VMware ESXi 8.0U3e Now Has a Free Version How to Get It

[Eric Smith]

Broadcom brought back a VMware ESXi 8 free version now that you can download VMware ESXi 8.0U3 without subscribing

The post VMware ESXi 8.0U3e Now Has a Free Version How to Get It appeared first on ServeTheHome.

Continue reading...

 

[cesmith9999]

Too little too late

Chris

 

[marcoi]

Too little too late

Chris

This. Already moved home lab off to xcp-ng and XO.

 

[Koop]

Great news for those who want a legitimate way to learn a bit since most of enterprise will still be using VMWare for a long while.

 

[Greg_E]

Great news for those who want a legitimate way to learn a bit since most of enterprise will still be using VMWare for a long while.

Problem is that without vCenter and vSan and all the rest, you'll still know very little about enterprise level clusters. I think this is why they released it in this limited form, it's not a threat to the business model. Yes I'm being harsh on Broadcom today, been jumping through hoops for the last couple weeks trying to get my VMUG Advantage account to sync so I can get to things like updates for my lab. Spent some money to buy a domain and hosting, etc., and that's in addition to paying money for the Advantage program to get the licenses. They still seem to want to keep the good bits that you really need to learn locked away for only their elite partners.

 

[Koop]

Problem is that without vCenter and vSan and all the rest, you'll still know very little about enterprise level clusters.

Why I say 'a bit' - it's not much but it's something.

 

[Phence]

Great news for those who want a legitimate way to learn a bit since most of enterprise will still be using VMWare for a long while.

Source: "Trust me bro"

 

[Greg_E]

Oh, they really do offer this, I downloaded it to make sure my account was working, a couple registration hoops and it was on my computer ready for install.

I'm currently fighting to get my VMUG account linked so I can update the licensed products that I bought, so far not so good at all! I have until October to keep my lab running. Yes I believe Bcom could mess up a free lunch. As one person said, Broadcom is where good products go to die.

We will see how they respond to getting my account fixed, but this might be a short journey for me. Nutanix gave me no grief once I satisfied their conditions, not sure if my little lab will have enough power to run their system, but it's next on the list if Bcom can't get the stuff I paid for working!

Said thing is that the VMware people seem to be against this walling off of the products, that's the impression I get from several web calls with a few different reps. I think they know this is wrecking things, and that they may need to look around and see where the next employer might be.

 

[Koop]

Source: "Trust me bro"

I'm confused- what do you mean by this exactly?

 

[cesmith9999]

Part of this is sarcasm, and part of it is entrenched don't change anything. I bet the bank I used to work for is still using VMware.

Chris

 

[fohdeesha]

Great news for those who want a legitimate way to learn a bit since most of enterprise will still be using VMWare for a long while.

"for a long while" meaning as soon as they can get a migration plan to another hypervisor accomplished. I can tell you for certain 90% of the enterprise market is abandoning vmware in droves, which matches broadcom's intention: reduce customer count by 90%, keeping the top 10 largest. However I've seen even a few of the "largest" planning an exodus. At this point consciously sticking with vmware is just asking for a kick in the balls at a later date, given how broadcom operates and has proven themself to operate the last ~15 years with every other acquisition they've made

 

[Phence]

"for a long while" meaning as soon as they can get a migration plan to another hypervisor accomplished. I can tell you for certain 90% of the enterprise market is abandoning vmware in droves, which matches broadcom's intention: reduce customer count by 90%, keeping the top 10 largest. However I've seen even a few of the "largest" planning an exodus. At this point consciously sticking with vmware is just asking for a kick in the balls at a later date, given how broadcom operates and has proven themself to operate the last ~15 years with every other acquisition they've made

This ^^^ making statements like VMware is here to stay is just fanboy talk based on 0% facts.

The market sentiment on Broadcom, much like how the world views the US right now with that orange monkey in the white house, is that a key factor in business is reliability. Nobody likes to do business with unreliable partners...which change their mind literally every few days.

Having a supplier in your inventory/register like Broadcom is as the above poster mentioned - waiting to be given a beating the second they can get away with it due to vendor lock in/lack of agility to replatform.

Of course, as fanboys, they will always say otherwise as the die hard loyalists that they are. But as the saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

 

[Greg_E]

And that's one reason why I'm looking at Nutanix as a next step to learn. Learn enough about each to be able to migrate from one to another. I can do a lot with Xen based systems now, get some vSphere/Cloud Foundation, then Nutanix because a lot of places are moving to it, another "closed" system.

 

[Koop]

"for a long while" meaning as soon as they can get a migration plan to another hypervisor accomplished.

I really don't see that happening quickly. 90% seems like a pretty bold number but obviously not impossible. Please understand that I agree with you. I'm not over here saying "Hey why don't you guys all keep using VMWare?" I am just watching what actual customers are doing it's very slow movement.

This ^^^ making statements like VMware is here to stay is just fanboy talk based on 0% facts.

I don't think anyone is saying "VMware is here to stay" it's more like VMware is so entrenched in the enterprise space like a tick that it's going to take a long time for it to be fully removed- if fully ever. I was a fanboy for one company though but it got bought out so lol

I'm not an end user or customer of VMWare so my perspective could be off for all I know- I just see it from what everyone else is still buying and renewing.

 

[Greg_E]

I really don't see that happening quickly. 90% seems like a pretty bold number but obviously not impossible. Please understand that I agree with you. I'm not over here saying "Hey why don't you guys all keep using VMWare?" I am just watching what actual customers are doing it's very slow movement.



I don't think anyone is saying "VMware is here to stay" it's more like VMware is so entrenched in the enterprise space like a tick that it's going to take a long time for it to be fully removed- if fully ever. I was a fanboy for one company though but it got bought out so lol

I'm not an end user or customer of VMWare so my perspective could be off for all I know- I just see it from what everyone else is still buying and renewing.

You are pretty spot on, my email to Nutanix painted a harsher picture. They (Nutanix) followed up to see what my plans were, so I laid it out, and laid out why I'm not happy with Bcom, and that once I got over the 1 requirement that Nutanix had to get their "stuff", how easy it was to download and to sign up for their free training. I've given this VMware one more shot, if my accounts don't get synced I'll have to decide if I continue going towards a product where they have "kicked us to the curb", or move on to another product. I need to get deeper into XCP-ng for my own production system, and Nutanix is a popular system for migrating away from VMware. All that said, I felt a door was closed when the announcement came in November that VMUG Advantage users had until the end of the month to hoard their stuff, or it was gone! I bet the transfer bill was huge that month as everyone grabbed the 200+GB worth of stuff!