VMWare EVALExperience and vSphere 6.0

[Emulsifide]

I got the following email from VMUG yesterday:

Don't forget, your VMUG Advantage subscription includes VMware's EVALExperience, giving you exclusive access to nine VMware applications to evaluate for 365 days. EVALExperience provides all of the tools you need to stay in the game and take your career to the next level, all in one place!

NOW AVAILABLE! VMware recently announced the general availability of VMware vSphere 6, VMware Integrated OpenStack and VMware Virtual SAN 6 - the industry's first unified platform for the hybrid cloud! EVALExperience will be releasing the new products and VMUG Advantage subscribers will be able to download the latest versions of:

• vCenter Server Standard for vSphere 6
• vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus
• vCloud Suite Standard
• Virtual SAN 6
• *New* Virtual SAN 6 All Flash Add-On

Existing EVALExperience users, your previous product download has been replaced in order to upgrade you to the latest version of these products. Please visit Kivuto and place an order for the updated products. Please note, the old products and keys will no longer be available, you will need to migrate to the new versions.


YEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

 

[seang86s]

I just tried my keys and I only have 1 CPU licenses for vSAN and vSphere. Did anyone else have this issue?

I'm trying to set up a 3 node cluster with vSAN storage. Each system has 1 CPU but I believe the subscription should cover 6 CPUs.

 

[NetWise]

That was supposed to have been fixed. Not sure if it's on a case by case basis. Are you using keys you got a while ago or recently from the web site?

 

[seang86s]

Just got them today.

 

[Emulsifide]

I just tried my keys and I only have 1 CPU licenses for vSAN and vSphere. Did anyone else have this issue?

I'm trying to set up a 3 node cluster with vSAN storage. Each system has 1 CPU but I believe the subscription should cover 6 CPUs.

I'm seeing the same thing. @Brian Kirsch, this is getting ridiculous. You guys really need to work closer with Kivuto to make sure the licensing is correct and usable. Please fix!!!

 

[Jeggs101]

I agree.

 

[Emulsifide]

Alright, I threw some heat toward the advantage@vmug.com email address and I got this overnight:

Hi Emulsifide,

Thank you for reaching out to us, and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Other subscribers have let us know that this is an issue, and we have reached out to both VMware and Kivuto Solutions to fix the licenses ASAP.

For now, we have made both vSphere and VSAN unavailable in the Kivuto Store and have posted up an announcement so that no other users are downloading the 1 CPU licenses. Once again, we’re sorry for the error and are working to address it. Thanks for your patience.

Thank you,
Ginny Nem
VMUG Headquarters
330 N. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL Zip 60611T 312.321.6886 |F 312.673.6979
gnem@vmug.com

I'm glad they sent a quick message, but I'm still pissed about this. I know my EVALExperience subscription payment is pennies compared to the rest of their business, but I can't help feel that they took our money and ran. How hard is it to get the licensing correct in Kivuto's system?!?!

 

[dswartz]

I just saw this thread. I was thinking 'boy was I lucky!' Then I looked at my 2 servers and I have the same deal. They are showing as 1 physical CPU, unlimited cores. I never noticed, since my two servers are sandy-bridge single-processor, 4-core.

 

[Emulsifide]

I think we've had some progress made!! Last week, I saw that Brad Tompkins was named CEO of VMUG, so I decided to send him an email:

Brad,

Good morning. Congrats on your appointment as CEO of VMUG!! I was wondering if you could put some attention toward a major issue the EVALExperience paying subscribers are having. This is now the second time we've been stuck in a situation since the program started where we are not able to test VMWare's software properly because the licensing on Kivuto is not set up properly. With all do respect to Ginny, I appreciate the response from her, but merely disabling the product from being downloaded is an unacceptable solution to the problem. I honestly don't feel my EVALExperience subscription payment is being used properly if this problem takes months to resolve (which is how long it took to get the same exact licensing problem rectified for version 5.5). If anything, all the subscribers should receive an extension on their subscription after this is all said and done to make up for the delays.

Thanks and again, congrats on your appointment,
Emulsifide

I just received the following email back from Brad an hour ago:

Emulsifide – Thank you! I appreciate the congrats and the email.

Sorry for the delayed response. I understand the licensing issue is now resolved. Please let us know if you have any issues with your VMUG Advantage. We appreciate you being a VMUG member and Advantage customer.

Thanks again and I hope to see you at a VMUG event soon.

Best,
Brad

Sure enough, my Kivuto orders were "returned" and I'm now able to re-order everything again. After re-ordering, I was given key codes for vSphere 6.0 and vSAN 6.0 that contain 6 CPUs each. They fixed it!!!

 

[AERuffy]

If you maintain your VMUG Advantage membership, you will get new keys upon renewing. They have a date time limit that coincides with your membership expiry. So if you reinstall on End-1 day, you'll have one day left, not a new 365.

Just to add to the confusion

My VMUG Eval expired May 29th

Jun 2nd I was still able to log in, at this point everything was updated to V6. I "re-bought" and re-downloaded everything with new keys.

Upon testing the keys they are still valid for 1 year..... Tried logging in again on Jun 3rd, couldn't.