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Aug
21

No more hiding VMware

Posted under Church IT by Jim

During my recent tech support case with Microsoft, I went to great lengths to hide the fact that my Exchange 2007 server is running on VMware (and I’m proud to say they never figured it out) ;-)   Why did I do this? Because currently Microsoft will not give you support if you’re running in VMware. If you have deep pockets they will give you some support, but that certainly doesn’t include us. They want shops like ours to duplicate any issues we have on hardware, to prove that it’s not a problem with their app running in ESX. THEN they may give support.

So I was very happy to see the announcement from VMware that they are part of the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program. According to VMware, by virtue of being in this program ESX will be certified “in the near future.” That is great news for VMware shops, and I’m very happy that soon I won’t have to hide my VMware use from MS tech support!

  1. Jack Said,

    I’m sorry, but I have a problem with this….you are boasting that you were intentionally lying and being deceptive and then justified it by saying you don’t have deep pockets. What ever happened to personal integrity?

  2. Jim Said,

    Thanks for the comment, Jack. I’m sorry you feel that way and that I’ve apparently offended. The fact is that Microsoft’s prior policy of not supporting VMware (unless you had a premium support contract, thus the “deep pockets” comment) was completely arbitrary and unfair to small shops. Demanding that we completely recreate problems on hardware before they would even talk to us was simply unacceptable (after all, we’re the least likely type of business to be ABLE to do that).

    I’m sure that is nothing more than justification in your mind, but I don’t see it that way. I did nothing illegal or immoral. I simply “hid” the fact that my server was running VMware, so that it wasn’t obvious. Had they asked me (“hey, is this a virtual environment”?) I would of course have said “yes.”

    To use an analogy… have you ever been speeding (even a little) and then spotted a cop as you came over the hill, and slowed down? Sure you have. Why did you slow down? Someone with ultimate “personal integrity” would have sucked it up and gotten the ticket, because slowing down is akin to “lying” that you were speeding just moments before.

    I do appreciate your taking the time to comment, and in re-reading my post it does have a tone that I was boasting about deceiving MS, but please believe me that this was not the intention.

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