Frequently Asked Questions

VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware vSphere Foundation
Pricing and Packaging
Updated: April 16, 2024

VMware NDA Partners Only

Table of Contents
A. Revision history and recent updates 2
B. VCF Division Licensing Policy 2
C. VCF 5.1 Version Upgrade 5
D. Portfolio Simplification Summary and General Questions 6
E. Solutions for Edge 8
F. Support 10
G. vSAN 11
H. Other Add-ons and upgrades 13
I. End of Availability of Perpetual, SnS and Subscription 14
J. Product Interoperability 20
K. Top Aria Suite Questions 21
L. Top vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+ Questions 23
M. Top NSX Questions 24

1
A. Revision history and recent updates

Date Change description

Jan 23 CDS EOA, updated EOA table

Jan 24 HPP/SPP credit EOA

Feb 5 Link added to Plus offerings FAQ

Feb 7 Edge use cases

Feb 8 Data Services Manager included in VCF

Feb 8 “Activation and Upgrade Support” included in VCF

Feb 8 Clarification that Firewall/FW with ATP is only available as add-on to VCF

Feb 8 Clarification that TCM SM Lite is not included in VCF or VVF

Feb 12 vSAN updates to license minimums and trial capacity in VVF

Feb 28 Top NSX questions

Mar 1 vSAN license key fulfillment considerations
Mar 4 Connected subscriptions interim process for expansion
Mar 14 VCF Division Licensing Policy and VCF 5.1 Version Upgrade
Mar 22 vSAN Cluster Expansion Exception
Mar 22 Solution license key details for VVF and VCF
Mar 27 vCenter clarification details on managing VCF and VCF hosts; VCF expansion

B. VCF Division Licensing Policy

VCF Division products are licensed as prepaid commitment-based subscription software with 1-, 3-, and 5-year terms.

Pricing Metric: Per Core

● VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware vSphere Foundation, VMware vSphere Standard, VMware vSphere Essentials Plus
are licensed on a per core metric with a licensing minimum of 16 core licenses per processor.
● Each physical core on the physical processor must be licensed, including physical cores deactivated by the BIOS. The
required number of core licenses equals the number of physical cores on the processor, subject to the minimum of 16 core
licenses per processor.1
Pricing Metric: Per Tebibyte (TiB)
● VMware vSAN is licensed on a per TiB metric and can be configured for both standard HCI and disaggregated storage
deployments.
● The number of vSAN TiB licenses required is equal to the total raw physical, capacity tier storage claimed by vSAN on all
the hosts in the vSAN Cluster.1
See KB Article links for licensing help for brownfield and greenfield environments, respectively (95927, 96426).
Pricing metric details for products not covered above, such as VLR and SRM are covered in the Other Add-on and Upgrades
Section below.

Product-Specific Licensing Details and Requirements

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)

1
See License Notes in Product Guide
2
 ● VMware Cloud Foundation is sold as a single product; the integrated components and capabilities can only be deployed
on the same physical cores where the vSphere within VCF core license is deployed and should follow the licensing rules
documented in the table below. For the avoidance of doubt, VCF does not require deploying SDDC Manager for the
product to operate at this time, however customers are encouraged to deploy VCF full-stack to enjoy all the benefits.
● 1 VCF Core license includes 1 quantity of each component based on their respective metric (refer to table below).
● VCF includes Select Support and Activation and Upgrade Support. Note the VCF full-stack, including SDDC Manager,
must be deployed to be entitled to Activation and Upgrade Support.
● VCF Available Add-ons: vSAN, Firewall, Firewall with ATP, Avi Load Balancer, VLR, Tanzu Mission Control.2
● When VCF is ported to other destinations using license portability entitlements, VCF and its included components have to
be ported in its entirety and cannot be entitled on an a la carte basis. e.g., If the destination where VCF will be ported to is
configured with 96 cores and 50TiB of local storage, the customer will need to port 96 cores of VCF that includes 96 TiBs
of vSAN. The customer cannot port 96 cores of VCF and only 50 TiBs of vSAN.
# Included Components of Pricing Entitlement Details
VCF Metric
Entitlement
1 vSphere 1 Core Software can be deployed on physical cores, whose total count should not
exceed the licensed Core quantity.
2 TKGs 1 Core Software should be deployed on the same physical cores where the vSphere
that is within VCF is deployed.
3 vSAN 1 TiB Software can only be aggregated, deployed, and shared across physical
cores where the vSphere that is within VCF is deployed.

For any additional vSAN capacity required beyond the capacity provided in
VCF, customers can license vSAN capacity as an add-on.
4 Aria Suite Enterprise 1 Core Software should manage the same physical cores where the vSphere that is
(Managed within VCF is deployed or in the following manner.
Core)
Exception:
5 Aria Operations for 1 Core ● Customers are entitled to deploy the Software on-prem and manage the
Networks (Managed equivalent number of physical cores on-prem and in VMware full-stack
Core) solutions from public cloud vendors (AVS, GCVE, and OCVS) at no
additional cost until the end of the subscription duration or the public
cloud solutions are brought on par with VCF as the number of VCF
subscription per Core licenses purchased. This exception entitlement is
also extended to legacy subscription offers licensed per Core, specifically
Aria Suite Enterprise, Aria Operations Networks Enterprise, VCF
Enterprise, Cloud Packs Enterprise, deployed on-prem and will expire at
the end of the subscription duration or once public cloud solutions are
brought on par with VCF. (e.g. customer who has purchased 100 new
VCF subscriptions per Core or has an existing 100 Aria Suite Enterprise
subscriptions per Core and deployed on-prem is entitled to manage up to
100 physical cores each on-prem and in AVS).

● Note customers who purchase VMware full-stack solutions from public

cloud vendors (AVS, GCVE, and OCVS) and do not have any legacy
subscription offers licensed per Core, specifically Aria Suite Enterprise,
Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise, VCF Enterprise, Cloud Packs
Enterprise, deployed on-prem will need to purchase VCF subscription
licenses for the number of managed cores to use Aria capabilities in the
public cloud solutions. This exception entitlement will expire at the end of
the subscription duration or once public cloud solutions are brought on
par with VCF.

For the avoidance of doubt, all Aria capabilities must manage the same
physical cores. Individual Aria capabilities cannot be split to manage separate
physical cores from VCF (i.e. Aria capabilities in VCF cannot be used to
manage physical cores licensed by another offer (vSphere Foundation,
Standard, Essentials)).
6 NSX (Networking only) 1 Core
Software can provide networking, workload migration, and database and data
7 HCX 1 Core service management capabilities on the same physical cores where the
vSphere that is within VCF is deployed.

2
Review sections later in the document for any add-on exceptions to help customers transition to the new portfolio.
3
 # Included Components of Pricing Entitlement Details
VCF Metric
Entitlement
8 Data Services Manager 1 Core
9 vCenter 1 Instance Software can provide centralized management capabilities to licensed
VMware infrastructure environments
1 SDDC Manager 1 Instance Software can provide automation, scaling, and lifecycle management
0 capabilities to licensed VMware infrastructure environments.

VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF)

● VMware vSphere Foundation is sold as a single product; the integrated components and capabilities can only be deployed
on the same physical cores where the vSphere within VVF core license is deployed and should follow the licensing rules
documented in the table below.
● 1 VVF Core license includes 1 quantity of each component based on their respective metric (refer to table below).
● The VVF integrated components can only be deployed on the same physical cores where the vSphere within VVF core
license is deployed, unless specified in the table.
● Production support is included.
● VVF Available Add-ons: vSAN, Avi Load Balancer, VLR, and Tanzu Mission Control.3

# Included Components of Pricing Entitlement Details

VVF Metric
Entitlement
1 vSphere 1 Core Software can be deployed on physical cores, whose total count should not
exceed the licensed Core quantity.
2 TKGs 1 Core Software should be deployed on the same physical cores where the vSphere
that is within VVF is deployed.
3 Aria Suite Standard 1 Core Software should manage the same physical cores where the vSphere that is
(Managed within VVF is deployed or in the following manner:
Core)
For the avoidance of doubt, all Aria capabilities must manage the same
physical cores. Individual Aria capabilities cannot be split to manage separate
physical cores from VVF (i.e. Aria capabilities in VVF cannot be used to
manage physical cores licensed by another offer (VCF, vSphere Standard,
Essentials)).
4 vSAN 100 GiB The 100 GiB vSAN trial capacity included in VVF is tied to the VVF cores that
are configured for vSAN and cannot be aggregated. Once customers exceed
the trial capacity, they must license the entire raw storage claimed in the vSAN
cluster starting from 0.

