VMware pulled the toolkit rivals used to move customers off it. Without notice.
VMware removed public downloads of its Virtual Disk Development Kit in late August, with no advance notice and no explanation, The Register reported on Thursday.
VDDK gives access to VMware virtual disks. Many backup products use it, and so do migration tools from Nutanix, Red Hat and Apache CloudStack.
VMware told The Register the kit "is not a customer entitlement" and was never included with a Broadcom software purchase. It says access remains available through select TAP for its licensed use case, which it says has always been backup and recovery.
ShapeBlue, an integrator, said a vendor may change how it distributes an SDK, but doing it "without a word" while other projects' install guides still point people at a dead link "is something else."
The Register reports services firms have already found workarounds that migrate VMs without VDDK.
Where it bites is narrower than it looks, and worse. Not the running estate, but rebuilds, new backup proxies and any migration plan that assumed the download would be there. A fallback path is not an exit route until somebody has benchmarked it at estate scale.
What would you do tomorrow if the tool you planned to leave with stopped resolving?
Sources
Our file on VMware
- 5 Nov
Broadcom's VMware cut thousands of resellers and pushed pricier bundles. Now it sells cheaper small-server software through distributors.
- 4 Nov
Broadcom cannot see which cloud firms back an EU case against its VMware deal. A court kept their names secret.
- 27 Oct
Tesco wants to move its stores off VMware, a job ad shows. It is suing VMware to keep support for its licences.
- 24 Oct
SAP deadlines and VMware squeeze IT budgets, CIO.com reported. A survey put vendor-pushed upgrades at about 28% of big firms' software budgets.
- 20 Oct
Broadcom agreed a 10-year VMware deal with NTT DOCOMO. It disclosed no price.
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