My VMware for Most of Us

latoga’s Guide to My VMware

1. Say Hello to My VMware (Portal)
2. My VMware Quick Overview
3. My VMware Users and Roles
4. My VMware for Most of Us
5. My VMware for the Super Us(er)
6. Some My VMware Gotchas To Be Aware Of

I anticipate most users of My VMware will be focused on a few key tasks like:

• Working with License Keys
• Managing Support Cases
• Downloading software

Working with License Keys

I image most people outside of the Procurement Contact will need to work with License Keys in some form or fashion.  In general, license keys haven’t changed from the old licensing portal.  You’ll see a collection of license keys for each VMware product that you own. Any notes that were entered in the license keys will still be there in My VMware.

The big change in My VMware is the ability to organize license keys into folders.  Everyone has a default “Home” Folder and, if you were a PLA or SLA, a folder with their full name in which all your license keys were deposited. You will now have the ability to organize these keys in a way that makes sense for your organization.  I can forsee this being broken down by Business Unit or Group Name and then possible further by physical location the licenses are deployed (see below screen shot with mocked up example).

In the end, it’s up to each user or team to come up with a logical organization system that works for them.  Create folders, name them, re-name them, nest them…it’s up to you.

A few Licenses Key items to note:

• When another user grants you access to a license key, they create a folder and placing that license key into that folder. You are granted access at the folder level.  So once that happens, you’ll see this new folder appear within your Home folder.  Most of the time users receiving licenses may not have the ability to move or rename this folder (it depends on the permissions the granting user gives you).
• A larger organization may eventually have the Super User define a folder organization structure for them to optimally manage the license keys for the enterprise.  This may cause other user’s folders to change.

Managing Support Cases

If you need to open a new Support Case or check on the status of an existing Support Case, you can do it all under the “Support” menu of My VMware.

Users will have the ability to see all support cases they have ever opened with VMware Support and search thru the history.  Once nice feature is the ability to search your Support History for specific or all Accounts you have access to (Super Users have additional visibility and can see all Support Cases for all Accounts they are Super User for)

Downloading software

My VMware also provides links to allow you to download software quickly from within the Portal.  Evaluations, betas, trials, appliances, product downloads, they are all just one click away under the “Product and Downloads” menu of the portal.  Most of these will link you to the download locations that you are already familiar with.

Full Details in the Knowledge Base:

• My VMware Product Licensing or Account Support Resources
• Viewing and updating Support Requests in My VMware
• My Download History in My VMware
• My Evaluations in My VMware