For any additional vSAN capacity required beyond the capacity provided in
VVF, customers can license vSAN capacity as an add-on.
5 vCenter 1 Instance Software can provide centralized management capabilities to licensed
VMware infrastructure environments

Product Behavior When Subscription Expires

The license keys delivered in the VCF Division subscription products (VCF, vSphere, vSAN) are non-expiring. When the
subscription expires, the product will continue to operate and there is no impact to on-premises vSphere hosts or VMs. While the
product will continue, Customers must cease using the product unless they have renewed their subscription as described by the
Product Guide or will be out of compliance with VMware’s EULA and will not receive support from VMware Global Support.

Note that with the VCF 5.1 entitlements customers receive as part of the version upgrade, the following products will have expiring
license keys: Firewall and Avi Load Balancer. Upon renewal, customers will need to purchase VCF along with Firewall and Avi
Load Balancer to maintain the equivalent features and capabilities. Changes in non-expiring license key behavior are subject to
change in the future and will be communicated well in advance for awareness.

There is no grace period at the expiration of the subscription. Customers must promptly renew their subscription to avoid a late
renewal fee.

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Review sections later in the document for any add-on exceptions to help customers transition to the new portfolio.
4
Product Guide excerpt: The Software is licensed as Subscription Software. Customer may use the Software solely during the
Subscription Term. Upon expiration or termination of the Subscription Software, Customer must promptly cease use of the Software
and DC

C. VCF 5.1 Version Upgrade

This section describes the changes in VCF 5.1 version for perpetual and subscription offers.

VCF Perpetual
VCF perpetual licenses are entitled to only upgrade through the 5.x version release. VCF perpetual licenses are not entitled to
upgrade to the next major release. If customers want to access the next major release, they will need to purchase a new VCF
subscription offer.

VCF Subscription
There are several packaging changes that have occurred in VCF in prior versions leading up to 5.1. As a result, there will be
changes to entitlements when customers upgrade to the latest version as described in the tables below. The entitlement changes
for VCF offers are divided into two sections, VCF+/VCF-S and VMware Cloud Packs. Customers who purchased editions lower
than Enterprise can only utilize products that were entitled to in their original VCF offering as described in the footnotes. In addition,
all customers are only entitled to utilize the number of cores that they purchased.

UPGRADE VCF+/S------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
Original VCF Offer Entitlements New VCF Entitlements

VCF+/-S STD VCF+/-S ADV VCF+/-S Starter VCF+/-S ENT3 VCF Offering
(4.5 Components) (4.5 Components) (4.5 Components) (4.5 Components) (5.X Components)

vSphere 7 ENT Plus vSphere 7 ENT Plus vSphere 7 ENT Plus vSphere 7 ENT Plus vSphere 8.x

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid-s

Tanzu 7 STD Tanzu 7 STD Tanzu 7 STD
8.x

vSAN 7 ADV vSAN 7 ADV vSAN 7 ADV vSAN 7 ENT vSAN 8.x

NSX ADV2 NSX ADV2 NSX ADV2 NSX ENT Plus2 NSX (Networking Only)

Aria Suite Term

vRealize Suite ENT vRealize Suite STD vRealize Suite ENT
Enterprise1

Aria Operations for

vRNI ADV vRNI ADV vRNI ENT Add-on
Networks1

SDDC Manager 4 SDDC Manager 4 SDDC Manager 4 SDDC Manager 4 SDDC Manager 5

vCenter 7 STD vCenter 7 STD vCenter 7 STD vCenter 7 STD vCenter 8.x STD

HCX ENT1

Data Services Manager1

Select Support

Upgrade and Activation

Support1

[DFW Add-on]
Footnotes
1. Customers on (STD, ADV, Starter) can only utilize products that they paid for in their bundle.
2. DFW is a component of NSX ADV and NSX ENT Plus.
3. Enterprise Customers can utilize and deploy all the products in the current 5.x VCF Offering.

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Upgrade and Entitlement Restrictions
1. Customers must upgrade all component entitlements to the current 5.x VCF Offering.
2. At the end of current subscription, customers will renew VCF and the pricing and packaging will be based on the current
VCF Offering.
3. While customers will receive VCF 5.1 entitlements where vSAN is licensed per TiB, customers will be entitled to use vSAN
on the original metric (per Core) it was licensed in the VCF+/-S subscription offer until their original subscription expires.
a. Customers can use vSAN Enterprise features and are allowed to configure HCI clusters only. The disaggregated
(vSAN Max) entitlement is available only in the VCF and vSAN subscription offers launched 12/13/23.

UPGRADE VCF Cloud Packs ----------------------------------------->

Original VCF Offer Entitlements New VCF Entitlements

VCF Cloud Packs ADV VCF Cloud Packs ENT2 VCF Offering
(5.0 Components) (5.0 Components) (5.X Components)

vSphere 8 ENT Plus vSphere 8 ENT Plus vSphere 8.x

Tanzu Kubernetes Grid-s 8 Tanzu Kubernetes Grid-s 8 Tanzu Kubernetes Grid-s 8.x

vSAN 8 ADV vSAN 8 ENT VSAN 8.x

NSX ENT Plus NSX ENT Plus NSX (Networking Only)

● NSX ENT features ● NSX ENT features
● NSX DFW ● NSX DFW ● [DFW Add-on]
● NSX ALB ENT ● NSX ALB ENT ● [ALB Add-on]

vRealize Suite ADV vRealize Suite ENT Aria Suite Term Enterprise

vRNI ADV vRNI ENT Aria Operations for Networks

SDDC Manager 5 SDDC Manager 5 SDDC Manager 5

vCenter 8 STD vCenter 8 STD vCenter 8.x STD

HCX ENT HCX ENT1

Data Services Manager1

Select Support

SRE Essentials Upgrade and Activation Support1

Footnotes
1. Customers on ADV can only utilize products that they paid for in their bundle.
2. Customers on ENT can utilize and deploy all the products in the current 5.x VCF Offering.

Upgrade and Entitlement Restrictions

1. Customers must upgrade all component entitlements to the current 5.x VCF Offering.
2. At the end of current subscription, customers will renew VCF and the pricing and packaging will be based on the current
VCF Offering.
3. While customers will receive VCF 5.1 entitlements where vSAN is licensed per TiB, customers will be entitled to use vSAN
on the original metric (per Core) it was licensed in the VCF Cloud Packs subscription offer until their original subscription
expires.
a. Customers can use vSAN Enterprise features and are allowed to configure HCI clusters only. The disaggregated
(vSAN Max) entitlement is available only in the VCF and vSAN subscription offers launched 12/13/23.

VCF release notes and documentation:

● VCF 4.5
● VCF 5.0
● VCF 5.1

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D. Portfolio Simplification Summary and General Questions

1. What are the changes in the product portfolio?

A. VMware is replacing the perpetual and subscription products offered prior to the close of the Broadcom acquisition with a
simplified product portfolio. Pricing, discounting, and routes to market will be adjusted with the aim of simplifying the offerings. This
is a continuation of the evolution of our simplification journey started in the last couple of years. See link to blog for details.

2. What happens to existing offers?

A. Existing offers have now EOA. Please see the section on End of Availability for more information.

3. What products are included in vSphere Standard?

A. Component products and quantities per core of vSphere Standard:
a. vSphere Standard: 1 core with 16-core per CPU minimum
b. vCenter Standard: 1 instance

4. What products are included in vSphere Essentials Plus?

A. Component products and quantities per 96-core kit of vSphere Essentials Plus:
1. vSphere Essentials Plus: 96 cores with 16-core per CPU minimum
2. vCenter Essentials: 1 instance. Maximum of 3 hosts with 2 CPUs (32 cores maximum per CPU) per host or 1 CPU (64
core maximum) per host supported.

