VMware Software Solution Product GuideProduct Guide

Lenovo and VMware have been collaborating for more than twenty years, helping customers solve their most complex problems in virtualization and digital transformation.

As an OEM reseller of VMware solutions, Lenovo offers a broad range of VMware based solutions in varying levels of integration to meet different customer requirements and business needs. Solutions range from the turnkey Lenovo ThinkAgile VX series of appliances to build-your-own Engineered Solutions based on Lenovo’s proven reference architecture and VMware software only licenses.

VMware OEM licenses are sold as a license and your choice of 1 year, 3 year, or 5 year support & subscription with Lenovo hardware and are transferable to new servers. All Lenovo offerings come with VMware OEM licenses, L3 support provided by VMware and L1 and L2 support provided by Lenovo.

Additionally Lenovo can provide VMware based (L1-L3 direct from VMware) support and subscription offerings for 1 year or 3 year.

Lenovo XClarity Integrator integrates XClarity Administrator into VMware software, providing the functionality you need to manage Lenovo infrastructure right in the console of VMware software.

Lenovo offers XClarity Integrators for VMware vCenter, VMware vRealize Orchestrator and VMware vRealize Log Insight. For more information, please refer to the Lenovo XClarity Administrator Product Guide.

Lenovo has proven experience in developing and delivering VMware-based solutions that help customers modernize and simplify their IT infrastructure to dramatically drive down operating costs and open the door to cutting-edge innovations. Built around the latest Lenovo ThinkSystem servers and networking hardware, the Lenovo solution with VMware provides businesses with an affordable, interoperable, and reliable industry-leading solution to manage their virtualized workloads.

Why purchase VMware solutions from Lenovo?

• Competitive pricing for VMware
• Lenovo certified/supported pre-built image
• Single point of support tracking for Lenovo hardware and Lenovo VMware
• World-class service delivering single point support for Lenovo servers and Lenovo OEM software Easy ordering and delivery with Single SKU for license and Subscription and Support.

Enterprise licensing agreements (> US$250K) are also available. Please contact your Lenovo sales person for more information.

The VMware Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) is a contract with your customer that allows for the purchase VMware products up front at an agreed-upon discount. The ELA is a type of agreement that allows the customer to deploy up to a specific number of licenses purchased during the ELA period.

Characteristics of an ELA include:

• Minimum total deal value US$250K
• Minimum net new license revenue US$150K (US$100K Mid-Market)
• Mutually signed agreement / SRA – Legal (This is transparent with Lenovo)
• Enables Lenovo to sell VMware components not on our price list or catalog
• Provides client cost savings with additional discounts
• Ease and flexibility of deployment with one license key
• Additional discounts and price protection thru deal registration
• Typically includes VMware support, but Lenovo support can be optional

Adding products will result in VMware amending and extending the existing ELA.

To upgrade from a product with “lesser” functionality to a product with a richer feature-set that includes the functionality of the lesser product, VMware has created specific SKUs that correspond to the allowable upgrade paths. With the exception of VMware View product Functionality Upgrades, no separate Support and Subscription Services (SnS) upgrade SKUs will be offered. Customers will order the full SnS SKU for the destination license along with the License upgrade. Any remaining SnS on the original license will be credited in the form of additional days on the new replacement license SnS.

Lenovo is renewing all VMware product Support and Subscription with Lenovo Support.   You can look up your VMware Entitlement at https://datacentersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/warrantylookup#/ . Renewals are available through the Lenovo Services Contract System (LCSC). Your renewal will start the day after your Entitlement expires.  Additionally, you can migrate / change your VMware Support and Subscription to Lenovo Support through a simple request process.   Please contact your local Lenovo Sales representative with questions and inquires.

The models listed in this section offer the base product license with 1 year, 3 year, or 5 year physical or electronic entitlement.

For upgrade products, customers must have the original base product on a current Lenovo services contract and must have registered for Lenovo support on the original base product so that upgrade can be added to an existing service contract.

For more information, see the VMware licensing and pricing paper, available from:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-pricing-whitepaper.pdf

VMware vSphere Editions

vSphere editions are highly scalable virtualization solutions for midsize and enterprise organizations that want to optimize existing IT investments, streamline IT operations and deliver IT-as-a-service through private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructures:

• VMware vSphere Standard licensing supports features for server consolidation and business continuity.
• VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus include features for resource management, enhanced application availability and performance.

