Some My VMware Gotchas To Be Aware Of

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

— Note (20120420) —

Please keep in mind that when my clients or I work with the portal, we’re usually dealing with literally hundreds of different licenses, order, contracts, and historic support requests that are spread across multiple divisions and business units of Fortune 100 enterprises.  As a result, many of these gotcha’s may not apply to all users.

The My VMware team is working daily to improve the system and polish off any rough edges.  I’m also working closely with the My VMware team and will update this list as items are resolved or work arounds created.

Here are some of the gotchas that I came across while working with the My VMware beta. Hopefully these will save you some time as you get used to the new portal.

Missing Entitlements? Are you Looking at the Right Account?

Users can be granted access to multiple accounts.  When you log into the portal you may not see the licenses/contracts/orders that you are looking for.  Check the “View Account” drop down in the upper right hand corner to ensure you are viewing the correct account.  Only one account can be viewed/managed at a time.

Working with License Keys

After you complete a task within the License Key area, make sure you check the “I want to” dropdown box.  Once you complete a task, it appears to always default you back to “View License Keys”, not the task area you just completed.  It can be a bit confusing if you’re trying to do a bunch of license key management (like a Super User organizing your license keys on the first day) because you keep getting pulled away from the area you were working in after each task completes.

Creating Folders

Make sure you select “Home” folder or a Sub-Folder in order to activate the “Create Folder” option.

Moving Folders (20120420)

The portal is able to move only one folder at a time. While you can select multiple folder, there currently is no way to move multiple folders at one time.

If you have a large number of folders in your Account as a result of the My VMware migration, it may be difficult to find new folders you created as part of implementing your organization system.  One quick solution (that can easily be backed out in the future) is to name all your new folders starting with a – (dash).  This will force those folders to be sorted at the top of your folder list. And, luckily, they will appear right below the folders that get automatically created when new orders are placed.  After you clean up all the other folders, you can simply rename your organization folders to remove the preceding dash.

Organizing License Keys with Folders & Granting Access

If you’re going to organize a number of split license keys and grant access to these keys to a number of members of your team I suggest you follow this process to save you time and mouse clicks:

1. Determine your folders structure and naming conventions
2. Create as many of your folders as possible at one time
3. One by one, grant a users access to all appropriate folders at one time. (There is no way to search for existing users like in the old License Portal, so you have to enter their name and email each time you grant them access to a folder.  Thus give them access to all folders at once and then move on to the next user).
4. Review and set the specific access permissions for each folder created. (You can’t change default permissions while granting a user access to a folder.)

Super User Bulk Changing of Permissions 

My VMware doesn’t allow bulk changing of permissions across folders.  The best way to accomplish this is to “Copy User Permissions” across folders.  See Next Gotcha…

Copying User Permissions Across Folders

Personally, I was confused by this the first time I did it.  First select the user who has permission you want to copy, then choose “copy user permissions” option.  In the pop-up window, select target users who will get those permissions.

Note: This will copy all those users’ permissions for all the folders they have access to.  There doesn’t seem to be a way to copy just permissions for one or two folders, so if you have a complex set of folders and users use this feature cautiously.

Selecting Folders to Set Permissions – [Confirm]

When you click a SuperSet permission (it won’t deselect while the sub options are selected, you need to first deselect sub options and then you can deselect superset options.

License Summary View for Selected Folders

When you select a folder from the folder list, the license summary section updates to show you a total number of licenses for all the products contained in all selected folders. It will not automatically include licenses from subfolders.  You have to specifically selected those subfolders to get them included in the summary.  This is because both the parent folder and the sub folder could contain license keys.

Searching License Keys

As of publishing, you can’t search license keys based on the “Notes” field.  I now many clients use this field to help them organize their license keys in the old license portal by placing a business unit or group tag within the field.  Since you can’t search the license keys based upon this field, organizing your keys may take a bit more time as you will have to expand each license key while organizing.

Adding Notes to Split License Keys

If you use the notes field as part of your license key tracking or management, then you’ll have to edit the notes for newly generated licenses keys as a second step after you split the original key.  The current system doesn’t allow you to add a note to a newly generated license key during the key splitting process.

Organizing License Keys from Different Products

You can only move license keys from one product at a time within the portal. While you can select multiple license keys for the same product to be moved at once (i.e, vSphere 5),  if you switch your view to another product (i.e., vCenter Server 5) you lose all your original selections.  You’ll have to organize your vSphere keys and vCenter Server keys in two separate steps.