VMware Cloud on AWS

Announcement of the end of sale, end of support and end of life timeline of the i3.metal instance type of VMware Cloud on AWS

With the General Availability of the latest instance type- i4i.metal of VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware will be ending the sale of 1-year and 3-year subscriptions of i3.metal instance type of VMware Cloud on AWS on February 1st, 2023. The i4i.metal instance of VMware Cloud on AWS is an Amazon EC2 instance powered by 3rd generation Intel® Xeon® Ice Lake processors and offers high I/O performance and better security with always-on encryption. With more compute, memory, local storage, and networking speed compared to its previous generation, i4i.metal instance type delivers superior value in migrating and operating both memory-bound and general-purpose workloads. It delivers 125% higher performance as compared to i3.metal instance. Also, the i4i.metal instance has the ability to provide 2.8 times more raw storage capacity, 1.8 times more compute and double the RAM for only a 58% increase in cost over the i3.metal instance. You can learn more about i4i.metal instance type in the announcement blog. For more technical information about the new i4i.metal instance, check out this overview.

What’s changing:

  • End of Sale and End of Redemption:
    • VMware will be ending the sale of 1-year and 3-year subscriptions to i3.metal instance type on February 1st, 2023 across all routes to market, including VMware Direct, AWS Resell, Managed Service Provider and channel partners and across all regions** (including GovCloud(US-East) and GovCloud(US-West) regions).
    • You can still purchase the on-demand i3.metal instance type (on hourly basis) of VMware Cloud on AWS, which VMware currently expects to be kept available for purchase until December 31, 2026*.
    • If you have already purchased credits (including i3.metal promotional credits) towards net new deployments of 1-Year and 3-Year subscriptions of i3.metal instance type, those credits must be redeemed by December 31, 2023. After December 31, 2023, new redemption towards 1-Year and 3-Year subscriptions of i3.metal instance type will not be supported, and we strongly encourage you to upgrade to the i4i.metal instance type.
  • End of Support:
    • End of life and end of support for VMware Cloud on AWS i3.metal instance type (including on-demand, and 1-Year and 3-Year subscription terms) is currently planned for December 31, 2026*.
    • Customers with ongoing subscriptions will continue to get support for i3.metal instance type until their terms expire.

What are my next steps?

  • For new deployments or scaling up your environment with new SDDCs, please choose i4i.metal instance type. Use VMware Cloud Sizer to estimate the resources required to run your workload using the new i4i.metal host type. 
  • For existing deployments, you will need to take into account the subscription type and conversion options. We will start by outlining different subscription scenarios
    • If you have purchased a flexible subscription for i3.metal and have your existing workloads running on i3.metal, you can terminate your existing i3.metal subscription and redeem your remaining credits to purchase a new i4i.metal subscription.
    • If you have purchased a standard subscription for i3.metal and have your existing workloads running on i3.metal, then please contact your VMware/AWS representative to discuss further options.
  • Once you have i4i subscription in place you need to start the process of replacing your current i3 instances with i4i hosts. To achieve this, you can choose between cluster conversion or migration:
    • VMware will provide in-cluster workload migration service at no extra cost to migrate workloads from i3.metal to i4i.metal for eligible customers on request. You can find more technical  details about this process in documentation and on the TechZone 
    • You can opt to migrate from i3-based SDDC to i4i-based SDDC. It will be up to you to choose a way to migrate the workload and run the migration. VMware HCX is our primary tool to help facilitate a migration on scale.

And as always, we are here to help you with this transition. So, if you have any further questions, please get in touch with your VMware/AWS representative for more information.

* These timelines are subject to change and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.

** Subject to change

If you would like to learn more about VMware Cloud on AWS, here are some learning resources for you:

Sonali Desai

Sonali Desai is a Product Marketing Engineer for VMware Cloud Foundation at VMware by Broadcom, Inc. Sonali has been working in IT industry for more than 15 years with experience…

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