For a detailed comparison of vSphere Editions see the following document:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmw-edition-comparison.pdf

The following table lists the ordering information for vSphere editions.

VMware vSphere Bitfusion

VMware vSphere Bitfusion is an add on to vSphere Enterprise Plus that decouples physical resources from servers within an environment.  The platform can share GPU’s in a virtualized infrastructure as a pool of network accessible resources.

VMware vSphere Acceleration Kits

vSphere Acceleration Kits are an all-in-one convenience bundle that provide a simple way for customers to purchase all the necessary components to set up a new VMware environment. Each kit consists of six processor licenses or vSphere and a license for one instance of vCenter Server Standard.

Unlike the Essentials Kits and VMware vSphere 6.x Acceleration Kits that function as single entity, vSphere Acceleration Kits decompose into their individual kit components after purchase. This allows customers to upgrade and renew SnS for each individual component on its own schedule.

VMware vSphere Desktop is used for deploying desktop virtualization. It provides the full range of features and functionalities of the vSphere Enterprise Plus edition allowing you to achieve scalability, high availability, and optimal performance for all your desktop workloads.

Gain centralized visibility, simplified and efficient management at scale, and extensibility across the hybrid cloud—all from a single console.

VMware vCenter Server

VMware vCenter Server provides a centralized platform for managing your VMware vSphere environments, allowing you to automate and deliver a virtual infrastructure across the hybrid cloud with confidence. VMware vCenter Server Foundation Manages 3 vSphere hosts and VMware vCenter Server Standard Manages unlimited vSphere hosts.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager is a business continuity and disaster recovery solution that helps you to plan, test, and run the recovery of virtual machines between a protected vCenter Server site and a recovery vCenter Server site.

VMware vSAN is a new software-defined storage tier, which pools compute and direct-attached storage resources, and clusters server disks and flash drives to create resilient shared storage. VMware vSAN creates a distributed shared data storage designed and optimized for virtual machines.

VMware vSAN Editions

vSAN license editions include Standard, Advanced, Enterprise, and Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise.

• Standard Edition: Best suited for hybrid environments so customers can simplify and automate storage management with per-VM storage policies. The Standard license supports all-flash vSAN configurations.
• Advanced Edition: Standard Edition plus all-flash space efficiency features (deduplication, compression and erasure coding) provides the most cost-efficient performance to customers invested in all-flash.
• Enterprise Edition: Advanced Edition plus software-defined, data-at-rest encryption and stretched clusters delivers greater hardware choice and cost savings to customers. Any cluster with three or more physical hosts plus a witness host is a stretched cluster.
• Remote Office Branch Office Edition:vSAN for ROBO is best suited for remote locations with low consolidation ratios. It is sold as 25-VM packs based on vSAN Standard, Advanced or Enterprise Editions and is distributable across the different remote sites. It is limited to a maximum of 25 virtual machines per site. vSAN for ROBO are per-VM licenses available in a pack of 25.

For more details on the different vSAN editions see the vSAN licensing guide:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsan/vmware-vsan-67-licensing-guide.pdf

vSAN Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise licenses are per-CPU (socket) licenses. All hosts in the cluster must be licensed. A 2-host vSAN cluster with a witness host can be deployed with any license edition. vSphere and vSphere with Operations Management licenses do not include vSAN. Any type of workload—server and desktop—can be run on a vSAN cluster with these licensing editions.

VMware vSAN:Desktop Editions

vSAN for Desktop licensing is available for customers using vSAN exclusively for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). It is priced per concurrent user (CCU) in a VDI environment and sold in packs of 10 and 100 licenses. vSAN for Desktop is also included in the Horizon Advanced and Enterprise bundles which have the vSAN Advanced license. Horizon Advanced and Enterprise customers who wish to upgrade to vSAN Enterprise can do so via an add-on vSAN for Desktop Enterprise SKU.

