Customer technical support options for Microsoft products running within VMware virtual machines
The rapid increase in production deployments of VMware virtual infrastructure solutions by enterprises worldwide often leads to inquiries from customers on the support status of Microsoft products (operating systems and applications) that are used within VMware virtual machines. This document summarizes the range of support options available to VMware customers intending to run licensed Microsoft operating systems and applications within VMware virtual machines. The support options vary, depending on how customers purchase the VMware and Microsoft software.
- For customers who purchase OEM VMware products with Dell hardware and Dell Gold Enterprise Support or Dell ProSupport, the vendor provides end-to-end support—including the VMware software and certified Microsoft operating systems that are run within virtual machines.
- For customers who purchase VMware products with Fujitsu hardware and a Fujitsu SupportDesk agreement, Fujitsu provides end-to-end support – including the VMware software and licensed Microsoft software run within virtual machines.
- For customers who purchase OEM VMware products with Fujitsu-Siemens PRIMERGY hardware and OEM Gold/Platinum SNS support, the vendor provides end-to-end support – including the VMware software and licensed certified Microsoft operating systems that are run within virtual machines and covered by a respective Service Contract.
- For customers who purchase VMware products bundled with HP hardware and/or HP Services (Consulting & Integration & HP Outsourcing) and have a current HP support and subscription agreement on VMware and Microsoft, HP provides end-to-end support — including the VMware software and any licensed Microsoft software that is run within virtual machines.
- For customers who purchase VMware products with IBM hardware and an IGS support agreement, IBM provides end-to-end support – including the VMware software and licensed Microsoft software run within virtual machines.
- For customers who purchase OEM VMware products with Unisys hardware and Unisys Gold or Platinum Support, the vendor provides end-to-end support – including the VMware software and certified Microsoft operating systems that run within virtual machines.
- For customers who purchase VMware products directly (or from an authorized reseller) and who have a Microsoft Premier-level support agreement, Microsoft will provide “commercially reasonable efforts” to support its software running within VMware virtual machines. However, after such efforts are exhausted, Microsoft support specialists may request that customers replicate the issue on a physical machine to proceed with the investigation. This request to replicate issues on alternative hardware (physical or virtual) is used to verify that the problem exists in the Microsoft software rather than in the underlying platform.
- For customers who purchase VMware products directly (or from an authorized reseller) and who do not have a Microsoft Premier-level support agreement, Microsoft’s level of support is more restrictive. Microsoft support specialists may request that customers first replicate the issue on a physical machine. Item #897615 in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base describes this policy http://www.support.microsoft.com/kb/897615.
Many VMware and Microsoft customers have expressed dissatisfaction with Microsoft’s support policy, given the robustness and stability of VMware virtual machines, which behave in an identical way to physical systems. VMware continues to work on this issue to help Microsoft do what is right for our mutual customers, since virtualization has been broadly endorsed by all three companies as a strategic, mainstream technology.
