale of VMware support services.

VMware vSphere (including vCenter), VMware View, VMware SRM products are not sold without support and subscription. It is mandatory to purchase support and a Basic or Production level subscription for at least 1 year. But there are 2 exceptions:

• The VMware vSphere Essentials edition is sold without support, but with a required subscription for updates. Payment for support occurs for individual incidents of contacting VMware technical support (per incident basis).
• For some products, it is possible to purchase VMware SnS for a period of 2 months, but only in situations where virtual infrastructure components are being upgraded. For example, you purchase vCenter Foundation as part of the VMware vSphere Advanced Acceleration Kit and want to upgrade to vCenter Standard while growing your infrastructure as part of the vSphere Advanced Edition.

VMware support and subscription are purchased and licensed on the same basis as the products: if you purchased VMware vSphere for 4 physical processors of VMware ESX servers and a VMware vCenter management server, then you must also purchase support for 4 CPU virtualization servers and a vCenter server.

2. Language of communication with VMware support service.

VMware support is provided only on English language by phone and e-mail. Be prepared for this.

3. Types of VMware support.

Primary support for VMware vSphere and VMware View comes in two types: Basic and Production. These two levels of SnS differ in the response time to an incident depending on its severity (see table at the end of the article). Basic support works in 12x5 mode, Production - in 24x7 mode (the latter is recommended for a production environment). Any of the support levels can be purchased for a period of 1 to 3 years.

In addition, the following types of VMware support are available:

• Business Critical Support - for critical production environments that require a dedicated technical support team
• Developer Support - help with developing SpringSource applications, 12x5
• Silver - Web support for VMware Workstation, 12x5
• Desktop Standard Support - VMware Fusion support for 10 or more licenses, 12x5
• Per Incident Support - individual incidents or sets of them, 12x5
• Subscription Services - major and minor updates for VMware products
• Complimentary Support - free support via Web for VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VirtualCenter for VMware Server
• Evaluation - independent work with resources for trial versions products
• Beta - only Feedback from users testing products
• tc Server Evaluation Support - 60 days web support for Spring on VMware promotion

4. Roles of specialists involved in the process of working with VMware technical support incidents.

By customer:

• A Support Administrator (SA) is a person authorized to submit technical support requests to VMware. The number of administrators depends on the support package purchased. For free support(for some products) there is only one such person.
• VMware license administrators - primary and secondary (Primary and Secondary License Administrators, PLA and SLA). They are responsible for managing the company's VMware licenses (SAM) and obtaining updates to VMware product components.

From VMware:

• Licensing Support Team - These people are responsible for licensing issues and technical support contracts.
• Customer Support Representative (CSR) - the person who responds to phone call to VMware technical support, registers your request, assigns it a number and keeps a log of customer requests
• Technical Support Engineer (TSE) - this person directly works with technical support requests and solves customer technical problems

5. Process of contacting VMware technical support.

To start using VMware technical support services, you must:

• create an account on vmware.com
• register serial number the VMware product you purchased
• prepare the necessary data (10-digit client number, description of the configuration of your virtual infrastructure, log files, and also collect diagnostic information about the VMware product)
• contact VMware technical support and register an incident (support request) by phone or online on the VMware website

6. Submitting a request for VMware technical support via the website vmware.com.

To get started with technical support, follow the guidelines described on the File a Support Request Online page.

The entire process of VMware technical support is presented in the video below:

7. Contact VMware technical support by phone.

This process is described on the File a Support Request by Phone page. A list of Toll-free numbers (free) is available on the Support Phone Numbers page. For Russia this is the number 810 800 24381044 .

To contact us by phone you will need the following information:

• Your first and last name
• Company name
• Your phone number
• Support request number (if you are contacting an already open incident)
• Short description Problems

Your problem is usually answered within 30 minutes.

8. Track open requests to VMware technical support.

You can view the history of open requests to VMware technical support in the View Support Requests portal.

There you will see all the events happening with your requests:

9. VMware support incident response policies.

VMware defines four levels of incident severity:

Severity 1 (Critical)

There is a high probability of complete or partial loss or distortion of important information.
. A significant portion of service functionality has been lost.
. The flow of business processes is seriously disrupted.