VMware HCI Kits Editions

VMware HCI Kit simplify the purchase of vSphere and vSAN licenses by combining VMware vSAN and vSphere. VMware HCI Kits offer one SKU for both vSAN and vSphere and provide the most cost-efficient and simplest way to adopt hyperconverged infrastructure powered by vSAN. VMware HCI Kit Standard includes vSphere Standard and vSAN Standard. VMware HCI Kit Advanced includes vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSAN Advanced.

• Standard – Includes VMware vSphere 7 Standard for 1 processor and VMware vSAN 7 Standard
• Advanced – Includes VMware vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus for 1 processor and VMware vSAN 7 Advanced
• Enterprise – Includes VMware vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus for 1 processor and VMware vSAN 7 Enterprise
• Essentials Kit – Includes quantity of 1 VMware vSphere 7 Essentials Plus Kit for 3 nodes (Max 2 processors per node) and quantity of 6 VMware vSAN 7 Standard
• Standard ROBO - Includes VMware vSphere 7 Remote Office Branch Office Enterprise (25 VM pack) and VMware vSAN 7 for Remote Office Branch Office (25 VM pack)
• Advanced ROBO – Includes VMware vSphere 7 Remote Office Branch Office Enterprise (25 VM pack) and VMware vSAN 7 Advanced for Remote Office Branch Office (25 VM pack)
   

VMware Horizon is a family of desktop and application virtualization solutions designed to deliver Windows and online services on premises. With Horizon 8, VMware extends the power of virtualization—from data centers to devices—to deliver desktop and application virtualization with great user experience and closed-loop manageability.

VMware Horizon 8 is available in three editions:

• Horizon Standard - Includes vSphere Desktop, Horizon View Manager, View Composer, ThinApp (Packager, Client, Workstation), Dynamic Environment Manager Standard Edition and vCenter Desktop
• Horizon Advanced - Includes Horizon View Manager, Dynamic Environment Manager Standard Edition, Workspace ONE Access Standard Edition, Application Remoting, ThinApp, vSphere Desktop, and vCenter Server Desktop
• Horizon Enterprise - Includes Horizon View Manager, Workspace ONE Access Standard Edition, Application Remoting, Horizon for Linux, ThinApp, App Volumes, Dynamic Environment Manager Enterprise Edition, vSphere Desktop, and vCenter Server Desktop

All three editions include all components needed for an end-to end virtual desktop deployment. Compare VMware Horizon editions in the following document:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/horizon/vmware-horizon-perpetual-feature-comparison.pdf?src=WWW_HrzOld_Compare_FeatureComparison

VMware Horizon Standard Editions

Horizon Standard Edition offers simple, powerful VDI with great user experience. Horizon Standard Edition and its components are licensed per concurrent connection. Horizon Standard Edition includes desktop virtualization, application virtualization and virtual infrastructure. Concurrent user license is designed for virtual environments with a high number of shift workers where machines are shared between workers throughout the day (e.g. students, shift workers).

VMware Horizon Advanced Editions

Horizon Advanced Edition provides a cost-effective delivery of desktops and applications through a unified workspace. Horizon Advanced Edition includes published applications, unified workspace, virtual storage and central image management.

Horizon Advanced is available based on a per-named-user or a per-concurrent connection model:

• Per Named User: For virtual environments with staff that need dedicated access to a virtual machine throughout the day.
• Per Concurrent Connection: For virtual environments with a high number of shift workers where machines are shared between workers throughout the day (e.g. students, shift workers).

VMware Horizon Enterprise Editions

Horizon Enterprise Edition provides desktop and application delivery with closed-loop management and automation. Horizon Enterprise Edition includes virtual storage, monitoring and analytics, automated provisioning, just-in-time desktop and application delivery, user environment management and Linux desktops.

Horizon Enterprise is available based on a per-named-user or a per-concurrent connection model:

• Per Named User: For virtual environments with staff that need dedicated access to a virtual machine throughout the day.
• Per Concurrent Connection: For virtual environments with a high number of shift workers where machines are shared between workers throughout the day (e.g. students, shift workers).

VMware Horizon Apps

VMware Horizon Apps delivers virtualized Windows apps alongside SaaS apps and mobile apps, through a single consolidated workspace to end users. These RDS (Microsoft Remote Desktop Services)-published apps run securely in the data center and can all be accessed from one digital workspace from any device, anywhere.

