Recently VMware introduced VMware vSphere+ and VMware vSan+. There are many customers who are currently using VMware vSphere and wondering what is the added for value vSphere+?
Lets zoom out and have a highly cloud level look.
VMware vSphere+ introducing an all inclusive single subscription for a 1, 3 and 5 years term.
This subscription includes vSphere Enterprise Plus license, the ability to lifecycle vCenter from a central cloud location and a set of Cloud services residing out on a VMware Cloud Console.
vSphere+ includes the same on-premises VMWare vSphere hypervisor but now including Tanzu Standard Runtime and further enhanced with a set of Cloud Services.
vSphere+, the main benefits of the Cloud to On-Premises Workload.
vSphere+ introduces a Central cloud console.
This image shows the inventory. Ideal for assessing available capacity.
With this Cloud console you have a central place where you can manage multiple vCenter environments at a glance.
Via the Maintenance tab of a vCenter on the Cloud Portal, u can utilize our centralized vCenter lifecycle management functionality.
Via the Infrastructure Operations left-hand nav options u can identify Event and Security related information
It is also possible to view the Top 5 Security Issues across their vSphere on-premises estate as well as examine categorization of Security Issues
You are even able to deploy new Virtual Machines from the Centralized Cloud Portal!
vSphere+ onboarding
You are probably wondering how to onboard the feature to bring all the separate vCenter environments in a single cloud console.
On the picture below you can see that the onboarding process is straight forward and only consists of just a few steps.
Lets zoom in to those steps:
1 First you need to activate the vSphere+ service ,on the VMware Cloud portal .
This can be done by simply logging in (with your VMware Cloud account) and then clicking on the vSphere+ service activation button.
TIP:You can (optionally) create a new organization within your VMware Cloud tenant, for administrative purposes.
2 The next step involves downloading and then deploying a Cloud Gateway appliance.
This Cloud Gateway Appliance must reside one a On-Premises Vcenter environment
As soon as the deployment of the Cloud Gateway Appliance is ready, you can register it through a wizard, simply by providing your VMware Cloud credentials.This associates your Cloud Gateway with the VWware Cloud account for connectivity to your personal VMware Cloud portal.
3 As a final step, you need to register and associate the on-premises vCenter environments with the one-premise Cloud Appliance.
Deploy the vCenter Cloud Appliance
1 You start by downloading the appliance from the Vmware portal and deploying a Cloud Gateway appliance.
This Cloud Gateway Appliance MUST land on one of the On Premise Vcenter environments
Once the Cloud Gateway Appliance deployment is complete, a wizard allows you to enter your VMwareCloud account.
2 This registers the Cloud Gateway with the VWware Cloud account. Connectivity to the Cloud portal
And as a final step, register the on-premises vCenter,(or several vCenter servers) so you can connect these environments to the Vmware Cloud portal.
3 The moment the registration is successful, it will appear with the inventory in the VMware Cloud Console!
See also this blog with additional information.
Activating vSphere+ is safe. The On-Premise environment remains resistant to security risks.
Security vSphere+
Limited Acces:
•vCenter Server lifecycle management (patching & upgrades)
•vCenter Server monitoring
•vCenter Server backup
•vCenter restore
VMware will not have access to customer workloads like VMs or containers, ETC, Only VMware Support teams will have only access to specific monitoring data.
This data will not be used for any marketing purposes
Transparency: Customers will have visibility into which actions are planned, currently being executed, and have been executed in the past.
Encrypted Communications: Data is transmitted over standard TLS-encrypted connections from the vCenter Cloud Gateway to the VMware Cloud, on outbound tcp post 443 only. vCenters are connected to the Cloud Gateway appliance and NOT the internet directly.
Eliminate security risks
Appliance ships by default with Disabled services Like : SSH and SHEL.
You can enable those services for troubleshooting purposes and disabled this service after troubleshooting has been done.
Username and Password are not transmitted to the cloud. They are only used to establish connections.
VMware vSphere+ summary:
Delivering Benefits of the Cloud to On-premises Workloads
Supercharge Productivity with Admin Services
• Enhanceoperationalefficiencythroughacentral Cloud Console
Accelerate Innovation with Developer Services
• Transformexistingvirtualinfrastructureintoan enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform
Transform On-Premises Infrastructure with Cloud Integration
• Quickly upgrade to cloud benefits for on-premise workloads, without disruption
How about licensing?
vSphere+ provides one purchase of an all-inclusive subscription.
There is a great white paper available that will help you to understand the current licensing structure.
You can also calculate the number of cores by a great tool, in case u are about to migrate the licenses to vSphere+. For additional information see this KB article .