5. Does VMware Cloud Foundation include all the features of the component products?
A. The NSX product only includes Networking. Security features, Load Balancing, Gateway Firewall and Distributed Firewall
(Microsegmentation) services can be purchased separately. See Section M Top NSX Questions for more details. For all other
component products, the full features are included in VCF.

6. Are Native Public Cloud (NPC) Instances still supported?

A. Yes, NPCs are supported through Aria Suite ENT (a part of the VCF offering).

7. Which VCF version will the new offerings leverage?

A. The new offerings will be based on VCF 5.1. components.

8. Is Avi Load Balancer integrated with VCF as part of 5.1 release?

A: No. Avi Load Balancer is sold as an add-on.

9. For existing VCF customers who have already adopted the full DFW capability, will these customers
be able to receive legacy entitlement to Firewall?
A. DFW will be supported for current customers who have an existing contract as noted in Section C VCF 5.1 Upgrade. For future
purchases, the customer will need to purchase both VCF and the Firewall add-on.

10. When did VCF include Data Services Manager (DSM)? What are other changes with DSM?
A. Starting Feb. 5, 2024, VCF will include DSM in the BOM. DSM will no longer be sold standalone. This is to align our
go-to-market strategy and enable all of our VCF customers to be database ready Day 1.

11. Since DSM is now included in VCF, are there are any price changes?
A. No, there are no changes to the VCF list price. Customers receive more value with VCF now.

12. Is there an option for VCF for External Storage?

A. The VCF offering includes vSAN. You can optionally deploy External Storage Arrays as principal storage in a VCF workload
domain, but you must still deploy vSAN for the management domain.

13. What is the billing model for the new offerings?

A. The billing model is an upfront Commit billing model, whereby a customer must commit to a specific number of cores for a
subscription term of 1, 3 or 5 years.
If a customer requires more capacity above what they have previously purchased, they will need to purchase additional cores to
support the additional capacity required.
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 The billing model may be updated during the transition to Broadcom systems in May 2024.

14. Are there any overage charges?

A. No, the offerings are sold as prepaid commitment. Customers may only deploy and use the service on the capacity that they
have purchased. Customers must purchase additional prepaid committed term subscriptions to use additional capacity.

15. What does a customer need to do if they require additional cores of one or several offer
components?
A. The customer must purchase the necessary number of additional cores of the entire offering. Except for add-ons, components
are not available separately.

16. Which products include Termination for Convenience (TFC) clause?

A. VCF, vSphere Foundation, vSphere Standard, vSphere Essentials Plus, and all add-ons are set up as subscriptions with
Termination for Convenience.

17. What payment methods can a customer use?

A. The subscription offerings can only be purchased using a Purchase Order and invoice process.

18. Will customers be able to use HPP/SPP credits for these new SKUs?
A. SPP/HPP-s customers can redeem VCF and add-ons (effective January 18th). For any HPP-P redemption / conversion,
customers need to follow an exception process (available Feb. 5th.) Please reach out to your Partner SE/SA/or PBM for details.
.
19. Can VCF and VVF Hosts be managed by the same vCenter instance?
A. If VCF is deployed with SDDC Manager, separate vCenter instances are required to manage VCF hosts and VVF hosts. If not,
vCenter can manage VCF and VVF hosts under the same instance. The Product Guide will be updated shortly to reflect this
update.

20. What are the product release requirements to run vSphere per core licensing?
A. vCenter 8.0.0a is required to run vSphere 8 per core licenses. If the customer cannot upgrade their vCenter to 8.0.0a, the
customer can downgrade their vSphere licenses to version 7.

21. Are Global Deployment Rights in an ELA required to deploy the software globally?
A. Yes. The process is the same as before with perpetual licenses. Global Deployment Rights must be added in an ELA/VEO quote
(not an SPF quote). The difference now is that the G-USD currency now has no uplift compared to USD.

22. Are Affiliate Rights in an ELA required to allow the customer’s affiliates to deploy the software?
A. Yes. The process is the same as before with perpetual licenses. Affiliate Rights must be added in an ELA/VEO.
Example: If Customer X Germany bought outside of ELA, the customer would be defined as Germany only since it would be
under the standard terms and conditions. An ELA/VEO can define the customer as Customer X Germany and all of its affiliates
or specifically call out Customer X Country A or Customer X Country B etc.

23. How can Eval licenses be requested for the new portfolio?
A. Please use the existing process to request eval licenses by submitting the request in the License Management Request Portal
on SFDC. Note Eval licenses cannot be downgraded, so please be aware of the product version requested.

24. Is Tanzu Mission Control Self-Managed Lite (TMC SM Lite) included in VCF or VVF?
A. No. TMC SM Lite is not included in any of the new offers such as VCF or VVF.

25. How does the Solution license key work for vSphere Foundation?
A. Beginning with version 8.0U2b, the “vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for vSphere Foundation” license key is the Solution license key
for vSphere Foundation and unlocks all vSphere Foundation features, including vSAN. All component license keys will continue
to appear in the Customer Connect Portal so that brownfield customers are not forced to upgrade.

For customers running a version prior to 8.0U2b:

● The customer must downgrade the "vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for vSphere Foundation" license key. At this point, the
license key will become a vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus component license key rather than the solution license Key.

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 ● The customer still receives all component license keys for use with versions prior to 8.0U2b.

● When the customer is ready to upgrade to 8.0U2b, the customer can upgrade the vSphere license key back to being the
solution license key.

● vSAN 100 GiB per core is not included in versions prior to 8.0U2b.

26. How does the Solution license key work for VCF?
A. Beginning with VCF 5.1.1, the "vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for VCF" license key is the Solution license key for VCF and unlocks
all VCF component features (except for vSAN, which is still applied separately). All component license keys will continue to
appear in the Customer Connect Portal so that brownfield customers are not forced to upgrade.

For the customer running a VCF version prior to 5.1.1:

● The customer must downgrade the "vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for VCF" license key, at which point it becomes a
vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus component license key rather than the solution license key.

● The customer still receives all component license keys for use with versions prior to 5.1.1.

● When the customer is ready to upgrade to 5.1.1, the customer can upgrade the vSphere license key back to being the
solution license key.

E. Solutions for Edge

1. In what cases should ECS be offered to customers?

A. VCF should be used in all Data Center and Edge use cases. VCF Edge use cases include Retail, Distribution Centers, Banking,
Branch Offices, Energy, Utilities, Federal tactical edge and Healthcare. VCF should be positioned in all Manufacturing data
centers. The only scenario ECS can be positioned is for factory automation use cases. ECS can only be transacted directly, is
not available for Channel, and has a maximum of 128 cores per site. The minimum of 16 cores per CPU also applies to ECS.

2. What products should be offered for ROBO locations?

Customers with expiring ROBO SnS or new ROBO locations should be offered VCF or vSphere.
● VCF for Strategic customers
● VCF, VVF, vSphere Standard for Corporate and Commercial customers

3. Is there special pricing for VCF for edge use cases?

A. Sales can follow the deal discounting process for additional discount consideration for edge use cases.

4. Are customers required to deploy the full VCF stack for Edge deployments?
A. No, customers are not required to deploy the full VCF stack. Customers can deploy individual components.

5. What are the differences between ECS and VCF/VVF?

A. VCF/VVF and ECS use the same VCF/VVF components. VECO is not due to GA for several months, and there are no plans for
VCF Division to test VECO with VCF. Having multiple management solutions increases management and deployment
complexity. Only standard VCF/VVF SKUs and deployments are tested and supported by VCF Division. VCF Division will not
provide support for ECS SKUs.

6. What product should be positioned for factory automation use cases over 128 cores?
A. VCF should be positioned for factory automation deployments over 128 cores. ECS deployments are limited to a maximum of
128 cores per site.

7. Is there a need to bring in the SDE Sales Specialist team for VCF edge opportunities?
A. There is no need to include SDE Sales Specialist team for VCF edge opportunities. VCF can be positioned for edge use cases
as described in this FAQ.

8. What add-ons are available for VCF for edge locations?

A. All available add-ons to VCF for data center can be used for edge use cases with VCF. This includes vSAN, VCDR/RWR, SRM,
Firewall, Firewall with ATP, Load Balancer, TMC, etc.