Horizon Apps is offered in two editions—Standard and Advanced. Both provide reliable and secure published application delivery with tools and features that simplify management and provide a great user experience. Horizon Apps Advanced additionally streamlines app management with just-in time app delivery powered by VMware Instant Clone Technology.

• Standard - Includes Horizon Published Apps, ThinApp, Workspace ONE Access Standard Edition, Dynamic Environment Manager Enterprise Edition, vSphere Desktop and vCenter Server Desktop
• Advanced - Includes Horizon Published Apps with Instant Clones, App Volumes, ThinApp, Workspace ONE Access Standard Edition, Dynamic Environment Manager Enterprise Edition, vSphere Desktop and vCenter Server Desktop
   

Both editions of Horizon Apps are available based on a per-named-user or a per-concurrent connection model.

• Per Named User: For virtual environments with staff that need dedicated access to a virtual machine throughout the day.
• Per Concurrent Connection: For virtual environments with a high number of shift workers where machines are shared between workers throughout the day (e.g. students, shift workers).

Other Horizon offerings

VMware Horizon for Linux enables you to deliver, manage and access Linux virtual desktops without the need to license commercial operating systems. Horizon for Linux provides full support for Linux desktops and single sign on access to office, 3D graphics and developer applications. Horizon for Linux is ideal for software developers, CAD/CAM developers, government workers, cost sensitive deployments and organizations who want to take advantage of the cost savings, security and customizations available with Linux. You can get Horizon for Linux as part of Horizon Enterprise Edition.

VMware Horizon FLEX is a policy-based, containerized desktop solution that allows IT administrators to create, secure, and manage local desktops to meet the needs of workers with their own computers, road warriors, and Mac users in the enterprise

vRealize Suite is a hybrid cloud management platform that helps IT enable developers to quickly build applications in any cloud with secure and consistent operations. It provides developer-friendly infrastructure (supporting VMs and containers) and a common approach to hybrid and multi-cloud, supporting major public clouds such as Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

VMware vRealize Log lnsight

VMware vRealize Log lnsight delivers real-time log management, with machine learning-based Intelligent Grouping, high-performance search and better troubleshooting across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

VMware vRealize Network Insight helps you build an optimized, highly-available, and secure network infrastructure across your Virtual Cloud Network, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments including NSX, VMware SD-WAN by Velocloud, vSphere, VMware Cloud on AWS, and Kubernetes deployments.

Create network-wide modelling and planning with Network Assurance and Verification. Improve your application performance and minimize risk during application migration with network visibility and analytics so that you can securely and confidently manage your network scale.

VMware vRealize Network Insights is sold in 10 and 100 CU pack as well as 25 VM packs.  Additionally available in  per CPU.

VMware vRealize Operations

This product has features around increased intelligent operations, policy-based automation and unified management:

• Unified Management across vSphere and non-vSphere domains
• Smart alerts that correlate multiple symptoms and provide recommendations Automated remediation of problems
• Customizable content including dashboards, views and reports, Proactive management via policies
• Predictive Capacity project modeling across virtual and physical stack Scale-out, resilient operations platform
• User and access control management SDKs for partners
• Domain-specific management packs

VMware vRealize Operations Standard

VMware vRealize Operations Standard is sold in 25 Virtual Machines packs. This edition of the vRealize Operations provides operations management for vSphere environments. It performs capacity optimization, performance analytics and policy management and provides customizable UIs and operations dashboards.

VMware vRealize Operations Advanced

VMware vRealize Operations Advanced is sold in 25 Operating System Instances packs. This edition of the vRealize Operations provides operations management across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures, supported by 3rd party management packs. It performs capacity optimization, performance analytics, policy management, dependency mapping, storage visibility and OS monitoring. It also provides customizable UIs, operations dashboards and a resilient platform.

VMware vRealize Operations Enterprise

VMware vRealize Operations Enterprise is sold in 25 Operating System Instances packs. This edition of the vRealize Operations provides operations management across physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures and business-critical applications, supported by 3rd party management packs. It performs capacity optimization, performance analytics, policy management, dependency mapping, storage visibility, OS monitoring and application monitoring. It also provides customizable UIs, operations dashboards, a resilient platform and OS Regulatory compliance functionality.

