As enterprises continue to expand the use of virtualization and cloud resources, VMware is focusing on delivering management solutions to support our customers’ needs. As a result of this focus, VMware has announced the end of availability (“EOA”) vCloud Request Manager . VMware will continue to support vCloud Request Manager through July 3, 2013, in line with our General Support Policy: www.vmware.com/support.
If you already own vCloud Request Manager:
- Read customer announcement in KB Article.
- Read General FAQ. If you have additional questions not covered here, contact your VMware or VMware Reseller representative.
- Visit the vCloud Request Manager Community for product and support information.
- Download vCloud Request Manager Technical Documentation.
Q. What did VMware announce regarding vCloud Request Manager?
A. vCloud Request Manager will no longer be available for purchase as of December 31, 2011.
The vCloud Request Manager product is being merged with the “parent” product, VMware Service Manager. Customers who are active on a Support and Subscription (SnS) plan as of July 3, 2013 and active on SnS during the entitlement period in early January 2012 may exchange their existing licenses of vCloud Request manager and upgrade to VMware Service Manager at no additional cost.
Q. What is vCloud Request Manager’s end-of-availability date?
A. December 31, 2011.
Q. How will the pricing change affect existing support and subscription contracts for vCloud Request Manager?
A. Upon SnS renewal, upgraded customers will be required to pay on the new upgraded product.
Q. Why is vCloud Request Manager being removed from the Price List?
A. Designed as a lightweight request portal for vCloud Director for a specific market segment, Infrastructure providers, vCloud Request Manager customers required the following functionality only available from VMware Service Manager.
- A service oriented workflow engine
- Call outs to a “start” process in other applications
- A configurable user portal
- Ability for users to make changes to cloud services from the portal, i.e., adds/changes to vAPPs
- Multi-tenancy and partitioning capabilities
Q. How will customers learn about these changes?
A. Customers will receive an email notification.
Q. If a customer has purchased Request Manager and does not want VMware Service Manager, can they return VRM for a refund?
A. No, VMware will not refund the cost of Request Manager. If the customer does not want to switch to the newly updated VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning, they can continue to use Request Manager.
Q. When will support for vCloud Request Manager end?
A. Customers will be able to get telephone and internet support for vCloud Request Manager until the end of support on July 3, 2013. Customers will have the option to upgrade to Service Manager.
Q. Will maintenance patches and minor releases continue to be released for vCloud Request Manager?
A. VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning is the upgrade path for vCloud Request manager. There will continue to be patches and minor releases of VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning.
Q. If I have a Support and Subscription contract that terminates after July 3, 2013, am I entitled to a refund?
A. No, VMware will continue to support vCloud Request Manager, although support will change on July 3, 2013. Specifically, VMware will not develop new patches after July 3, 2013, and VMware may change other technical support processes. Customers will have the option to upgrade to VMware Service Manager.
Q. Is VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning generally available?
A. Yes, VMware Service Manager 9.1 is available as of November 30, 2011. Customers should engage with professional services to ensure a successful deployment, and a seamless transition.
Q. Is this the Service Desk version of VMware Service Manager?
A. No, VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning does not include Service Desk or Knowledge Management functionality. Cloud provisioning is a high governance request management solution for deploying vCloud Director resources into the Cloud.
Q. Can customers install VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning on their own?
A. No. To ensure a seamless transition, VMware Professional Services has a two-week quick start service offering to instantiate cloud provisioning capabilities in a vCloud Director environment. This approximately two week engagement ensures implementation of a limited set of use cases, process automation, and knowledge transfer to the customer.
Q. What additional functionality does VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning bring to vCloud Director?
A. VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning:
- Provides a consumer-friendly user portal
- Adds approvals tracking and an automation engine
- Gives additional controls for higher governance vCloud Director environments
- Dramatically simplifies the process of requesting cloud resources
- Removes bottlenecks while enforcing approval policies through service automation
- Process approvals, provision, and track the entire cloud lifecycle in multi-tenant environments
- Controls user access to resources while providing the flexibility to choose and easily modify services
Q. When do customers needs cloud provisioning automation?
A. Organizations that are looking to provide a service catalog, automated approval and provisioning to their private cloud infrastructure. These organizations have typically moved beyond setting up lab environments for development and test purposes to production environments, or operate those environments with higher governance.
VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning provides an easy to use self service portal that allows users to quickly locate available vApp and VM templates.
Q. vCenter Orchestrator is a workflow engine. Why do customers need VMware Service Manager?
A. vCenter Orchestrator is a technical orchestration engine that can be used to enhance the provisioning of items into the cloud. VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning provides the service/people oriented orchestration, specifically enabling organizations with the ability to control and govern the resources inside the cloud.
Q. Is VMware Service Manager cloud provisioning available in other languages besides English?
A. No, it is only available in English at the time of 9.1 GA but will be available in French in early 2012. Dates of other languages are not available at this time.
