Understanding your responsibilities when you use VMware Solutions

Learn about the management responsibilities and terms and conditions that you have when you use IBM Cloud® for VMware Solutions. For a high-level view of the service types in IBM Cloud and the breakdown of responsibilities between the customer and IBM for each type, see Shared responsibilities for IBM Cloud offerings.

Review the following information for the specific responsibilities for you and for IBM when you use VMware Solutions. For the overall terms of use, see IBM Cloud terms and notices.

Incident and operations management

Incident and operations management includes tasks such as monitoring, event management, high availability, problem determination, recovery, and full state backup and recovery. The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to incident and operations management:

Responsibilities for incident and operations for VMware Solutions
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Availability	Offer VMware® infrastructure in multiple locations, including multizone regions (MZR)A region that is spread across physical locations in multiple zones to increase fault tolerance..	Plan and provision VMware infrastructure according to your availability requirements.
Infrastructure monitoring and notification	Forward to the client all network intrusion notifications detected. Maintain shared cloud infrastructure, including network and storage.	Implement monitoring system and integrate with virtualization management. Determine the impact of each notification reported. Engage IBM Support as required.
Workload monitoring		Monitor and respond to OS or software failures.
Infrastructure management		Implement monitoring and management system that is integrated with virtualization management.
Incident management	Unplanned incidents with customer impact are communicated through the CIE process.	Impacted customers can obtain a report about the incident upon request.

Change management

Change management includes tasks such as deployment, configuration, upgrades, patching, configuration changes, and deletion. The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to change management.

Responsibilities for change management for VMware Solutions
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Scaling	Scale your VMware infrastructure as requested.	Choose the capacity for your VMware Solutions instances.
Upgrading and patching	IBM does not have access to components to perform upgrades and patching.	It's your responsibility to apply updates to VMware components (VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi, vCenter Server, VMware NSX-T, VMware vSAN, Microsoft Active Directory™) and any additional add-on components (VMware Aria, Caveonix RiskForesight, Veeam Backup and Replication). You can use VMware Update Manager to assist with the updates. The Regulated Workloads section of this documentation also includes a version compatibility matrix.

Identity and access management

Identity and access management includes tasks such as authentication, authorization, access control policies, and approving, granting, and revoking access. The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to identity and access management:

Responsibilities for identity and access management for VMware Solutions
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Identity and access	Provide the function to restrict access to resources through the IBM Cloud console and REST APIs. Provide default access to the provisioned VMware environment.	Manage access to resources through IAM. Manage access to the VMware environment.

Security and regulation compliance

Security and regulation compliance includes tasks such as security controls implementation and compliance certification. The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to security and regulation compliance:

Responsibilities for security and regulation compliance for VMware Solutions
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Encryption	Provide integration with Key Protect and Hyper Protect Crypto Services through KMIP service as an option for implementing data at-rest encryption.	Configure and manage encryption for both data at rest and in transit, as needed.

Disaster recovery

Disaster recovery includes tasks such as:

Providing dependencies on disaster recovery sites
Provision disaster recovery environments
Data and configuration backup
Replicating data and configuration to the disaster recovery environment
Fail over on disaster events

The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to disaster recovery:

Responsibilities for disaster recovery for VMware Solutions
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Business continuity and Disaster Recovery (DR)	Provide automated provision and integration for third-party services, such as Veeam and Zerto.	Provision third-party solutions such as Veeam and Zerto, or other solutions of your choice, along with the VMware Solutions instance. Configure these solutions to meet your business continuity and DR requirements for your workload.

Preserving critical configuration

Configuration changes can impact the ability to use the VMware Solutions console to view and manage instances. Preserving certain configurations and settings is critical for the VMware Solutions automation to continue to function properly.

You must manage the VMware Solutions components that are created in your IBM Cloud account only in the VMware Solutions console. For more information, see:

If you change your credentials, for example passwords, IBM Support might no longer be able to help you recover lost or forgotten credentials, or to troubleshoot any problems in your environment. For more information, see Client responsibilities.

Changes to VMware ESXi server names or configurations might have a negative impact on managing your instance. For more information, see:

In IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions, every primary instance deploys an Active Directory domain controller. To understand the limitations on changes that you can make and recommendations on integration in your environment, see:

Understanding your responsibilities when you use VMware Shared

As of 28 March 2024, VMware Shared is not available for new deployments and support for existing instances ended on 28 February 2025. As of 4 March 2025, all VMs are powered off and on 6 April 2025, all customer and management data will be deleted. To avoid permanent deletion of your VMware Shared backups and to migrate your VMware Shared resources to IBM Cloud® for VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service, open an IBM Support ticket by 6 April 2025. For more information, see End of Support for VMware Shared deployments.

Incident and operations management for VMware Shared

The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to incident and operations management for VMware Shared:

Responsibilities for incident and operations for VMware Shared
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Availability	Offer high availability options through multizone region^[1] virtual data centers.	Provision virtual data centers in each multizone region^[2] and deploy workloads.
Infrastructure monitoring and notification	Remediate all environment issues. Notify customers of applicable impacts.	Ascertain the impact of each notification that is reported. Engage IBM Support as required.
Workload monitoring	Forward to customer any network intrusion notifications detected. Triage virtualization and backup-related errors to determine whether the customer issue needs assistance. Remediate all hardware failures, notification of potential workload impact.	Monitor and respond to OS or software failures, backup, and replication jobs. Engage IBM Support as required.
Infrastructure management	New features, updates, and bug fixes are continuously delivered as needed in a manner transparent to you. Maintenance activities that have customer impact are scheduled in advance, and notifications are posted to the IBM Cloud status page.	Set preferences to receive emails notifications. Monitor the IBM Cloud status page for general announcements.
Incident management	Unplanned incidents with customer impact are communicated through the CIE process.	Impacted customers can obtain a report about the incident upon request.

Change management for VMware Shared

The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to change management for VMware Shared:

Responsibilities for change management for VMware Shared
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Updates, fixes, and new features	Regular updates, bug fixes, and new features are provided, following a continuous delivery model in a way that is transparent to you. Notifications are posted for changes that impact you.	Set preferences to receive email notifications. Monitor the IBM Cloud status page for general announcements.
Scaling	Scale the customer VMware infrastructure as requested and to meet the capacity that you selected.	Choose the capacity for your VMware Solutions instances.

Security and regulation compliance for VMware Shared

The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to security and regulation compliance for VMware Shared:

Responsibilities for security and regulation compliance for VMware Shared
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Encryption	Secure connections are provided to administration portals and replication endpoints. Backups are encrypted uniquely per customer.	If required, secure with HTTPS.

Disaster recovery for VMware Shared

The following table describes the responsibilities that are related to disaster recovery for VMware Shared:

Responsibilities for disaster recovery for VMware Shared
The rows are read from left to right. The first column describes the task that a customer or IBM might be responsible for. The second column describes IBM responsibilities for that task. The third column describes your responsibilities as the customer for that task.
Task	IBM responsibilities	Your responsibilities
Backup of configuration data	Backups are conducted of the shared management components to include customer environment configurations. Offsite backup copies are enabled and they run daily.
Backup of workload	Backup services are enabled for customer workload.	Configure individual backup jobs to include critical systems. Offsite copies can be enabled per request.
Recovery of configuration	Recovery will be conducted in the original data center after the infrastructure is available. If long-term outage occurs, offsite recovery is conducted.
Recovery of workloads	Restore capabilities are available in normal operations. For configuration restores, customer restore services will be provided after the infrastructure is available. If an offsite recovery is required, IBM works with the customer to help recover.	Restore systems from the configured backup jobs.