VMware vRealize Operations Addons

VMware vRealize Operations Addons provide additional functionality for your environment.

VMware vRealize Suite

VMware vRealize Suite provides management stack for IT services on VMware vSphere, other hypervisors and external clouds such as VMware vCloud Air and Amazon Web Services, all with a unified management experience.

• Standard – Each vRealize Suite 2019 Standard contains vRealize Log Insight, vRealize Operations Advanced and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Each Portable License Unit (PLU) enables management of unlimited VMs on a vSphere CPU or 15 VMs on other physical hardware and supported public clouds.
• Advanced – Each vRealize Suite 2019 Standard contains vRealize Log Insight, vRealize Operations Advanced and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Each Portable License Unit (PLU) enables management of unlimited VMs on a vSphere CPU or 15 VMs on other physical hardware and supported public clouds.
• Enterprise - Each vRealize Suite 2019 Enterprise contains vRealize Log Insight, vRealize Business for Cloud Advanced, vRealize Automation Enterprise, vRealize Operations Enterprise and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. Each Portable License Unit (PLU) enables management of unlimited VMs on a vSphere CPU or 15 VMs on other physical hardware and supported public clouds.
   

VMware vCloud Suite

VMware vCloud Suite is an enterprise-ready private cloud software that brings together the industry-leading VMware vSphere hypervisor and VMware vRealize Suite cloud management platform. vRealize Suite provides developer-friendly infrastructure (supporting VMs and containers) and a common approach to hybrid and multicloud, supporting major public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.

• Standard - Each vCloud Suite 2019 Standard contains vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus for vCloud Suite and vRealize Suite 2019 Standard
• Advanced - Each vCloud Suite 2019 Advanced contains vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus for vCloud Suite and vRealize Suite 2019 Advanced
• Enterprise - Each vCloud Suite 2019 Enterprise contains vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus for vCloud Suite and vRealize Suite 2019 Enterprise
   

VMware User and Development Packs

These packs allow the administrator to personalize the experience of users across virtual, physical, and cloud-based Windows desktop environments.

Enable your virtual cloud network to connect and protect applications across your data center, multi-cloud, bare metal, and container infrastructure. VMware NSX Data Center delivers a complete L2-L7 networking and security virtualization platform — providing you with the agility, automation, and dramatic cost savings that come with a software-only solution.

VMware Cloud Foundation is an integrated software stack that bundles compute virtualization (VMware vSphere), storage virtualization (VMware vSAN), network virtualization (VMware NSX), and cloud management and monitoring (VMware vRealize Suite) into a single platform that can be deployed on premises as a private cloud or run as a service within a public cloud. Cloud Foundation helps to break down the traditional administrative silos in data centers, merging compute, storage, network provisioning, and cloud management to facilitate end-to-end support for application deployment.

• Starter – includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, vSAN Advanced, NSX Data Center Advanced, vRealize Suite Standard, vRealize Network Insight Advanced, and SDDC Manager for vSAN
• Standard – includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, vSAN Advanced, NSX Data Center Advanced, and SDDC Manager for vSAN
• Standard for Ext Storage - includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, NSX Data Center Advanced, and SDDC Manager
• Advanced – includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, vSAN Advanced, NSX Data Center Advanced, vRealize Suite Enterprise, vRealize Network Insight Advanced, and SDDC Manager for vSAN
• Advanced for Ext Storage – includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, NSX Data Center Advanced, vRealize Suite Enterprise, vRealize Network Insight Advanced, and SDDC Manager
• Enterprise – includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, vSAN Enterprise, NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus, vRealize Suite Enterprise, vRealize Network Insight Enterprise Add-On to NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus, and SDDC Manager for vSAN
• Enterprise for Ext Storage - includes vSphere Enterprise Plus, NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus, vRealize Suite Enterprise, vRealize Network Insight Enterprise Add-On to NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus, and SDDC Manager

Lenovo provides an array of services focused on fulfillment, hardware compatibility and support.

Fulfillment

License activation of the VMware products purchased from Lenovo is fulfilled using Lenovo Features on Demand (FoD) website. An authorization code with instructions for activating the feature or license will be mailed to the person provided as contact in the purchase order. The authorization code is a 22-character alphanumeric string that is the proof of purchase and entitles you to upgrade or activate the VMware product that you purchased.

