HP OEM VMWare products?

[B_Lee337]

Hello. I recently requested a quote from our primary vendor for a couple of ESX servers and Virtual Center. I was given a quote for an OEM version of VMWare that is HP specific. It will not install on anything but HP servers (which is what we have).

Has anyone here used this? Is there any functionality that is different between the HP version and the regular VMWare? Thanks.

[mreferre]

As you could depict from my e-mail address I am NOT well into this matter .... ..... but I am not sure that this is true. I haven't (ever) heard of an "OEM specific" version of ESX that wouldn't install on other hosts.

What happens is that HP (and IBM and Dell etc etc) re-sell VMware products but these are the standard off-the-shelf products.

This is from the technical side. If then you buy that from an OEM and the legal boundaries you signed off do not allow you to load the sw on other boxes ..... this is another matter (legal/commercial rather than technical).

The bottom line is that an ESX cd is an ESX cd.

Massimo.

[B_Lee337]

Thanks for the info. HP has done this in the past with Roxio CDs (made them where they will only work on HP workstations), so I don't put it past them. I do know from the product description page that there is an optional component that optimizes the Inisght Management for guest OS's.

Still hoping to hear from someone that has used the "OEM" version.

Message was edited by:

B_Lee337

[VirtualNoitall]

I too have never heard of a hardware locked in version of ESX from HP. We do buy our licenses from them as a package with our hardware but there is no lockin.

The one thing to be aware of when you buy from a reseller such as HP is where the support comes from. HP sells their VI licenses with support via HP. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and in our case we have had very good support from them, but it is something to be aware of. HP will escalate to VMware for level 3/Engineering type support.

[esiebert7625]

I've never heard of that either, we bought all our hardware/VMware from HP. You are also stuck with HP Vmware support which I have found to not be that great. See this thread....

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=662945&#662945

[Ken_Cline]

I can't speak officially for HP, but I do have some experience with selling VMware through HP

As far as I know, Massimo is correct. HP does not have a "custom" version of any VMware product. In fact, when you get a license for VI-3 from HP, you download the same software as everyone else does - from VMware's website.

It depends on which part of HP you buy from (there's HP Services, HP Hardware, and the HP "store" - SLMS). If you buy your license from your HP hardware rep, then you are buying a "bundle" and the license[/i] restricts you to running that particular instance on an HP box. If you buy from HP Services or SLMS, there is no such restriction.

There is also no requirement for you to purchase HP support (at least there didn't used to be...) with your VMware licenses. It is strongly encouraged - and there was some rumblings that VMware was encouraging this approach, too (to help them with their support call volume, and I'm sure that IBM would likely be operating under the same model) - but I don't know what happened with that. Now, obviously, HP would love to service your maintenance contract (more $$$'s into the coffers!), so I'm sure your sales person will "encourage" you to go that route.

I hope this helps...

KLC

[mreferre]

Ken,

what you described maps exactly the IBM route to market (same constraints, same channels etc etc .. specifically the hw and services organization .... not sure about how we handle the "on-line store" ... ).

Massimo.

[Eldron · Accepted solution]

I can tell you that there is nothing special about the HP OEM VMware products. I purchased eight servers from HP with the software and support OEM'd by HP. I actually did the install with a downloaded .iso from VMware. I did not even use any of the discs provided by HP. The licenses are not hardware specific either. Once you redeem your codes, your license file is just like any other. You only need to go to the HP Partner area to redeem your codes.

[B_Lee337]

I appreciate everyone's feedback on this. It looks like I got fed some baloney from the HP Engineer. Thanks for the clarifications.

[admin]

One of my students just asked me the same question via email today...and sent me to this link on HP's site:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/products/servers/software/vmware/howtobuy.html

I'd never heard of any OEM version of ESX either. Apparently, it seems that OEM is this case is just regular ESX server with ProLiant Essentials Virtualization Management Software (PEVMS) bundled with it. I'll have to ask some of my HP students next week about it in class. Perhaps they'll have a better idea on whether or not there's really a difference.

Chris

[RobBuxton]

I didn't deal directly with HP but a reseller.

I purchased HP Servers plus a VMware bundle that includes VMware ESX Enterprise plus VMM (HP p/n 430344-B21).

These are licenses, not software. The software is downloaded from VMware directly.

Same applied to Virtual Centre.

I'd be very surprised if there's a tweaked version of VMware ESX.