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9. What support level is offered with VCF for edge use cases?
A. VCF includes Select Support for all deployment types including edge use cases.

10. Are there add-ons for Select Support available for VCF for edge use cases?
A. Yes. Support Account Manager (SAM) and Dedicated Technical Support Engineer (DTSE) are available for customers as
add-ons for VCF.

11. Is SDDC Manager required for VCF for edge use cases?
A. The deployment of SDDC Manager is not required for VCF for edge use cases. The components of VCF can be deployed
independently. Additionally, there is no need or requirement to deploy ECS VECO.

12. What product should be offered for customers renewing the old ECS offerings?
A. VCF should be used in all edge use cases, even for customers wanting to renew the old ECS offerings. ECS is only available for
factory automation use cases less than 128 cores and more than 16 cores/CPU, and only via direct transactions.

13. What product should be positioned for any edge use cases via a channel partner?
A. VCF is the main product that should be offered for edge use cases through the channel. Channel partners also have the option
to offer VVF and vSphere Standard. ECS is not an option available for the channel.

14. Can VVF and vSphere Standard be offered for edge use cases?
A. VVF and vSphere Standard are available for Corporate and Commercial customers that have edge use cases. These products
can be an attractive option for customers that don’t need the full VCF stack. This can include existing ROBO customers.

15. What product should be positioned for vSAN ROBO customers?

A. It depends on the current ROBO products:
● For customers with vSphere and vSAN ROBO, position VCF which includes 1 TiB of vSAN
● For Corporate or Commercial customers, VVF which includes 100 GiB of vSAN per core, can be offered as an alternative
● For customers that only have vSAN ROBO or need higher capacity than offered with VCF or VVF, position vSAN per TiB

F. Support

1. Where can I find a full overview of all the Support Resources?

A. Support will vary by partner seller. The below table is for deals purchased with VMware and is shown as VMware Support.

2. What support levels are offered with the new products?

VMware Production Support VMware Select Support

Offer vSphere Customers VCF Customers

Customer Access By Product/Entitlement Account By Product/Entitlement Account

Geo Coverage Global Global

# of Individual Customer Administrators Unlimited Unlimited

Senior-Level Support Engineers N/A ✓

SDK and API Guidance N/A ✓

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 Root Cause Analysis N/A Severity 1

Severity 1 Initial Response 30 minutes, 24x7 30 minutes, 24x7

Severity 2 Initial Response 4 business hours, 10x5 2 business hours, 10x5

Severity 3 Initial Response 8 business hours, 10x5 4 business hours, 10x5

Severity 4 Initial Response 12 business hours, 10x5 8 business hours, 10x5

Activation and Upgrade Support

N/A ✓
Customer must deploy full VCF Stack and
Deploy SDDC Manager

Critical Situation Management, formal

RCA documentation, and Proactive Available with SAM add-on only
Assistance

3. What add-ons are available for Select Support?

A. There are two add-ons:

1. Support Account Manager (SAM)

o Support request and critical situation management
o Coordinates and delivers root cause analysis (Formal RCA) documentation
o VMware Skyline proactive insights report assistance
o Support activity reporting and review meetings
o Strongly recommended for Select Support customers
2. Dedicated Technical Support Engineer (DTSE)
o Single technical point of contact with customer environment knowledge
o Support request resolution and best practice advisory

4. Are there any Select Support requirements for customers who purchase VCF?
A. It is strongly recommended that customers purchase a Support Account Manager (SAM) with their VCF purchase. This was
previously a mandatory purchase but has been removed due to system/automation limitations.

5. Why is it strongly recommended to include the SAM add-on SKU to all VCF purchases?
A. Customers with VCF environments open a high volume of Support Requests across multiple components and these are worked
individually by different Technical Support Engineers for each product. The SAM oversees all their customer’s open Support
Requests, providing the support team with critical context about the customer, their environment and priorities, ensuring forward
progress and cross-collaboration to achieve the speediest resolution possible. The SAM is responsible for critical situation and
escalation management of Support Requests for the customer, SR reporting and trend analysis, as well as providing VMware
Skyline Proactive Insights Reports and coordinating support services to remediate identified issues. Ultimately, customers
without a SAM do not receive the benefits of a single point contact into the support organization and tend to escalate to their
account team members more often as a result.

6. Is the SAM or DTSE add-ons automatically included with Select Support?

A. No, the add-on SKUs are not built into the VMware Cloud Foundation SKUs and therefore it will be a manual effort to add them
to the customer’s order.

7. Can Select Support be sold to vSphere Foundation customers?

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 A. No. Select Support is only available for VCF. vSphere Foundation comes with Production Support.

8. What is included in Select Support with Activation and Upgrade Support?

A. Only available to our VCF customers, Select Support provides access to senior level support staff to help keep their virtual
infrastructure up and running 24x7. It includes increased SLA response times, Root Cause Analysis for Severity 1 issues, and
unlimited number of support requests.

9. What is VCF Activation and Upgrade Support?

A. This is a support offering that is provided to strategic customers free of charge when they purchase VCF subscriptions. It
provides lifecycle management to upgrade VCF or activate VCF if needed. Details are in the VCF Activation and Upgrade
Support datasheet:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/docs/vmware-cloud-foundation-activation-and-upgr
ade-support-datasheet.pdf

10. What’s included in the Activation and upgrade support?

A. This support offering provides lifecycle assistance for the all the components in the VCF bundle. The customer must agree to
use the full stack of VCF with VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Manager.
Further details are in the VCF Activation and Upgrade Support datasheet:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/docs/vmware-cloud-foundation-activation-and-upgrade-supp
ort-datasheet.pdf

G. vSAN

1. What capabilities are included in vSAN?

A. As there are no more editions of vSAN, customers get all features and capabilities and have the flexibility to configure vSAN
clusters (HCI or disaggregated) when vSAN is licensed.

2. What is a TiB?
A. A tebibyte (TiB) is a unit of measure used to describe computing capacity. The prefix tebi comes from the binary system for
measuring data capacity. The binary system is based on powers of two. Therefore, a TiB represents 2^40 bytes of capacity, or
roughly 1.1 Terabytes. Similarly, a GiB represents 2^30 bytes of capacity, or roughly 1.1 Gigabytes. See this link for more
information.

3. Is there a license minimum for vSAN? Did it change?

A. There is a recent change to the vSAN licensing policy that will help accelerate our go-to-market and benefit customers as they
transition to the new portfolio. Effective immediately as of 2/12/24, the vSAN license minimum of 8 TiBs per CPU is removed.

● Any in flight quotes can adjust the quantity of vSAN subscriptions to account for the recent change to remove the license
minimum.
● There are no changes to vSAN SKUs, the current ones will continue to exist post the license minimum change.
● Existing customers who have purchased vSAN subscription licenses can adjust the quantity of their subscriptions at the
time of renewal to account for this license minimum change. No adjustments in payments will be provided for subscriptions
previously purchased.
● SKU descriptions in the Pricebook may have references to the legacy license minimum, which can be ignored until they
are updated when we transition to Broadcom systems on Day 2.

4. Will there be new vSAN SKUs published that remove the new license minimum? Do I need to requote
my opportunity?

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A. No, there will not be any new vSAN SKUs published. Continue to use the current vSAN SKUs published in the Pricebooks and
ignore the descriptions referring to the license minimum. Quotes can be adjusted to account for the license minimum change if
needed.

5. What is considered raw storage capacity?

A. Raw capacity refers to the aggregate that is claimed by all the hosts that comprise the vSAN cluster. Cache capacity is excluded
from raw storage capacity. Note, in OSA the caching devices never contributed to capacity. In ESA, there are no dedicated
caching devices.

6. Does the vSAN trial capacity included in vSphere Foundation (100 GiB/core) and VCF (1 TiB/core)
represent raw storage capacity?
A. Yes, the vSAN capacity included in those offers represent the raw storage capacity a customer can use towards a vSAN
deployment.