At the FoD website, you can generate FoD activation keys from FoD authorization codes, retrieve authorization codes and activation keys that you received, reassign keys to new hardware (for example, in case of hardware replacement), and obtain 90-day trial keys to try out new capabilities.

For more information and to register for the FoD website, visit the FoD website, https://fod.lenovo.com

Server Compatibility

The Lenovo Server Operating System Interoperability Guide (OSIG) is a comprehensive source of information about operating system compatibility with Lenovo servers. It includes servers in the ThinkSystem, ThinkAgile, System x, ThinkServer, NeXtScale, Flex System and BladeCenter product families and covers servers that are currently supported by Lenovo under warranty.

To use the OSIG application, go to http://lenovopress.com/osig

Use the dropdown menus to filter and fine tune your search. In each of the search results, the support statement column contains clickable links that opens a popup window with details about the support.

Option Compatibility

The ServerProven program validates selected products for compatibility with ThinkSystem, System x, BladeCenter and Flex System servers. Through the ServerProven Program, Lenovo works with industry leaders to test their equipment with Lenovo products.

To search the ServerProven list, go to http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven

For more details, click on the Lenovo product. For compatibility with OS, click on the green + button to expand the section.

Lenovo L1-L2 Support

VMware software from Lenovo includes the option of 1, 3, or 5 years of 24x7 unlimited global support and subscription services. With this support, customers receive installation, configuration and troubleshooting assistance. The Lenovo support team provides L1 and L2 support for all VMware solutions purchased from Lenovo - there is no need to call a third party. This ensures a better level of service and faster resolution. Lenovo does extensive testing on the interoperability of the software and the compatibility with the rest of the system.

Lenovo Data Center support: https://datacentersupport.lenovo.com/

Lenovo XClarity Integrator offerings for VMware provides IT administrators with the ability to integrate the management features of Lenovo XClarity Administrator with VMware vCenter and VMware vRealize solutions. Lenovo XClarity Administrator is a centralized resource management solution that reduces complexity, speeds up response, and enhances the availability of Lenovo ThinkSystem infrastructure and ThinkAgile solutions. For more information on the XClarity family of software tools, visit https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/data-center/software/management/

Lenovo XClarity Integrator extends the virtualization management capabilities of VMware with Lenovo hardware management functionality, providing affordable foundational, basic management of physical and virtual environments to reduce the time and effort required for routine system administration.

Lenovo XClarity Integrator integrates XClarity Administrator into VMware software, providing the functionality you need to manage Lenovo infrastructure right in the console of VMware software. Lenovo offers XClarity Integrators for VMware vCenter, VMware vRealize Orchestrator and VMware vRealize Log Insight.

XClarity integrated with vRealize and VMware vCenter management provides the following benefits:

• A single pane of glass management for virtualization management, workflow provisioning, and Lenovo server infrastructure
• Automates deployment and streamlines management reducing deployment time by 48%
• Deep VMware integration enables more precise insight and control into all layers than with other systems

For more information, please refer to the Lenovo XClarity Administrator Product Guide:
https://lenovopress.com/tips1200-lenovo-xclarity-administrator

For more information about Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware and for links to online documentation, see the following web page:
https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/lnvo-vmware

Figure 1. Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vCenter

Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Orchestrator

The Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Orchestrator provides IT administrators with the ability to coordinate physical server provisioning features of Lenovo XClarity Pro with broader vRealize Orchestrator workflows. Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Orchestrator provides a library of simple yet robust and customizable workflow routines and actions designed to automate complex, repetitive IT infrastructure tasks such as system discovery and configuration, hypervisor installation, and addition of new hosts to vCenter.

Figure 2. Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Orchestrator

Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Log Insight

The Lenovo XClarity Administrator Content Pack for VMware vRealize Log Insight simplifies the collection and forwarding of Lenovo XClarity Administrator logs to VMware vRealize Log Insight for powerful processing and analytics, and displaying insightful information in an intuitive format.

Figure 3. Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Log Insight

The VMs for VMware vCenter, vRealize Orchestrator, Lenovo XClarity Administrator and Lenovo XClarity Administrator Integrator should have access to the management network used for managing servers, storage and networking.

Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Automation

Lenovo XClarity Integrator for vRealize Automation provides cloud administrators with pre-built, reusable vRealize service blueprints for end-to-end infrastructure provisioning and management. XClarity blueprints enable you to deliver hosts, clusters, and virtual resource pools on demand, as a service. Well-coordinated automation of complex, repetitive tasks help you put more focus on innovation, spend less time on infrastructure, and compress application development times.

Figure 4. Lenovo XClarity Integrator for VMware vRealize Automation

The Lenovo OS Support Center for VMware web page provides quick and easy access to supported firmware and drivers for VMware. Lenovo maintains this repository of all qualified drivers with links to firmware and utilities qualified in conjunction with these drivers.

Custom Image

The Lenovo VMware ESXi custom image is tested across Lenovo's server and adapter portfolio with the same ServerProven® support guarantee as VMware's base release. The image enables support of Lenovo's tools, including ToolCenter that give the customer the ability to flash server firmware such as: UEFI, XCC, and vendor firmware for supported IO adapters. The image includes the latest drivers that align with VMware's release schedule. These updated drivers support Lenovo's portfolio.

For additional information on VMware customized images and download links, visit:
https://download.lenovo.com/servers_pdf/customized_image_reference_guide.pdf

VUM Repository

Lenovo VMware Update Manager (VUM) Repository is a one-stop repository that provides access to Lenovo developed bundles along with device drivers that are part of the Lenovo Customized VMware images.

The Lenovo VUM Repository is at https://vmware.lenovo.com/content/

These bundles and associated VIBs (vSphere Installation Bundles) can be used with VMware applications and tools like VMware Update Manager (VUM), ESXCLI & PowerCLI. To learn more about these tools, refer to the VMware documentation.

Lenovo offers a broad range of VMware based solutions in varying levels of integration to meet different customer requirements and business needs. Solutions range from the turnkey factory-integrated, pre- configured ready-to-go Lenovo ThinkAgile VX series of appliances to build-your-own Engineered Solutions based on Lenovo’s proven reference architecture and everything in between.

ThinkAgile VX Appliance

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series appliances are designed to help you simplify IT infrastructure, reduce costs, and accelerate time to value. These offerings are factory-integrated, pre-configured ready-to-go appliances and are based on Lenovo ThinkSystem servers and VMware vSAN Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) software. VMware offers a unique, software-defined approach to hyper convergence, leveraging the hypervisor to deliver compute, storage and management in a tightly integrated software stack. If you have an existing VMware environment, VX Series can integrate into it easily.

Key attributes include:

• Only VMware certified components
• Firmware controlled
• Lifecycle managed
• Single Lenovo point of support

ThinkAgile VX Series comes in a wide range of platforms and provides the flexibiity to configure the system you need to meet any use-case. Both all-flash and hybrid platforms are supported.

• VX-1000 series – General-purpose 1U 1-node single-socket platform for small businesses or remote sites.
• VX 2000 Series—General-purpose 1U 1-node platform optimized small and medium businesses.
• VX 3000 Series—General-purpose 1U and 2U 1-node platform and 2U 4-node platform optimized for compute-heavy applications, such as VDI. The VX3520-G 2U 1-node platform is available with GPU hardware for accelerating graphics-intensive VDI deployments.
• VX 5000 Series—Storage-dense 2U 1-node platform optimized for long-term, high-capacity storage requirements
• VX 7000 Series—2U 1-node platform optimized for the highest-performance workloads, such as databases and collaboration.

For more information, refer to the ThinkAgile VX Series data sheet: https://lenovopress.com/datasheet/ds0023-lenovo-thinkagile-vx-series

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series appliances include Lenovo ThinkAgile Advantage, a unique Lenovo Service that helps to ensure your systems are up and running quickly and easily. Lenovo Services will set up and configure your new solution and provide any training needed to get the system operational. Lenovo ThinkAgile Advantage includes a direct phone line to a team of experts who support only ThinkAgile solutions. The experts will rapidly diagnose any hardware or software issues and remain as your single-

point-of contact throughout the entire support process.

