VMware is announcing an End of Availability (EoA) date for vSphere ESX hypervisor 4.x and vMA versions 1 and 4 on August 15, 2013. After that date, VMware will no longer offer customers the ability to download or generate license keys for vSphere ESX hypervisor 4.x or the vMA (version 1 or 4).

The EoA of the vSphere ESX hypervisor and vMA is part of a larger product evolution, and it allows us to increase our focus on the vSphere ESXi hypervisor, which offers a small footprint and provides the most robust hypervisor architecture on the market. It was also stated by VMware over several previous releases that only one hypervisor would be available in the future. The EoA of the vSphere ESX hypervisor 4.x and vMA version 1 and 4 is the next step in this evolution. Customers are encouraged to use the vSphere ESXi hypervisor as well as leverage any service offerings currently available to make the switch in architectures if required.

No, VMware is NOT immediately ending support for the vSphere ESX hypervisor. Support for the vSphere ESX hypervisor 4.x will continue to follow the standard support End of Support (EoS) process and standard lifecycle policy as described above.

Customers are not required to take action at this time, but they may consider downloading additional ESX 4.x binaries or generating keys for use with ESX prior to August 15, 2013.

Customers who require assistance in moving to vSphere ESXi may purchase VMware’s Professional Services Offering: vSphere ESX to ESXi Assessment and Migration. This service offering is ideal for large-scale migrations as it accelerates existing ESX transitions to ESXi through knowledge transfer workshops, thorough analysis of the environment plus an estimate for the effort required to migrate from vSphere ESX to ESXi. VMware partners also offer migration services.

More information on VMware professional services can be found at: http://www.vmware.com/consulting/

Yes, customers will be able to generate license keys until the EoA date. After August 15, 2013, customers will not be able to download ESX 4.x or vMA versions 1 and 4 binaries or downgrade a license key to use with vSphere 4.x ESX when they make a current purchase of vSphere.

The vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) allows administrators and developers to run scripts and agents to manage ESXi hosts and vCenter Server systems. vMA is a virtual machine that includes prepackaged software, a logging component, and an authentication component that supports non-interactive login.

Please visit http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vima for further information.

No. This only impacts vSphere ESX hypervisor version 4.x.

All vSphere versions prior to 4.x will be End of Life (EoL) prior to the August 15, 2013 date. Virtual Infrastructure 3.5, which included ESX and ESXi hypervisors, is already scheduled for EoL in May of 2013.