7. Are there any licensing differences for vSAN when deploying as an HCI cluster versus a
disaggregated (vSAN Max) cluster?
A. No, customers, can configure vSAN clusters as they wish - traditional HCI or disaggregated - with VVF and VCF, so long as they
have licensed all the capacity claimed by vSAN. Customers can purchase vSAN capacity in 1 TiB increments.

8. Are vSAN Max deployments supported on vSphere Foundation and VCF?

A. vSAN Max is supported on vSphere Foundation. Support for vSAN Max in VCF is targeted in a future release, however if a
customer chooses to deploy the a-la-carte VCF components without using SDDC Manager, vSAN Max is supported.

9. Can I aggregate the vSAN trial capacity in VVF across multiple vSAN clusters as long as it averages
out to 100 GiB per vSAN storage core?
A. No, you cannot aggregate or average the vSAN trial capacity in VVF total capacity across multiple clusters. Each individual
cluster is only allowed to freely use 100 GiB per core within the same cluster.

10. What happens if I exceed 100 GiB per core in my vSAN cluster and I have not yet purchased or
applied more keys?
A. If you have exceeded the 100 GiB per vSAN core limit and do not purchase vSAN capacity for the entire raw capacity in the
vSAN cluster, or otherwise take action to drop below 100 GiB per core in that cluster, you will be out of compliance with the
terms and conditions and will need to purchase additional capacity as soon as possible.

You will receive repeated notifications in the vSphere Client UI that you have exceeded the capacity permitted.

11. Do I get 100 GiB of vSAN trial capacity for each core of vSphere Foundation I purchase?
A. Customers receive up to 100 GiB of trial capacity per core but only for the cores that are configured as vSAN in the cluster.

If 100% of your VVF cores are running vSAN in the cluster, then you are allowed to use 100 GiB of trial capacity for every core
you purchased. But if only a subset of your VVF cores is running vSAN in the cluster, then you only get 100 GiB of trial capacity
per core deployed in the vSAN cluster.

For example, if you purchase 1,000 VVF cores but only use 100 cores for my vSAN cluster(s), then you are entitled to a
maximum of 100 cores * 100 GiB = 9.8 TiB of vSAN raw capacity with this purchase.

12. Does the vSAN 100 GiB trial capacity in VVF include Support and access to the same features?
A. Yes, customers will receive Support for vSAN trial capacity in the VVF offer, they do not have to purchase any additional support
as this is included in the VVF subscription. Customers will have access to all the same features as provided in VCF and vSAN.

13. When will the vSAN 100 GiB trial capacity be included in VVF?
A. The 8.0U2b patch release targeted for 2/29 will enable vSAN trial capacity in VVF. Customers that have previously purchased
VVF or will purchase VVF in the future will receive access to vSAN trial capacity in VVF running 8.0U2 or above. Note that the
vSAN trial capacity will not deliver a license key as part of VVF.

14. What versions of vSAN are supported for the trial capacity included in VVF?
A. Customers running 8.0U2b and above support the vSAN trial capacity in VVF.

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15. What is the behavior when customers upgrade to 8.0U2b to access vSAN trial capacity in VVF?
A. vSAN trial capacity will be included in VVF by default and will not impact any existing vSAN clusters that are licensed with any
vSAN offers, including the new vSAN capacity subscriptions and legacy vSAN offers. vCenter ignores this trial capacity once it
detects any vSAN license key that has been entered into inventory for that cluster.

16. What is the intention of vSAN 100 GiB trial capacity in VVF?
A. The vSAN entitlement in VVF is primarily intended to attract new customers, who have never used vSAN before, and provide
them with sufficient capacity to deploy a vSAN cluster and experience the benefits of vSAN.

17. When I look at vCenter the UI displays vSAN raw storage capacity in TB. However, we are licensing
on a TiB metric. Why are we not standardizing on one storage metric?
A. While the vCenter UI displays the capacity in TB, the quantity is measured in TiB. In essence, the vCenter UI is incorrect and
you can think of the TB in the UI as TiB. See this link for more details.

18. Can vSAN capacity be used with legacy vSphere or VCF perpetual licenses?
A. Ideally customers convert their entire environment to our new portfolio (VCF / VVF + add-ons). Given there are scenarios where
SnS for vSAN may expire ahead of SnS for vSphere, it is advised to try and position replacing the entire environment with the
new subscription offers. As a last resort, the vSAN capacity can be sold ahead of time and once the customer’s SnS for vSphere
or VCF perpetual licenses expires, they must purchase VVF or VCF to continue using the vSAN capacity subscriptions.

19. Are there any unique items to consider with vSAN license key fulfillment with the new subscriptions?
A. All vSAN SKUs, including the vSAN component SKU within VCF currently fulfill an 8.x per CPU license key for each TiB even
though they are licensed on a per TiB metric. Customers are only entitled to use up to the number of TiBs they have licensed
when using these license keys per the Product Guide.

Customers can downgrade these 8.x per CPU license keys to 7.x, which will also deliver a per CPU license key on a 1:1 basis.
In the future, all vSAN SKUs will be updated to fulfill per TiB license keys, which can be used on 8.0U3 and downgrade options
to prior versions will be setup. Further communication on these updates will be shared at a later date.

20. What options are there for customers to expand an existing vSAN cluster currently licensed with a
legacy vSAN offer with the new vSAN subscriptions licensed per TiB?
A. While the new vSAN SKUs fulfill per CPU license keys, these cannot be merged with old per CPU license keys from legacy
vSAN SKUs purchased prior to the new portfolio launch since these legacy vSAN SKUs are setup with different attributes.
Consequently, our systems recognize these license keys as distinct and cannot merge them. Currently the primary options to
use the new subscription offers in vSAN brownfield environments are: 1) create a net new cluster 2) insert more storage disks
into existing hosts 3) purchase subscriptions to license existing and new hosts in the cluster.

There is one last option customers can evaluate to expand their existing cluster as long as they meet the following criteria:
In the event the customer is purchasing vSAN capacity subscriptions to add one or more hosts to a vSAN cluster comprising of
multiple hosts, which are currently licensed with the legacy offers (vSAN perpetual licenses per CPU or subscriptions per Core),
the customer will be granted permission for the following:

● If the number of total vSAN capacity TiB subscriptions purchased for the one or more hosts added to the vSAN cluster
are greater than or equal to the total number of CPUs in the vSAN cluster, customers will be granted permission to use
any excess entitlements from the vSAN capacity TiB subscription purchase to apply to existing hosts for the sole
reason to enable expanding the vSAN cluster. At the time that the legacy offers expire (either SnS or subscription),
customers must purchase vSAN capacity TiB subscriptions for the hosts that were previously using the license
entitlements from the legacy vSAN offers.

Sales and Partners are expected to follow-up with Customers to ensure license compliance under the conditions outlined above
and facilitate converting the expired vSAN legacy offer (SnS or subscription) to a new vSAN capacity TiB subscription.

H. Other Add-ons and upgrades

1. What is VMware Live Recovery?
A. VMware Live Recovery (VLR) will combine two proven VMware technology solutions into a unified console. Customers will gain
access to the functionalities in VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery with Ransomware Recovery and VMware Site Recovery

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 Manager Enterprise. VLR will offer flexible subscription-based licensing across use cases and clouds. VLR was announced at
Explore Barcelona 2023 and it is now available. Detailed transitional plans to VLR can be found on VMware Live Recovery.

2. Is VMware Site Recovery Manager still available?

A. Yes, SRM will still be available throughout FY24Q2 for customers that cannot connect to the cloud console (dark site scenarios).
Effective FY24Q3 (May 3rd) customers cannot purchase SRM any longer and VLR will provide a license key to customers that
cannot connect to the cloud.

4. What happens to VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery?

A. VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery and VMware Ransomware Recovery will be offered as part of VMware Live Recovery upon
VMware Live Recovery GA on March 19, 2024. At the same time, VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery and VMware Ransomware
Recovery EOA, and customers can no longer purchase VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery or VMware Ransomware Recovery.

5. How is VMware Live Recovery licensed?

A. VMware Live Recovery is licensed per protected VM. VLR is available as a 3-year subscription and sold per VM. Pricing
includes production support. Protected capacity is measured in tebibyte (TiB) and is calculated using used capacity.

