VMware support clarification

We are currently testing UT, with fairly good results thus far. However, one of the primary reasons we took an interest in UT was the ability to virtualize it, if we so desire. Unfortunately, the wiki has a bit of conflicting info on this:

"The virtual appliance can also be used in for demonstrations in VMware player, workstation, fusion, or server, but it is not recommended run a production installation in these environments and no support can be given."

but then:

"We will certainly help you with your Untangle configuration, provided it's running on ESX."

If we were to buy the Premium edition, would there be official live support under ESX 4.1 with UT in routing mode?

I am posting this under feedback because it may be a good idea to clarify the issue in the wiki.

Untangle does not support Untangle in a virtual environment. They can assist you, They however, will not support your VM environment.

Sorry, that was confusing. Because you said "however", it seems like you meant to say that UT in a VM is supported, but they will not assist in the configuration of the ESX environment?

The way I've always taken it is that virtual Untangle is supported ONLY if it's running on VMWare ESX/ESXi. On any other virtual platform, VMWare or otherwise, Untangle is not supported at all. In any case, support is limited to Untangle itself, they won't help with your VMWare issues (just like I presume they're not going to provide hardware support for a physical UT box).

I agree with your assessment that support is limited directly to UT itself, and only under ESX environments, but there's still that first sentence:

"The virtual appliance can also be used in for demonstrations in VMware player, workstation, fusion, or server, but it is not recommended run a production installation in these environments and no support can be given."

why is that sentence confusing? they're telling you that UT basically works in those other VMWare environments, so you can use it for demos, but they won't provide any support so don't use it for production.

edit: I think they make that clarification because they are providing a pre-configured VMWare .ovf appliance file (courtesy of WebFool); providing that file could imply support for any VMWare environment that can load the .ovf, which is all of them. They're making clear that just because you *could* load that .ovf in other VM environments, that doesn't mean they'll support it.

I get what you're saying - for some reason I had to read it a few times. ESX/ESXi is not listed in that sentence.

SO - the answer is, yes, support is provided for ESX/ESXi *only*.

Thanks!

No, the answer is no.

Untangle does not support Untangle software in any VM Environment.

I support Untangle in vSphere environments. Webfool makes a virtual appliance for people to use. But, these configurations are NOT officially supported by the devs. Why? The same reasons you just learned the hard way.

It takes quite a bit of knowledge about the virtual environment, and Untangle to support the product appropriately.

That is correct. We do not support Untangle in VMs (of any flavor) and recommend against it. If you do really want to do it, we recommend VMware. The VMware images are provided by the community, not the Untangle developers. (And we thank webfool for them)

We will however assist you with Untangle issues (how does webfilter work, how can I better protect my users) but can't help you with VM related issues.

We have resellers that do successfully deploy Untangle in virtualized environments but this can only be accomplished with strict controls on the size of the deployment, the size and configuration of the VM, the other types of VMs on the hypervisor, and the size and configuration of the hypervisor.

Like PBXes, network devices do not make good candidates for virtualization. They require a lot of CPU and are almost always busy.. Network traffic tends to be pretty constant. Systems that are "bursty" make much better candidates for virtualization as they are mostly idle.

Virtualization is a fantastic tool. It is not magic. You must still have the appropriate resources available for the job at hand.

I'll take a look at the wiki to make it more clear.

Thank you for the clarification - it is a bit confusing to offer production tips and links to OVAs in the official documentation, but maybe I'm thinking about it the wrong way.