The SAM Club includes ongoing VMware Licensing & Compliance Health Checks for its clients under its Standard Service Agreement but can also perform these on a project basis.
Remember that VMware is entitled to & does perform installation audits. Recently VMware launched its #I’m Compliant campaign and is being more proactive in contacting organisations to complete the certification process.
Real world examples of issues that we have frequently seen include:
• The same license key(s) applied to installations more than once
• License keys for old releases not replaced by up to date licenses keys to match installed releases
• Out of date IT Super User and/or Procurement User on MyVMware portal
• Out of date access rights to users on MyVMware portal
• Folder names & structure on MyVMware portal not correlating with an organisation’s IT infrastructure – not good practice
• Unused, old licenses not archived – cluttered MyVMware portals
• Licenses on the same VMware cluster having different SnS support levels – a compliance issue – often as a result of dividing & combining licenses
• Not all CPU’s on physical servers being licensed – a compliance issue
• SnS renewal dates not co-termed – resulting in increased administration
• Licenses purchased in one geographic region installed in another region – a compliance issue
• No correlation between instances & license keys – an area of particular difficulty as instances are not shown in MyVMware portals whilst VMware’s renewals team uses instances.
• Wrong licenses upgraded by VMware when processing orders for upgrades, e.g. from Vsphere Enterprise to Enterprise Plus – stating the relevant instance numbers, if known, on orders can avoid this
Not only does The SAM Club assist with & check all of the above for its clients but their SAM Workbooks include a single pane view illustrating which physical servers VMware licenses are installed on together with the relevant Windows Server licenses.
Please contact us at info@thesamclub.co.uk to arrange an exploratory discussion.