Severity 2 (Major)

Operation is possible with some restrictions, although performance over a long period of time may be significantly reduced.
. There is a risk of not completing important tasks. Main and partial installations are affected.
. It is possible to work around the problem temporarily.

Severity 3 (Minor)

Some components are not functioning properly, but applications can still be used.
. Control points are almost not exposed to danger.

Severity 4 (Cosmetic)

This level includes non-critical problems, including errors in documentation.

Based on the classification of these incidents by level, VMware defines the following response policies for them:

Criticality of Severity Production Basic Free (Complimentary) By incident Desktop Standard

Silver
Critical (Severity 1)	30 minutes or less; 24x7	4 working hours	8 working hours	24 hours	VMware ESXi per incident: 4 working hours For all other products: 24 hours	4 working hours
Major (Severity 2)	4 working hours	8 working hours	12 working hours	24 hours	24 hours	8 working hours
Minor (Severity 3)	8 working hours	12 working hours	12 working hours	24 hours	24 hours	12 working hours
Cosmetic (Severity 4)	12 working hours	12 working hours	12 working hours	24 hours	24 hours	12 working hours

A summary table of capabilities for all types of technical support is presented below:

Opportunity	Production	Basic	Developer	Complimentary	Per Incident	Desktop Standard
Opening hours	24x7x365	12 hours a day, Mon-Fri	12 hours a day, Mon-Fri	12 hours a day, Mon-Fri	12 hours a day, Mon-Fri	12 hours a day, Mon-Fri
Validity	1,2 or 3 years	1,2 or 3 years	1 year	Workstation and Fusion 1.x & 2.x - 30 days; Fusion 3.x - 18 months	Available for a year after purchasing incidents	1,2 or 3 years
Product Updates	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Not available	Yes
Product upgrade	Yes	Yes	No	Not available	Not available	Yes
Supported VMware Products	All products except VMware Fusion and Player	All products except VMware Fusion and Player	SpringSource: - SpringSource tc Server - SpringSource Server products - SpringSource Enterprise - Hyperic HQ EE - Apache Projects (Tomcat, HTTPD, ActiveMQ, etc.)	VMware Workstation and Fusion only	VMware Workstation, Fusion, ESXi, VirtualCenter for VMware Server (Version 1.4), ACE Starter Kit and vCenter Converter Standalone	VMware Fusion only
How to contact support	Phone/Web	Phone/Web	Phone/Web	Phone/Web	Phone/Web	Phone/Web
Support response method	Telephone/ Email	Telephone/ Email	Phone/Web	Email only	Telephone/ Email	Telephone/ Email
Remote support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not available	Not available	Yes
Access to the VMware website	Yes	Yes	Not available	Yes	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Discussion Forums and Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes	Not available	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of Support Admins per contract	6	4	1 personal contract	Not available	Not available	4
Number of possible calls	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited	Not limited	Packages of 1, 3 or 5 incidents	Not limited

What are business hours for VMware Technical Support? These times are defined in the table below by region:

If you need advice on purchasing or renewing VMware technical support and subscription services, please contact

VMware Workstation is a program designed for workstations that allows you to emulate a stand-alone computer in a working operating system environment and work with it as with a regular system.

2018: Technology preview of VMware Workstation Pro 2018

ESXi Host/cluster view when connecting to vCenter Server– the Hosts and Clusters view has now been added, in which users can see not only virtual machine objects. For example, you can look at Datacenter > Cluster > Resource Pool > vApp.

2017

Final version of Workstation 14

On September 26, 2017, VMware announced the availability for download of the final versions of the VMware Workstation 14 virtualization platform.

Among the features of VMware Workstation 14:

• Support for VMware Hardware version 14.
• Guest and host OS support:
• Support for Guest VBS (Virtualization Based Security), including Device Guard and Credential Guard techniques.
• Technology Secure Boot- VM safe boot functions.
• Virtual NVMe controller support.
• Renaming virtual networks from Virtual Network Editor.
• /ESXi Host Power Operations management functions.
• Using the built-in wizard, you can import a VMware vCenter Server Appliance virtual appliance (a separate workflow).
• Network Latency Simulation and Packet Loss functions - you can simulate the behavior of a real network with channel delays and packet loss.
• Displaying the IP address in the VM console.
• Auto-clean up disk space function.
• Scanning for the presence of VMs on disks.
• Pausing Shared VMs when the host OS is shut down.
• Interface based on GTK+ 3 UI for Linux.
• Virtual TPM 2.0 capabilities (used, for example, by BitLocker).

