Broadcom support and migration of VMware entitlements is an unmitigated, ongoing disaster

[Jonas Olsson]

I have followed all instructions from Broadcom to prepare for and participate in the migration of support logins, entitlements and licenses from VMware to the new Broadcom support portal. Despite this, my entitlements for my VMWare Workstation Pro have still not shown up on my account with Broadcom. When I try to download the latest updated version of VMWare Workstation Pro 17.5.2, I am unable to do so since I am not entitled to the software according to Broadcom.

I have tried going the support route on the web through Broadcoms support portal at Home - Support Portal - Broadcom support portal but when I do so I am unable to even reach the page for opening a new support case. Instead I am going through multiple redirects and eventually end up with the following error message:

Retrying ends up back at the same error screen.

Essentially, I am unable to download the latest available version of VMWare Workstation Pro, I am unable to access my licenses and the auto-update in VMWare Workstation Pro does not work due to "certificate errors" for the update site (as reported by the software).

This is the current state of the VMware to Broadcom migration for me. Is this really how it was supposed to work?

[Technogeezer]

What I'd recommend is not to use the support portal. Instead call Broadcom Customer Care - use the support number and select to open a case on support site access. The online options to open cases to resolve access to the Broadcom Support site either are broken or (if you should think you have gotten a case open) are ignored.
At this point in time, don't expect that you will see any entitlements for Workstation, though. Somebody in Broadcom management made the *expletives deleted* decision that licenses and product downloads are not going to be made available without a current support contract. And even if you did have a support contract, the access to licenses and downloads is still broken.
Sent from my iPad
On May 30, 2024, at 8:06AM, Jonas Olsson via Broadcom <[e-mail]> wrote:

I have followed all instructions from Broadcom to prepare for and participate in the migration of support logins, entitlements and licenses from... -posted to the "VMware Workstation" community

[kasper]

I believe VMWare Workstation (and Fusion?) are free for personal use.   Look for the thread on this community for the link to download Workstation.

[John Owens]

Jonas - I just got off the phone with support (after several frustrating days trying to upgrade to 17.5.2, etc...).  I was told that I had to have an active support license to update.  Unlike old VMWare where you could update in line with your licensed version (that you purchased), it seems Broadcom wants us to not only purchase licenses, but will require a support contract to get updates.  If you didn't have an active support contract attached to your existing Workstation Pro licenses, they weren't migrated.

[patjdixon]

Me too.  I find it impossible for a small business like mine, that has used VMWare for years, to get support.  This is bad enough that I need to find out if I can migrate my VMs to something other than VMWare.  Apparently what I paid for no longer gives me support, and unless I am a large enterprise I won't find a partner that I can afford to give me a support contract.

[patjdixon]

It gets worse.  The support question I posted in this forum disappeared.

[Technogeezer]

Just FYI I asked a moderator to move this question to the Fusion community where you might get a better answer. Your screen shots are indicating that’s you’re running Fusion on the Mac. This is the discussion forum for VMware Workstation on Windows/ Linux PCs.

[patjdixon]

Thanks for telling me, I don't know how else I would know.  I didn't find a Fusion community when I posted it.  I will take a look there.

[patjdixon]

I went to "Fusion" and "VMware Fusion Pro Tech Preview", I didn't find the thread in either place.  Is it somewhere else?