6. Can add-ons be sold separately from the main offers?

A. Yes, customers can purchase the add-ons in a different transaction than the main products.

7. How can a customer upgrade between the new offerings (e.g. from vSphere Foundation to VCF)?
A. Customers can upgrade at the end of the current subscription term. We currently cannot offer mid-term upgrades between the
offerings. There may be additional system capabilities in the future to upgrade mid-term.

8. Will we continue to have TVS SKUs?

A. No more add-on TVS SKU's. All management packs will be enabled with vSphere Foundation and VCF. So, all customers will
get the ability to use any management pack including custom management packs. There will be no metering / limits on using
management packs.

I. End of Availability of Perpetual, SnS and Subscription

As announced on December 11, 2023, VMware reached a new milestone in its journey over the last two years to streamline and
simplify its portfolio and transition from perpetual licensing to a subscription model. We have simplified the portfolio to a few offers
focused on our best technology, VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware vSphere Foundation, as well as optional advanced add-on
offers.

Please see this blog on vmware.com with external communication on End of Availability. Additional products from other Divisions
may be at End of Availability. Please check with each Division for the most updated information.

Products no longer available as standalone (all editions Replacement Product Included in Which Product or
and pricing metrics) VCF/VVF/Add-on? Add-On?
(Y/N)

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus Y VCF, VVF

VMware vSphere+ N

VMware vSphere Enterprise N

VMware vSphere Standard (excluding subscription) Y Replaced with new vSphere

Standard

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VMware vSphere ROBO N

VMware vSphere Scale Out N

VMware vSphere Desktop N

VMware vSphere Acceleration Kits N

VMware vSphere Essentials Kit N

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus (excluding new Y Replaced with vSphere

subscription offering) Essentials Plus Kit

VMware vSphere Starter/Foundation N

VMware vSphere with Operations Management N

VMware vSphere Basic N

VMware vSphere Advanced N

VMware vSphere Storage Appliance N

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (free edition) N

VMware Cloud Foundation (excluding new VCF subscription N

offering)

VMware Cloud Foundation for VDI N

VMware Cloud Foundation for ROBO N

VMware SDDC Manager Y VCF

VMware vCenter Standard Y VCF, VVF and vSphere

STD

VMware vCenter Foundation N

VMware vSAN Y VCF, VVF, vSAN add-on

VMware vSAN ROBO N

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VMware vSAN Desktop N

VMware vSAN+ N

VMware HCI Kit N

VMware Site Recovery Manager Y Add-On Service

VMware Cloud Editions/Cloud Packs N Replaced with VCF, VVF

VMware vCloud Suite N Replaced with VCF, VVF

VMware Aria Suite (formerly vRealize Suite) Y VCF, VVF

VMware Aria Universal Suite (formerly vRealize Cloud N

Universal)

VMware Aria Suite Term Y VCF, VVF

VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Y VCF

Network Insight)

VMWare Aria Operations for Networks Universal (formerly N

vRealize Network Insight Universal)

VMware vRealize Network Insight ROBO N

VMWare Aria Operations for Logs (formerly vRealize Log Y VVF, VCF
Insight)

VMware vRealize Operations 8 Application Monitoring N

Add-On

VMware Aria Operations Y VVF, VCF

VMware Aria Automation Y VCF

VMware Aria Suite Cloud for US Public Sector N

VMware Aria Automation for Secure Hosts add-on (formerly Y Tanzu GuardRails Add-On
SaltStack SecOps)

VMware vRealize Automation SaltStack SecOps add-on Y Tanzu GuardRails Add-On

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 VMware Aria Operations for Integrations (formerly vRealize Y VCF, VVF
True Visibility Suite)

VMware Cloud Director Y VCF (CSP only)

VMware Cloud Director Service N

VMware NSX Y VCF and VMware Firewall

(with ATP)

VMware NSX for Desktop N

VMware NSX ROBO N

VMware NSX Distributed Firewall Y VCF and VMware Firewall

VMware NSX Gateway Firewall Y VCF and VMware Firewall

VMware NSX Threat Prevention to Distributed Firewall Y VCF and VMware Firewall
(with ATP)

VMware NSX Threat Prevention to Gateway Firewall Y VCF and VMware Firewall
(with ATP)

VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention to Distributed Y VCF and VMware Firewall
Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention to Gateway Y VCF and VMware Firewall
Firewall (with ATP)

VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (excluding Y VMware Load Balancer

Subscription, SaaS) (AVI) Add-On

VMware Container Networking Enterprise with Antrea Y VCF and VMware Firewall

VMware HCX Y VCF

VMware HCX+ N

1. What is the timeline to transition from SaaS to On-prem at renewal (end of term)
A:
For vRCU / AUS / Standalone Aria SaaS on-demand / Standalone Aria at the end of the term
● If you purchase VVF or VCF and if you were Aria SaaS deployed, then you have 90 days to transition to on-prem
Aria
● If you purchase VVF or VCF and if you were Aria on-prem deployed, then you should swap the license keys

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 ● If you do not purchase VVF or VCF and if you were Aria SaaS deployed, then you have 30 days to exit

For AVS, GCVE, OCVS at the end of the term of vRCU / AUS
● If you purchase VVF or VCF (for Aria) and if you were Aria SaaS deployed, then you have 90 days to transition
to on-prem Aria
● If you purchase VVF or VCF (for Aria) and if you were Aria on-prem deployed, then you should swap the license
keys
● If you do not purchase VVF or VCF and if you were Aria SaaS deployed, then you have 30 days to exit

For VMC on AWS

● Customers could get Aria as a part of VMC on AWS /w AUS ADV if they purchased after Aug 31st, 2023
o If VMC on AWS itself is end-of-term, then AUS ADV status is moot (as access to VMC on AWS is
terminated)
o If VMC on AWS is extended, and the customer was Aria SaaS deployed, then work with the customers
to provide on-prem deployment of Aria (i.e., Aria that customers can deploy in the VMC on AWS
environment) within 90 days

2. What assistance is provided for SaaS to On-prem transition?

A:
● To address transition related questions an email alias has been created, please contact your Partner SE/SA or OBM for
the details around the Aria transition.
● On a case-by-case basis the SaaS transition team will engage with you and the customer at no charge to assist with the
transition
● Prioritization will be based on criteria such as class of customer, deal size, type of service, subscription end date
● For existing customer that have urgent upcoming renewals in the month of January ‘24 or within the next quarter, please
send an email to the above email alias for assistance

3. What is the End of Availability by Route to Market?

A: The End of Availability (EOA) of Perpetual, Support & Subscription (SnS) and legacy subscriptions was announced on
December 11, 2023. Status by route to market:
● Direct, ELA and SPF: Quoting and sales of EOA products no longer possible
● Channel-quoted and fulfilled: Quoting/sales possible until Feb. 4, 2024
● OEM excluding VxRail: EOS announced Jan. 9, 2024, to OEM Partners effective immediately
● HPP/SPP credits: No new credits to be booked or sold but existing credits may be redeemed

4. What is the End of Sale for OEM?

A: End of Sale was announced on Jan. 9, 2024, to OEMs for immediate effect. This does not include VxRail.
● The PAC Redemption self-service portal is currently offline. More information to follow soon. Send escalations by
submitting a support ticket on Customer Connect Portal.
● VxRail PAC Redemption self-service portal is back online. For additional questions, please contact the OEM Partner team.

5. What is the End of Availability for HPP/SPP credits?

A: HPP/SPP credits are EOA.
● No new credits can be booked or sold
● Existing credits may be redeemed for new VCF and add-on subscriptions only
● Perpetual licenses and legacy subscriptions are no longer redeemable
● SPP/HPP-S customers can redeem VCF and add-ons from Jan. 18
● For HPP-P redemption/conversion, customers need to follow an exception process (available from Feb. 5)

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6. Are there any external communications available on End of Availability?
A: The following blogs and articles are available:
● Krish Prasad’s article on the portfolio simplification and EOA here
● Blog from Paul Turner on Aria simplification
● VMware.com blog with list of products

7. What changes are happening to Cloud Director Service (CDS)?

A: CDS is no longer available for new subscriptions or renewals. Customers no longer have the option to purchase new CDS
subscriptions or renew their CDS subscriptions. We will support existing CDS environments until the end of their subscription and
work with customers to transition their workloads off CDS. We strongly encourage current CDS customers to transition off CDS by
April 30, 2024.