Workstation Tech Preview 2017

OS support

Guest VBS mechanism

Added support for VBS (Virtualization Based Security) technology, which is available for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. This support is also expected to expand towards the final release.

Secure Boot technology

Secure boot features have been adapted for desktop platforms.

Virtual NVMe support

Workstation allows you to take advantage of the NVM Express (NVMe) controller, which is also supported in ESXi 6.5.

Renaming virtual networks

Virtual network adapters can be renamed to Virtual Network Editor. This feature is only available for Windows OS.

vSphere/ESXi Host Power Operation Management Features

From VMware Workstation you can manage VMware ESXi host servers and vCenter Server. These capabilities now include power operations (rebooting and shutting down hosts), as well as entering and exiting maintenance mode.

Import VCSA

Using the built-in wizard, you can now import the VMware vCenter Server Appliance virtual module, which allows you to manage the VMware vSphere virtual infrastructure.

Network Latency Simulation and Packet Loss feature

Using the Network Adapter Advanced Settings, you can simulate the behavior of a real network with link delays and packet loss, which is useful for development and testing purposes.

Displaying the IP address in the VM console

2016: VMware Workstation 12.5

2014: VMware Workstation 11

One of the most notable innovations in VMware Workstation 7 was expanded support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.

To display the state of virtual machines, the Flip 3D and Aero Peek functions implemented in Windows interface 7. Also, VMware Workstation 7 became the first product with full support for the Aero graphical shell Windows systems 7.

The list of 3D applications based on DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.1 technologies that can be run in virtual Windows machines. For example, you can now play Half-Life 2 on a virtual machine running Windows 7.

For the convenience of developers, VMware Workstation 7 offers new integration tools with the popular development environments Spring STS (Source Tools Suite) and Eclipse. Now the virtualization platform is fully integrated into the process of creating applications in Java and C/C++, and improved debugging technology with recording and replay of application operation (Record Replay Debugging) helps to quickly find non-deterministic errors in the code.

The power of virtual machines that can be created in VMware Workstation 7 has been increased - now each virtual machine with a 32 or 64-bit operating system can contain up to 4 virtual processors and 32 GB random access memory. Encrypting system images using the AES algorithm with a key length of 256 bits helps secure virtual machines. List of supported operating systems in new version exceeded 200, of which support for systems such as Windows 7 was provided for the first time, Windows Server 2008 R2, Ubuntu 9.04, as well as VMware vSphere 4 and VMware ESXi.

In addition, it should be noted that it is possible to connect images of virtual machines created using Windows XP Mode technology, presented in industrial Windows versions 7 to run legacy Windows applications in an isolated virtual environment. Transfer is also supported license keys between platforms - now a developer can use one key in two operating systems: Windows and Linux.

Virtual printing technology has undergone a significant overhaul - VMware Workstation 7 uses solutions from ThinPrint. Unlike previous version VMware Workstation 7 implements full support for the ALSA architecture for full-fledged work with sound in Linux systems and the ability to pause work virtual machine– put it on pause.

System requirements

• Host and guest
• Windows 7 Home Basic
• Windows 7 Premium
• Windows 7 Business
• Windows 7 Enterprise
• Windows 7 Ultimate
• Ubuntu 9.04
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
• OpenSUSE 11.x
• Mandriva 2009
• SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.x

• Windows 2008 SP2, R2
• Windows Vista SP2
• Debian 5
• CentOS 5.3
• Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.3

As an industry leader, VMware produces the best virtualization products. But any product cannot become such without appropriate support from the manufacturer. This is especially important in an area such as IT, where issues of data safety and security and uninterrupted operation of the organization come first. That is why VMware does not sell its products without support and subscription(Support and Subscription services, SnS). It is mandatory to purchase support and a subscription for at least 1 year.

