Move VxRail (VSAN) VMs to Proxmox
Broadcom policies regarding Dell-EMC VxRail License renewals (and VMWare vSphere and VMWare vSAN renewals in general) are currently in a state of flux.
Some customers are being told that Broadcom will only allow VxRail users to renew software subscriptions with their top tier software package, VMWare Cloud Foundation. List price is around $350 per core per year.
In some cases, users can un-officially convert their VxRail nodes to vSphere Standard with vSAN licensing, and forego using the value add VxRail manager. Basically these become what VMWare used to refer to as "VSAN Ready Nodes." Depending on capacity requirements, however, pricing of vSphere Standard plus VSAN (at $210 per TB!) can be more expensive than just purchasing VMWare Cloud Foundation due to the higher included vSAN Capacity in VCF.
An alternative idea is to migrate away from VxRail / VMWare / vSAN all together. In most cases, VxRail hardware uses basic Dell HBA330 host bus adapters which play very nicely with CEPH, the storage engine behind Proxmox.
Interested in Migrating VxRail to Proxmox? Contact us for assistance with the re-imaging and re-purposing of VxRail Hardware for use in Proxmox as well as optional ongoing Proxmox support.
Already have Proxmox running? We can help with patching, ongoing maintenance, monitoring, backups, hybrid deployments, and disaster recovery.
Storage Migration
Setup a common NFS datastore between Proxmox and ESXi to speed up conversion. We can provide loaner equipment if needed. Deploy CEPH or connect your existing FC / iSCSI SAN.
Network Migration
Convert ESXI Port Groups and vSwitches into Proxmox Linux and OVS Bridges.
Backup
Configure onsite and offsite backups with Proxmox Backup Server or use Veeam 12.3 or later for image level backups!