CDS is now in a maintenance mode; no new features will be implemented, and only business-critical issues will be addressed.

The following CDS models are impacted by the EOA announcement:

● VMware Cloud Service (VMC, AVS, GCVE, OVCS) managing SDDC(s) that are hosted in the same public cloud
environment.
● VMware Cloud Service (VMC, AVS, GCVE, OVCS) managing SDDC(s) running on-prem in the customer’s datacenter.

8. What are the changes to perpetual licenses?

A: As part of our transition to subscription and a simplified portfolio, we will no longer sell perpetual licenses. All offerings will be
available as subscriptions going forward. Additionally, we are ending the sale of Support and Subscription (SnS) renewals for
perpetual offerings beginning on Dec. 11, 2023.

9. Why make this change from perpetual licenses to subscription?

A: This shift is the natural next step in our multi-year strategy to make it easier for customers to consume both our existing offerings
and new innovations. VMware believes that a subscription model supports our customers with the innovation and flexibility they
need as they undertake their digital transformations.

10. Can customers continue to use their perpetual licenses?

A: Yes, customers can continue to use perpetual licenses that they’ve purchased for products. However, SnS offerings cannot be
renewed.

11. Can customers still purchase and add additional perpetual licenses?
A: After a customer’s effective date for the end of availability of perpetual licenses, customers will not be able to purchase new
perpetual licenses. Customers will be able to purchase subscription software or term licenses to supplement or replace their current
perpetual-licensed install base.

12. Can customers renew their Service and Support (SnS) contracts?
A: No, customers cannot renew their SnS contracts for perpetual licensed products any longer. Broadcom will work with customers
to help them migrate to the new subscription products. Customers can contact their VMware account or partner representative to
learn more.

13. Can customers renew Subscription offerings purchased prior to the close of the Broadcom
acquisition that are different from the new offers described in Section 1?
A: No, customers cannot renew any subscription offerings that were purchased prior to the close of the Broadcom acquisition and
that are different from the new offers detailed in Section 1 of this document. Customers should transition to the new offers instead.
For example, customers cannot renew a vSphere+ subscription and instead should transition to vSphere Foundation or VCF.

14. Do customers have to collect and submit their perpetual licenses to Broadcom when they “trade-in”
their products for subscription?
A: No, Broadcom does not require customers to submit their perpetual licenses to Broadcom when they migrate to subscription.
Broadcom does not offer a “trade-in” program for migrations from perpetual to subscription for the SDDC portfolio.

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15. Will VMware by Broadcom continue to provide support for active Service and Support (SnS)
contracts?
A: We will continue to provide support as defined in contractual commitments.

16. What will happen to customers’ existing perpetual licenses with active SnS contracts when they are
up for renewal?
A: Customers should contact their VMware account or partner representative for pricing of the new subscription offerings.

17. How can we sell VCF to legacy vSphere customers?

A. Focus on VCF’s benefit, value, and the attractive new price point.

J. Product Interoperability

1. Can existing customers mix perpetual licenses with the new subscription offers?
A. Yes. Existing perpetual customers that need to purchase the new offers while their SnS is still active for perpetual licenses, can
deploy the new offers.

2. Can existing customers mix perpetual VCF licenses with the new VCF subscription offers and manage
with the same vCenter?
A. Yes. Customers can use the same vCenter instance to manage clusters that are separately using VCF perpetual and VCF
subscriptions licenses. If the customer would like to mix license types within the same cluster, the customer will need to satisfy
the vSAN cluster expansion condition (# of TiBs purchased >= # of CPUs in vSAN cluster) as described in the Q&A at the end of
the vSAN section. The rest of the entitlements in VCF, such as vSphere, NSX, Aria, etc. in VCF do not have the same licensing
scheme limitation and can apply the license entitlements to individual cores on hosts to allow mixing of legacy perpetual license
entitlements and the new subscription entitlements with ease. Note, each Workload Domain is managed by a single vCenter.

3. Can existing customers mix on-prem disconnected term licenses with the new subscription offers?
A. Yes. Existing term license customers that need to purchase the new offers while their disconnected subscription is still active,
can deploy the new offers.

4. Can existing customers mix connected subscriptions with the new subscription offers? How will we
handle growth/additional licenses needed between now and the renewal date?
A. Connected customers will be granted temporary permission to purchase VVF or VCF for the purposes of expanding or renewing
connected deployments and continue to operate them in a connected fashion until VMware makes available to the customer
tools and/or processes that allow the customer to disconnect their deployment.

• Customers will have 90 days to disconnect once VMware makes tools and/or processes available
• Full legal terms and conditions can be found on the VMware ONE Contract Center in The Offering Specific Terms area in
the most recent version of the VMware Product Guide
• Connected subscriptions will show overage use beyond the capacity the customer has purchased; however, the customer
will not be charged for overage, and they can ignore any overage shown
• The customer cannot use more total capacity than they have purchased

5. Can existing connected VCF customers expand with the new disconnected VCF in the same instance?
A. VCF connected customers that are expanding with the new disconnected VCF offering, they can mix connected and
disconnected in the same instance if:
● They are on versions 4.5.2 or 5.1. Mixing connected and disconnected is not supported with VCF version 5.0
● The management domain of the connected VCF must be connected to the cloud
● Must have separate workload domains for connected and disconnected
● NSX Manager cannot be shared between connected and disconnected workload domains

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6. What is the compatibility between disconnected VCF/vSphere Foundation and VCDR?
A. If the customer is using VCF or vSphere Foundation in disconnected mode when they purchase VCDR via SKU, they will get a
separate onboarding email from VMware Cloud (VMC) with detailed steps. Their VCF and vSphere Foundation deployments can
continue to be “disconnected” in that they will not be connected directly to VMware Cloud and monitored/managed from the
cloud. They will be connected to VMware Cloud only in the context of VCDR/RWR.
If customers do not want their on-premises deployment to be connected to the cloud at all, then VMware’s SRM solution can be
considered.

K. Top Aria Suite Questions

1. What are the offers that customers can purchase which include VMware Aria solutions? Can Aria
Suite be sold as a standalone product?
A. VMware Aria is now available only through the purchase of VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware vSphere Foundation.
Individual Aria offerings and the Aria Suites can no longer be purchased separately.

2. What are the changes in the Aria SaaS product portfolio? What happens to existing service
subscriptions such as Aria Cloud Universal?
A. Customers no longer have the option to purchase the Aria offerings as SaaS. They are available only as components of VMware
vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), which are sold for deployment on-premises or on VMC on
AWS. Existing subscriptions will continue through the end of their term. At time of renewal, customers should purchase VVF or
VCF.

3. What is our plan to support existing customers who have migrated to SaaS or are planning to do so?
A. We will work with customers in their current state and continue to support their Aria SaaS investments through the end of their
subscription term. We will work with them to move them off SaaS and will share more details on this when available.

4. How will we support customers that are using Aria in multi-cloud environments? Will Aria continue to
support native public clouds and, if so, how are they licensed?
A. The Aria components within VVF and VCF support any vSphere-based environments wherever they are located – on-premises,
on public clouds, or at the edge. Existing capabilities across the Aria portfolio for native public cloud (NPC) functionality will
continue to exist and will be available with VCF. No purchase of additional licenses is required. On-premises VCF deployments

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 can manage and monitor resources in public clouds. VCF does not need to be deployed in the public cloud to manage public
cloud objects.

5. Are we still positioning Aria as a multi-cloud Cloud Management Platform (CMP) or are we pivoting
back to being a management platform for VMware environments?
A. Aria is part of the VCF solution which is focused on delivering a private cloud based on the VMware virtualization stack. The
VMware stack can be deployed on-premises or on VMC on AWS by customers (i.e., customer managed) or in other public
clouds by public cloud providers (i.e, partner managed). The native public capabilities in Aria Operations and Aria Automation
are available in VCF; however, we are not emphasizing these capabilities in our messaging or sales efforts.

