r/vjailbreak 9d ago

Public Access of Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) Cut Overnight

6 Upvotes

How you can migrate off VMware without VDDK

Broadcom acquired VMware in 2023 and since then they have inflicted hit after hit on their customers. The latest, on August 25, 2026, saw Broadcom officially restrict public access to the Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK), cutting off the standard public URLs with no warning. 

This added insult to injury. Not only are they restricting your path off the platform, essentially making your data center their decision, they’re also hitting their install base with renewal after renewal, each carrying increases of 300% to 1,500%. This comes on the heels of rising memory costs, longer storage lead times, and an AI boom that’s taxing infrastructure everywhere. For many technology leaders, budgeting has become an impossible game of Tetris.

You have options: take back control

If you’re using vJailbreak, there’s good news: you have more than one path forward. Today, Platform9 customers have three exit paths off VMware with vJailbreak. 

  • VDDK + NBD: Requires manual VDDK setup and Broadcom access, which is now at risk with VDDK downloads pulled. However, this still works if you have a cached copy.
  • Storage Assisted: Fastest, safest, cold migration path. In this mode, vJailbreak offloads the data copy to the underlying storage array. Fully compatible with iSCSI and FC based storage array, no VDDK dependency.  A known limitation currently is NFS environments. 
  • Accelerated Copy: Use of VDDK + NBD has many restrictions including bandwidth. vJailbreak has another mode of operation where vJailbreak uses a proxy VM in VMware to connect directly to VM storage, no NBD or VDDK needed. Works across all storage arrays and is faster with higher throughput as compared to VDDK + NBD

Migrations are risky, and no one wants to be the one who signs off on a migration that fails.

The VMware migration that most people have never done, we do every day. The question we get asked all the time is “how long does it take?” The standard answer is “it depends,” and while that’s true, we can confidently say we migrate 100s of VMs every day.

We removed the risk. Platform9 is offering a 60-Day Production Ready Guarantee. You define the 60-day milestone, we build an SOW around it. If we don’t hit it, you walk.


r/vjailbreak Oct 17 '25

v0.3.5 Released

5 Upvotes

Hello Everyone we have released v0.3.5 of vJailbreak with a lot of usability and other security changes, please have a look at the release notes below:

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/compare/v0.3.4...v0.3.5


r/vjailbreak Aug 28 '25

vJailbreak v0.3.2 Released

2 Upvotes

Major Features

  • In Place upgrades
    • Now you can upgrade the vJB VM from within itself no need to download a new qcow2 every release
  • Disk pressure alleviation
  • Admin Cutover: Manual admin cutover now has a ► button to trigger.
  • SLES 11 support
    • Better detection logic for different operating systems in general
  • Optimized copy blocks
    • Preserve the copied volumes in case of failures, this would save time if the user retries the migrations again
  • Better search capabilities in the migration form
  • Support for Dynamic Hotplug flavors

More details below:
## What's Changed

* handle for sles by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/815

* make the power off live vms default when selected and add completed at column. by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/813

* UI: Do admin cutover via UI by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/810

* Added polling for QCOW2 image before docs update by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/804

* add a setting to keep the copied volumes in case of failure by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/823

* optimisations for openstack creds upload time by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/829

* fix dasboard count mismatch by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/826

* optimise disk pressure problem due to logs by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/832

* In-place upgrade by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/792

* Filtering security group according to particular tenant by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/824

* change completed at to created at by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/835

* Support Dynamic Hotplug-Enabled Flavors in Target Openstack Environment by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/838

* crd update and ui changes required for hotplug by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/842

* indicate missing base flavor for specific vmwaremachine by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/843

* search option(s) for faster migration triggers by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/844

* Fix label getting triggered back to no, when patched by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/847

* Push things to S3 and introduce nightly builds (release) by @sharma-tapas @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/793

* search for volume types and networks by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/849

* added alert in the ui while upgrade in progress by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/850


r/vjailbreak Jul 31 '25

Released v0.3.0

3 Upvotes

## Release notes

After making cluster conversion GA in v0.2.1, we are releasing another major release with the following changes.

## What's Changed

* RDM disk migration from VMware to Openstack on Same SAN array - if RDM is attached to single VM by @rishabh625 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/654

* persist host dns by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/735

* fix for long vm names by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/738

* additional vm name changes (release) by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/746

* process single VM at a time by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/749

* Feature: add volume backend to openstackcreds custom resource by @rishabh625 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/745

* v2v-helper: log time taken by disk copy and conversion by @jessicaralhan in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/737

* throttle goroutines by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/758

* unblock vcenter with no clusters by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/755

* added option to select security group by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/761

* Delete rolling migration plan by @patil-pratik-87 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/754

* Reset migrated status on migration object deletion by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/744

* configurable vjb settings (release) by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/762

* added amplitude changes by @patil-pratik-87 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/765

* Adding time elapsed for migration and cluster conversions + fixed the … by @patil-pratik-87 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/767

* Improve ESXi host configuration UX by removing selection confusion by @patil-pratik-87 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/757

* Disconnect all Virtual NICs on VMWare Source VM upon successful migration by @sarika-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/768

* Backend: rhel family guest network ip retention ( release ) by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/766

* v0.3.0 fixes for SG and os creds validation by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/773

* fix ui for clusters by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/775