What is support and subscription?

SnS is actually two separate sets of services in one package. Support, as you might guess, is qualified assistance from VMware engineers to end users in solving problems related to the use of purchased products. Also, as part of this package, clients receive access to documentation and knowledge base articles on the company’s website. In turn, the subscription allows you to receive updates and fixes related to security, stability, compatibility, etc. In addition, all customers with an active subscription have the opportunity to upgrade their product to the next version. Those. If you purchased vSphere 4 and had an active support and subscription contract when vSphere 5 was released, you can optionally upgrade from vSphere 4 to vSphere 5.

How do I purchase support and subscriptions?

In line software VMware has several products whose licenses are sold for a specific period of use. In this case, the cost of support and subscription is included in the price of the temporary license for the product and you have nothing to worry about.

In most cases, the product has a so-called “perpetual” license, i.e. Sold without time limit. In this case, support and subscription are sold separately. You can buy SnS for 1, 2 or 3 years. Subsequently, if desired, it can be extended.

It should be noted that support and subscriptions are purchased along with product licenses. For example, vSphere Essentials Plus Kit is licensed with one key for the entire kit and, accordingly, you need to purchase one SnS key. However, if you purchase individual vSphere and vCenter Server licenses, you are required to purchase the appropriate number of support and subscription licenses for each product purchased.

The cost of SnS packages can be found in our server configurator when selecting “VMware virtualization software” or in the price list in the “Software” section.

Types of VMware support

VMware has two main types of support - Basic and Production.

	Basic	Production
Opening hours	12 hours a day, Mon-Fri	24x7x365
Validity	1, 2 or 3 years	1, 2 or 3 years
Product Updates	Yes	Yes
Product upgrade	Yes	Yes
Supported Products		All (except VMware Fusion and VMware Player)
How to contact support	Phone/Web	Phone/Web
Support response method	Phone / Email	Phone / Email
Remote support	Yes	Yes
Access to knowledge base and online documentation	Yes	Yes
Maximum number of Support Admins* per contract	4	6
Number of possible calls	Not limited	Not limited
Response time depending on the criticality of the incident Critical (Severity 1) Major (Severity 2) Minor (Severity 3) Cosmetic (Severity 4)	4 working hours 8 working hours 12 working hours 12 working hours	30 minutes or less; 24x7 4 working hours 8 working hours 12 working hours
Opening hours in EMEA (Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa)	7.00 - 19.00 (GMT)	7.00 - 19.00 (GMT)

*Support Admins are employees of the client company who have the right to contact VMware technical support

As can be seen from the table, the difference between support options lies in the response time to the request. For Basic, these are working hours, and for Production, these are 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is worth noting that not all requests for the Production level will be processed outside of business hours, but only requests top level criticality. Here we should clarify how VMware categorizes support tickets based on their severity levels.

There are only 4 levels of criticality.

Severity 1 - all or part of important data is at risk of loss or corruption; a significant part of services does not work; continuation of business processes is impossible or seriously disrupted.

Severity 2 - business processes continue in a limited mode, but there is a possibility of complete service failure; major installations affected; a temporary solution has been found.

Severity 3 - some services are disrupted, but they can be used; there is minimal risk of the situation worsening.

Severity 4 - non-critical problems, including errors in documentation.

In addition to the main types - Basic and Production, there are several more non-basic types of support that are used either for individual products or for specific conditions of use. In addition, if the Production level is not enough for you, you can additionally purchase individual extended support. With everyone existing species SnS can be found on the VMware website at:
http://www.vmware.com/ru/support/services/index.html.

Separately, I would like to mention Per Incident Support. This type of support is available for some products and in particular for the vSphere Essentials Kit. This type of SnS implies that when purchasing a product, the client is required to buy only a subscription (i.e., the ability to receive all kinds of updates), and he can buy support “by the piece” if necessary. It is possible to purchase support for 1, 3 or 5 calls for a period of 1 year.

How to get qualified help from VMware?

If you encounter problems using VMware products, you can contact support in two ways: by phone or through the website. Customer Service is the first point of contact for new technical support requests. To contact the service, you must create an account on the my.vmware.com portal and register your product there.