6. Does the EOA of the Aria SaaS SKUs also apply to our Aria SaaS offerings for VMC on AWS, for
example, the new VMC on AWS Advanced SKU?
A. VMC on AWS Advanced now includes Aria Suite Advanced and is available for net new purchases and renewals. Aria Suite
Advanced is a hybrid offering which allows the customer to deploy Aria on VMC on AWS or consume Aria as a service. All
standalone Aria SaaS SKUs associated with VMC on AWS will become EOA. Our Aria SaaS policy for VMC on AWS is currently
under review and we will provide updated information when available.

7. With the PnP changes how can customers use Aria to manage AVS, GCVE and OCVS?
A. An on-premises deployment of Aria with VCF can be used to manage AVS, GCVE, and OCVS. If customers want to deploy Aria
in these environments to manage them, they are entitled to do so. See VCF Licensing Policy section above for more details.

8. I have customers who are in the middle of onboarding Aria SaaS services. If we have EOA’d the SKUs,
should we continue to onboard them now? Whom should I reach out to if they have questions about
what they should do going forward?
A. Please DO NOT onboard any more customers to Aria SaaS. There will be additional information available soon on how to
transition customers from Aria SaaS. In the interim, please reach out to your Partner SE/SA or PBM.

9. Do we still need to add a SKU for licensing additional hardware components like switches, routers,
firewalls, load balancers, etc., when adding them to Aria Ops / Logs / Network? If we do, will there be
guidance on how to quote this?
A. No, there is no need to quote a SKU to license additional hardware components. All third-party sources that can send data to
Aria are included in the VVF and VCF entitlement.

10. With the new PnP, how do customers license Aria Operations for Integrations (formerly, True
Visibility Suite or TVS) to manage their non-VMware assets?
A. Aria Operations for Integrations (aka TVS) is now included as part of the new VVF and VCF SKUs and no separate licensing is
required. There will be no limits on the number of devices monitored using the TVS management packs. There are no
standalone TVS SKUs available going forward. Applications and Database management packs are included in VCF only.

11. Does Aria help customers determine if their VVF or VCF environment is compliant?
A. Aria Operations does evaluate customer environments to determine if they are in compliance with many leading regulatory
requirements and industry best practices out-of-the-box. The Tanzu Guardrails add-on for VVF and VCF provides compliance
and vulnerability management, delivering full-service, closed-loop automation for IT system compliance and vulnerability
remediation.

12. Is Aria Automation Config (formerly, vRealize Automation SaltStack Config) still part of Aria
Automation for configuration management?
No, Aria Automation Config (aka, SaltStack Config) is now a feature of Tanzu Guardrails, one of the Tanzu Intelligence Services.
Tanzu Guardrails is available as an add-on to VVF and VCF.

13. What is the future of Skyline given the new VVF and VCF offerings are disconnected?
A. Skyline is not going away and is an important part of the VCF solution going forward. We are working on how Skyline will work
with the new disconnected SKUs and will come back with more information when available.

14. How do we license IaaS instances provisioned on NPC Endpoints?

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A. Aria Suite Term product within VCF allows a customer to deploy on prem, and then monitor unlimited EC2 Instances.

L. Top vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+ Questions

1. Now that vSphere+, vSAN+ and VCF+ are no longer available for purchase, what should a customer’s
next steps be in managing their existing entitlement?

A. A customer’s next step depends on whether the customer has onboarded and connected their vCenter instances to the VMware
Cloud Gateway.

For customers that have subscribed to vSphere+, vSAN+ or VCF+ but have not onboarded or connected their vCenters to the
Cloud Gateway:

● As these offerings were formerly based on a keyless licensing model and consumed via activation link emails, we are
working on a process to provide license keys in the Customer Connect portal for their products. Further details of this
process will be shared once it has been finalized and approved.

● Customers can connect to the Cloud Console using their activation links emails to gain entitlement to and use their
products until we provide license keys.

For customers that have subscribed and connected their vCenters to the VMware Cloud Gateway:

● We will continue to support these customers until their respective subscription expiration date.

● As these offerings were formerly based on a keyless licensing model and consumed via activation link emails, we are
working on a process to provide license keys in the Customer Connect portal for their products. Further details of this
process will be shared once it has been finalized and approved.

● We may provide optional connected services in the future, but no customer expectation should be set on a particular
feature, functionality, or timeline.

● When we have more clarity, we will communicate a migration plan to move vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+ services to on-prem.

2. My customer needs to expand their existing vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+ cluster or add a second

vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+ cluster. Can a customer add vSphere Foundation or VCF to a
vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+ cluster?
A. Connected customers will be granted temporary permission to purchase VVF or VCF for the purposes of expanding or renewing
connected deployments and continue to operate them in a connected fashion until VMware makes available to the customer
tools and/or processes that allow the customer to disconnect their deployment.

• Customers will have 90 days to disconnect once VMware makes tools and/or processes available
• Full legal terms and conditions can be found on the VMware ONE Contract Center in The Offering Specific Terms area in
the most recent version of the VMware Product Guide
• Connected subscriptions will show overage use beyond the capacity the customer has purchased; however, the customer
will not be charged for overage, and they can ignore any overage shown
• The customer cannot use more total capacity than they have purchased

3. My customer will soon need to renew vSphere+/vSAN+/VCF+. What should I do?

A. Please see previous question. Connected customers will be granted temporary permission to purchase VVF or VCF for the
purposes of expanding or renewing connected deployments and continue to operate them in a connected fashion until VMware
makes available to the customer tools and/or processes that allow the customer to disconnect their deployment.

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M. Top NSX Questions

1. Does the NSX Manager accept a new NSX per Core license within VCF and an old NSX per processor
license at the same time?
A. Yes. NSX Manager accepts both NSX per Core license key and NSX per processor license key at the same time.

2. Can customers use old unused perpetual NSX licenses along with VVF?
A. Yes, as long as the unused NSX licenses are on active SnS, licenses can be used along with VVF. Customer will need to convert
to VCF upon SnS expiry of NSX perpetual licenses.

3. Can customers purchase VMware Firewall for additional gateway firewall features for existing NSX
deployments?
A. Yes, customers can purchase VMware Firewall on top of existing NSX deployments/brownfield applications, but not for
expansion or new deployments. For any expansions or net new deployments, VCF and FW add-on purchase is required.

4. Can customers purchase VMware ATP Add-on for additional ATP features on existing NSX
deployments?
A. Yes, customers can purchase VMware ATP Add-on to VMware Firewall on top of existing NSX deployments/brownfield
applications, but not for expansion or new deployments. For any expansions or net new deployments, VCF and FW with ATP
purchase is required.

5. Does the new VCF offering that includes NSX provide Load balancing capability?
A. Support for the built-in NSX load balancer for customers using NSX 4.x will remain for the duration of the NSX 4.x release series.
VMware does not intend to provide support for the built-in NSX load balancer beyond the last NSX 4.x release. It is recommended
to purchase Avi Load balancer for load balancing capabilities.

6. Is microsegmentation included in VCF?

A. No, only NSX Networking for VCF is included in VCF. The feature Microsegmentation can be purchased in the VMware Firewall
as an add-on.

7. How do I get entitlement to container networking that was previously within Antrea?
A. Antrea is no longer available as a standalone SKU, VCF offering provides entitlement to container networking and the Firewall
add-on SKU provides entitlement to container security.

8. Is VCF per core license required for physical server or bare metal edge?
A. Yes, VCF per core license is required for all the cores on the physical server or bare metal edge host and will need to purchase a
minimum of 16 cores per CPU.

9. Is gateway/edge firewall included in VCF?

A. No, only NSX Networking for VCF is included in VCF. Gateway firewall features can be purchased in the VMware Firewall as an
add-on.

10. Will existing NSX customers who rely on microsegmentation be able to transition to VCF without
losing this functionality?
A. Yes, these customers will be able to purchase both VCF and the Firewall add-on.

11. For existing VCF customers who have already adopted the full DFW capability, will these customers
be able to receive legacy entitlement to Firewall?
A. DFW will be supported for existing customers who have an existing contract. For future purchases, the customer will need to
purchase both VCF and the Firewall add-on.

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