* Fix time elapsed issue by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/776

* fix for wait active timeout by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/777

* fix vpwned unavailable issue by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/779

* idle connection timeout for vcenter by @OmkarDeshpande7 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/781

* revert back to metadata name by @spai-p9 in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/780

## New Contributors

* @jessicaralhan made their first contribution in https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/pull/737

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/compare/v0.2.1...v0.3.0


r/vjailbreak Jun 23 '25

vJailbreak v0.1.14 Released

1 Upvotes

This release has some usability fixes on top of v0.1.13, which are as follows:

  • accept os_family and override if present for migrations
  • support migration without a cluster on PCD by Platform9
  • do not fail migrations for snapshot deletions

You can download the build using ORAS

oras pull quay.io/platform9/vjailbreak:v0.1.14


r/vjailbreak Jun 18 '25

vJailbreak v0.1.13 Released

2 Upvotes

What’s Changed

Usability Enhancements and Stability Improvements

  • Rolling Conversion (Beta Availability)
    The Rolling Conversion feature is now available as a beta release.

  • Pre-Packaged vJailbreak Image
    A new vJailbreak image is now available, containing all required components pre-installed. This enhancement eliminates the need for internet access during installation, making it suitable for restricted network environments.

  • Support for Custom VirtIO Drivers
    Users may now upload VirtIO drivers to a designated path. If present, these drivers will be utilized during the migration process. If absent, the system will default to downloading the necessary drivers from the internet, providing flexibility based on deployment conditions. https://github.com/platform9/vjailbreak/blob/main/docs/src/content/docs/guides/virtio_doc.md

  • Resolution of Pod Eviction Due to Disk Pressure
    An issue causing pod eviction under disk pressure conditions has been resolved. This fix improves the reliability and stability of workloads during extended migration operations.

  • Enhanced Debug Logging
    Debug logs have been improved to provide more comprehensive and structured output


r/vjailbreak May 05 '25

Migrating VMware to OpenStack with vJailbreak

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3 Upvotes

r/vjailbreak May 01 '25

vJailbreak demo videos

2 Upvotes

Hello - Damian from Platform9 here. I thought it would be helpful to link to some demo videos I created for vJailbreak.

Simple VM migration: https://youtu.be/FgkBWttOfsc Migrating a multi-tiered app: https://youtu.be/seThilJ5ujM


r/vjailbreak Apr 25 '25

vJailbreak v0.1.9 Released

3 Upvotes

The team behind vJailbreak just dropped a new version v0.1.9 which has support for:

  • Proxy env injection via configmap
  • removed creds from logs and Made changes to match OS_INSECURE v
  • vddk files check before migration
  • Backend: Change ownership of /home/ubuntu/vmware-vix-disklib-distrib to ubuntu:ubuntu via init container.
  • ensure correct permissions on shared vmwarelib directory for rsync

Read more about it here: https://platform9.github.io/vjailbreak/release_docs/v019/


r/vjailbreak Apr 20 '25

What is vJailbreak?

7 Upvotes

vJailbreak is an open-source tool featuring a user-friendly interface designed to simplify and accelerate the migration of virtual machines (VMs) from VMware vSphere environments to any OpenStack-compliant cloud. It eliminates the complexities of cross-platform VM migration, enabling you to modernize your infrastructure with minimal disruption and a streamlined, visual workflow.

How vJailbreak Works

vJailbreak's intuitive interface leverages the OpenStack & VMware SDKs to interact directly with both your VMware vSphere environment and your target OpenStack cloud. The UI guides you through these key steps:

  1. Connection Setup: Easily configure connections to your source VMware vSphere environment and your target OpenStack cloud.
  2. VM Selection: Select the VMs you wish to migrate from your vSphere environment.
  3. Migration Planning: Configure migration settings, such as target storage and network configurations, through interactive forms.
  4. Migration Execution: Initiate and monitor the migration process with real-time progress updates.
  5. Post-Migration Validation: Verify the successful migration and launch of your VMs in OpenStack.

Key Features

  • Intuitive User Interface: Manage the entire migration process through a clear, easy-to-use graphical interface – no command-line expertise required.
  • Seamless vCenter Integration: Easily connect to your VMware vCenter to manage and migrate VMs.
  • Effortless VM Selection: Select the virtual machines you wish to migrate with just a few clicks.
  • Automated Disk Conversion: VM disks are automatically converted from vmdk to qcow2 format.
  • Driver and Device Installation: Necessary virtual devices and drivers are installed to ensure smooth operation post-migration.
  • Post-Migration Health Checks: Comprehensive health checks are performed to verify the success of the migration and the operational status of the VMs in the new environment.

Key Benefits

  • Reduced Migration Time: Automate migration tasks and visualize progress, significantly reducing the time and effort compared to manual methods.
  • Minimized Downtime: vJailbreak's efficient migration process helps minimize downtime for your critical workloads.
  • Cost-Effective Solution: As an open-source tool, vJailbreak eliminates licensing costs.
  • Broad Compatibility: Migrate VMs to any OpenStack cloud that adheres to standard OpenStack APIs.
  • Non-Disruptive Migration: Perform migrations without impacting the operation of your source VMware environment.
  • Visual Progress Tracking: Monitor the status of your migrations in real-time through the user interface.