Rational Support Policy Addendum for VMware support

About VMware

VMware is a third-party software product that provides a hypervisor environment.

This environment enables multiple Intel operating systems (for example, Microsoft® Windows® and Linux®) to execute concurrently on the same physical (Intel®/x86 based) machine.

VMware itself is transparent to the "guest" operating systems and the applications or middleware which operate above those operating systems.

Is IBM Rational ClearCase, ClearQuest and RequisitePro supported on VMware?

Will IBM Rational provide defect support?

Are there any known issues to be made aware of?

Which version of VMware does Rational support for Enterprise environments?

• Question: Is IBM Rational ClearCase, ClearQuest and RequisitePro supported on VMware?

• Answer: Yes.

Note: So long as the version of the operating system installed on the VMware application is one to which ClearCase and ClearQuest is supported, VMware is supported.

• IBM Rational ClearCase provides support for the operating systems listed HERE.
• IBM Rational ClearQuest provides support for the operating systems listed HERE.
• IBM Rational RequisitePro provides support for the operating systems listed HERE.

Note: IBM Rational ClearCase, ClearQuest and RequisitePro do not specify support for specific VMware products in these matrices because VMware itself provides transparency to the operating systems, applications, and middleware that operate above it to which we do support.

Back to top

• Question: If I encounter a problem when running ClearCase, ClearQuest or RequisitePro in a VMware environment, will IBM Rational provide defect support?

• Answer: It depends.

For example, any problems related to the UI (user interface) or command functionality can be treated as if it were occurring on the native operating system.

Any problem related to communication or performance or network functionality, IBM support under certain circumstances may have to rule out VMware as a component of the problem since VMware uses a virtual network adapter. If the problem can not be reproduced on the native file system, then IBM Rational will not fix or support those problems as it is VMware specific.

Note: A case by case determination will be made in deciding which defect will be filed and fixed by IBM Rational support.

Back to top

• Question: What VMware products has IBM Rational evaluated and are there any known issues to be made aware of?

• Answer: VMware products are currently broken into three offerings:

VMware Workstation
IBM Rational has evaluated VMware Workstation and there are no known issues associated with virtualization of ClearCase and ClearQuest on VMware Workstation 5.

VMware GSX Server
IBM Rational has evaluated VMware GSX Server and there are no known issues associated with virtualization of ClearCase and ClearQuest on VMware GSX Server 3.1.

VMware ESX Server
IBM Rational has evaluated VMware ESX Server and there are no known issues associated with virtualization of ClearCase and ClearQuest on VMware ESX Server 2.5 or 3.x.

Back to top

• Question: Which version of VMware does Rational support for Enterprise environments and are there any considerations that need to be accounted for before deploying?

• Answer: Rational supports VMware ESX Server for enterprise environments. A GSX configuration is not suitable for large-scale server consolidations. Deployments other than ESX would not provide an enterprise operating environment for Rational applications.
  
  Note: VMware provides a stable virtual machine solution; however, for deployment of enterprise applications there is a cost associated with managing these configurations. Literature on VM deployments does discuss the lowering of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and there are benefits to the consolidation of multiple systems. For deployment of certain enterprise applications on virtual machines, there is some management overhead to consider for these environments.
  
  1. Administrators should closely manage these deployments by monitoring the utilization of resources within these shared subsystems.
  2. While there are benefits to consolidation of servers, running production databases like those used for ClearQuest and ClearCase on these shared configurations could lead to performance problems, application failures, or downtime as additional users or virtual machines are added over time.
  
  
  Important: While VMware is a supported platform, enterprise ClearCase customers that use time stamps to manage their configuration specifications (config specs) are advised to read and understand an important Vendor (VMware) limitation that affects running ClearCase VOB server(s) on VMware virtual machines. Refer to technote 1394436 Hosting VOB Servers on VMware for further details.
  
  
  There are a number whitepapers that should be consulted before considering virtual machine deployment for ClearCase and ClearQuest.
  
  IBM Redbooks®: Server Consolidation with VMware ESX Server.
  VMware Solutions White Papers

Back to top