Trauma of my new workplace VMware env

[Ahmed Amin]

So I have been with many companies as a contractor for about 3 years and decided to go back to something permanent during the quite period and it was hilarious to see the env is just mad trash.

We have 4 sites in 4 different countries, each with 2x ESXi 7 hosts on local storage (no shared storage available, storage is the drives within the bays of the servers themselves). We want to upgrade to vSphere 9 and are evaluating VVF vs VCF.

• Which option is recommended for our setup?

• Will local storage VMs remain intact after upgrade to VCF?

• From licensing perspective, should we buy bulk or per site, and can licenses purchased in one country be used in another, any geo blocking policy by Broadcom?

My brain and R&D says:

• We should opt for VVF as the environment is as simple as it gets (not even a vDS)
• Since we have local storage for the VMs VCF would require a vSAN configuration meaning formatting the drives and that's not possible here
• Licensing side I need help that there isn't much out there and the partner's are trying very hard to push VCF even if I ask them about VVF.

The company that I work in only works with vendors making then dull as is. So if I say anything technical with insight its comes back to me with "confirm with the vendor/partner". 

How can I convince them to go for VVF as VCF is overkill and 2 host configuration of per VCF instance is just impossible and requires tweaking that I will not do in a million years in production. Also, since we dont have and vDS and work with vSS only VCF will add in extra resources of NSX.

7 months in and I am tweaking

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An average IT guy
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[Ward Vissers]

• Will local storage VMs remain intact after upgrade to VCF? (No Shared Storage is Required for VCF). For VVF you can use the current configuration.

• From licensing perspective, should we buy bulk or per site, and can licenses purchased in one country be used in another, any geo blocking policy by Broadcom? 

• (You need to buy bulk, at least i thought minimal 76 cores for VVF) Broadcom does not want sell VVF anymore.
  For VCF management domain you need a lot of resources.
  
  With 8 Hosts (2 per site) VCF normal is not interested. Maybe VCF Edge could be a option.  I think you must consider your options, potentially even other virtualization options.
  
  
  

[Allan Solomon Mejia]

Hi Ahmed,

Based on what you've described, I'd lean toward VVF rather than VCF.

 

Four small sites with 2-node ESXi clusters using local storage don't really align with what VCF is designed for. VCF shines when you're standardizing large-scale private cloud deployments with workload domains, NSX, SDDC Manager, vSAN, and lifecycle automation. That introduces operational complexity that may not provide much value in your environment.

 

A few thoughts:

• If you're staying with local storage, validate the supported upgrade path carefully. Moving to a vSAN-based architecture isn't an in-place change, it requires planning and data migration.
• Don't let licensing drive the architecture. The architecture should solve your operational requirements first.
• If you're using standard networking (vSS or a simple vDS) and don't need NSX, workload domains, or cloud automation, VVF is typically the more pragmatic fit.

I'd ask the partner to demonstrate what business or operational problem VCF actually solves in your environment that VVF doesn't. If the answer is simply "because it's the latest offering," that's usually not a strong architectural justification.

[Ahmed Amin]

Hi Allan,

That feels like the right path to take VVF is much more compatible also the fact you said that architecture should drive the operational requirement then the license. 

Thanks this makes me assure of which way to go. However I think for future I would ask the company to move towards vSAN (with proper planning ofcourse) as they have requirements to scale infra within these countries

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An average IT guy
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[Allan Solomon Mejia]

Hi Ahmed,

Glad it helped! VVF is a solid fit based on what you've described. If your infrastructure grows and you eventually need software-defined storage, lifecycle management, or a full private cloud platform, then moving to VCF with vSAN becomes a natural next step. The key is letting business and technical requirements drive that decision, not just the licensing model.