ThinkAgile VX Certified Node

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Certified Nodes allow customers to purchase VMware-certified hardware from Lenovo that does not include the software licensing or deployment services bundled in. ThinkAgile VX Certified Nodes include VMware software preloaded at the factory. Hardware firmware, drivers, and software updates are tested for interoperability and release with the product. ThinkAgile Certified Nodes are assigned Lenovo part numbers for ease of ordering. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series Certified Nodes include Lenovo ThinkAgile Advantage but customers have the flexibility of calling VMware directly for software support in cases where the software licenses are purchased from VMware.

Key attributes include:

• Only VMware certified components
• Firmware controlled
• Lifecycle managed
• Requires specialized IT skills
• Single point of contact

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX with VCF

Lenovo VMware Cloud Foundation ReadyNodes bring together VMware’s vSphere, vSan and NSX virtualization into a natively integrated stack that can be deployed on premise or run as a service from the public cloud. Lenovo VMware Cloud Foundation ReadyNodes provide a simple path to hybrid cloud through an integrated software platform that is the foundation for both private and public cloud environments.

VMware Cloud Foundation Overview:
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/2.1.3/vcf-21-ovdeploy-guide.pdf

VMware Cloud Foundation FAQ:
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/datasheet/products/vmware-cloud-foundation-faq.pdf

Lenovo vSAN ReadyNodes

Lenovo vSAN ReadyNodes offer pre-tested configurations for faster implementation.

Key attributes include:

• Defined Configurations
• No firmware control
• Do your own lifecycle management
• Requires specialized IT skills
• Multiple support organizations for hardware and software

Lenovo vSAN ReadyNodes are Lenovo systems that have been pre-configured, tested and certified for VMware Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Software. Lenovo vSan ReadyNode is optimally configured for vSAN with the required amount of CPU, memory, network, I/O controllers and storage (SSDs, HDDs or flash devices). With Lenovo vSAN ReadyNodes you can rapidly deploy pre-engineered, tested and scalable storage to meet growing performance and capacity needs. Lenovo vSAN ReadyNodes are delivered in a range of all-flash and hybrid nodes to meet a broad array of workload, performance, and budget needs.

List of Lenovo vSan ReadyNodes:
https://datacentersupport.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht505293

vSan Hardware Quick Reference Guide from VMware:
https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/pdf/vi_vsan_profile.pdf

For customers that prefer to build their own, Lenovo provides Engineered Solutions to speed deployment, optimize performance and ensure scalability of industry-leading enterprise applications on Lenovo hardware infrastructure. Lenovo Engineered Solutions are a range of pre-configured, tested, and validated best practice configurations, system-level appliances, rack-based appliances, and professional services offerings designed to reduce TCO, risk, and complexity. Guidance is provided in reference architectures, configuration guides, and solution guides.

Lenovo Engineered Solutions for VMware offerings include:

• Lenovo Cloud Validated Design for VMware Software Defined Data Center:
  • Reference architecture: https://lenovopress.com/lp0661
• Lenovo Validated Design for VMware vCloud Suite with ThinkSystem Servers
  • Reference architecture: https://lenovopress.com/lp0660
• Lenovo Client Virtualization (LCV) with ThinkSystem Servers:
  • Reference architecture: https://lenovopress.com/lp0756
• Lenovo Solutions for VMware Horizon
  • Solution Brief: https://en.resources.lenovo.com/solution-brief-documents/lenovo-client-virtualization-solutions-for-vmware-horizon
• Lenovo Client Virtualization Validated Design for VMware Horizon with VMware vSAN
  • Reference architecture: https://lenovopress.com/lp0663
• Lenovo Client Virtualization Validated Design for VMware Horizon on ThinkAgile HX:
  • Reference architecture: https://lenovopress.com/lp0665
  • Design brief: https://en.resources.lenovo.com/solution-brief-documents/lenovo-validated-designs-for-thinkagile-hx-appliances

For more information, see these resources:

• VMware compatibility guide:
  https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

• VMware Cloud Foundation FAQ
  https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/datasheet/products/vmware-cloud-foundation-faq.pdf

• Firmware/Drivers for Lenovo ThinkSystem and System x:
  https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht506028
• Lenovo Repository for VMware Update Manager (VUM):
  https://vmware.lenovo.com/content/
• Lenovo OS Interoperability Guide
• Lenovo Server Proven Compatibility
• Lenovo vSAN Certified Devices