Vmware training

[mrbios]

Currently i work in an environment where i do bits of everything, there's no specialising etc. I just do everything from the crap jobs like replacing a toner all the way through to managing our servers, vmware, storage solutions and purchasing and so on...

I've been doing this for 5 years (my total time working in IT) and i know that one day i'll have to move into a specialist role of some kind as that's where the real money is, I've decided after a great deal of thinking that i enjoy and have a great deal of interest in vmware, i've been using vmware ESXi servers for the past 3 years and i'm currently working on implementing vmotion but i don't have any official qualifications behind me.

Now i don't drive so i've been looking at the vmware online training courses but they're all hosted during american times, can someone in the UK do the online training courses even though they're run from america during american working hours?

What titles are there to be had from VMware training courses and what progression path should i look at going down?

EDIT: Just been looking through the vmware education site, i've decided i want to try and become VCDX certified by the time im 30 (is that realistic? Could i achieve it sooner given commitment to learning it all?) I'm currently 24.

 

[mrbios]

Cheers m4cc45, As far as i can tell it might be possible for me to do all the coursework and courses online and then just find a local place (the most local place to me is 23miles away....and i don't drive ¬_¬) to do the tes, am i right in thinking that?

From what i gather i have to become a VCP, then VCAP before i can do VCDX? I've not had a 'goal' as such for quite a long time, it's a nice feeling having something to aim for again.

 

[mrbios]

That's a point, can someone explain the vmware pricing and licensing structure to me?

I don't have anything to do with physically purchasing licenses, i just tell an external company what we're doing, they go off and speak to vmware (they're a reseller) and they come back with a price.

From what i gather of other peoples impressions they (vmware) are both slow and confusing in their pricing and licensing structure. I've always found it quite odd that they license servers per CPU and not, well... per server!

EDIT: never mind, read the above vsphere5 information, i've got some idea now. Though it's still not that clear.

 

[mrbios]

Can someone tell me if i'm on the right lines here (still trying to get an understanding of the vmware licensing structure)...

vCenter - One off cost for the license, followed by a yearly support renewel cost

Hosts - 1 off cost per CPU license, cost depending on what level of cpu license you want (enterprise, standard, foundation etc. ?) and a yearly support license PER cpu?

Does that sound correct? So for example if we had 7 servers all with 2 CPUs and vCenter standard the yearly costs to keep it all up to date requires us to pay 15 x Subscription/Support costs?

Please correct me if i'm wrong (hopefully i'm wrong else that's £2k-3k per year in support costs, maybe more >_<)

 

[mrbios]

The licencing above is soon going to be incorrect as it will be based on consumed memory. All of the different licences give you a different amount of memory (i.e. enterprise plus gives you 48GB memory). So if you want your VM's to usee 100GB memory you'll need 3 licences.

M.

They list in their licensing information, from what i understood, it's still limited by 1 license to one CPU but with a vRAM limitation, have i got that correct?

Your assumptions are correct. Basic support renewal for Standard for 1 x CPU PA is £212.25 and vCentre is £798.08.
The best and most cost effective way in licencing VMware is using Acceleration Kits which give you vCentre + 6 CPU for a bundled price. HP have their own part codes but similar product offering but to tend to be a bit cheaper (but you have to use HP hardware).

I'll have to look into this then, we're 100% proliant servers so that's an option that may benefit us.

 

[mrbios]

What are your requirements - I'll give you the part numbers....

4 x 2CPU Hosts
3 x 1 CPU Hosts
1 x vCenter Standard

All the CPU licenses are standard edition licenses, is that the information you're after?

Next year the 3 1 x CPU Hosts will be consolidated into one 2 CPU host.

 

[mrbios]

So is that the prices for corporate/private sector companies? Now i wonder what those costs would be for academic/public sector?

 

[mrbios]

That is (rather low) corporate pricing. Additional discounts are only available for the academic sector such as schools, universities and teaching hospitals. I remember supplier VMware to hospitals last year with discounts but I understand this has now been removed.

We definitely get further discounts being academic, but i'm unsure exactly what sort of discount, be it percentage or otherwise as the prices you've given are definitely more than we're paying. Two years ago we got 4 x CPU licenses for £365 each, no idea what they cost now though as they seem to change the prices every week!

That said, i sent an angry email to vmware last night in a bid to get them to lower their prices for schools......it won't work but anything's worth a try

 

[mrbios]

Given the squeeze on expenditure in the public sector, and as an IT professional proposing a new virtualisation infrastructure for a school (I gather that is your intention) then I hope you are considering other virtualisation technologies, not just blindly walking into VMware?

certainly not blindly walking in to it, it's already in place!

I'm already running 6 hosts with vcenter and i'm currently configuring vmotion, the reason for the questions surrounding licensing was an attempt both get a better understanding of the structure and see if there was any way of making additions cheaper, though that doesn't look possible sadly.

We started with 3 hosts and vcenter foundation on esxi 3.5 and have slowly expanded over the past 2 years.