On 11 September 2026 Broadcom withdrew public access to the Virtual Disk Development Kit, the library known as VDDK. No notice, no announcement. The story was reported by Edge9, part of Hardware Upgrade. It concerns anyone with a VMware migration under way or on the plan for the coming months.
This is not a price list change and it does not touch machines in production. It touches the tools those machines travel with.
What the VDDK is and why a VMware migration relies on it
The Virtual Disk Development Kit is a collection of C libraries, code samples and documentation. It exists to create and read VMware virtual disk storage. The official description covers applications that access virtual disks and manipulate them, with interfaces for backup and restore, cloning and other operations.
Data protection has always been the declared use case. In practice, though, a library that reads virtual disks is exactly what is needed to copy them onto another platform. Over the years the VDDK became a common component inside migration tools. Red Hat recommends it for moves towards OpenShift, and tools from other vendors rely on it too, including those from Nutanix.
That explains the weight of the decision. In a VMware migration nobody reaches for the VDDK by preference: it gets used because it is the documented, stable way to read those disks.
Broadcom’s position and the two points still open
The company put its line to The Register in plain terms. Access to the VDDK remains available through selected Technology Alliance Partners, for what Broadcom calls its official use case: backup and restore. Customers who need data protection can choose among the approved solutions already available from those partners. The VDDK, the company adds, is not a customer entitlement: it is a development kit under its own licence, never included with a software purchase.
Contractually the position holds. Two facts remain on the table for anyone running a project.
The first is timing. Use of the VDDK in migrations has been public and documented for years, and nobody stepped in until now. The change lands at the moment of peak departure from the platform.
The second concerns projects already in flight. Other technical routes exist for moving a virtual machine, but the tools that rely on the VDDK today need time to adopt them. Inside that window, a planned VMware migration can slow down.
A VMware migration under way: questions to ask this week
- Which migration tool the project specifies, and whether the version in use relies on the VDDK.
- Whether the library is already installed on the working environment, because a local copy keeps working even when the portal no longer distributes it.
- Which waves of machines have already replicated and which have yet to start, with cutover dates fixed.
- What the tool vendor states in writing about timing and method for the alternative route.
- Whether the current backup supplier sits among the partners keeping access to the library for the official use case.
- Which part of the project does not depend on tools and can proceed regardless: data collection, sizing, inventory clean up, hardware selection.
What changes according to where the project stands
| Situation | Effect of the withdrawal | What to do now |
|---|---|---|
| Migration in flight, tool already installed | Configured replications continue; a fresh installation no longer finds the library | Freeze the versions in use and close the planned waves without rebuilding the working environment |
| Migration planned for the coming months | The technical route needs confirming with the tool vendor | Ask for the roadmap in writing and hold two cutover dates, a main one and a reserve |
| No migration on the plan | No immediate effect on operations | Bring forward data collection and sizing, which depend on no library at all |
| Backup and restore | The official use case stays covered through selected partners | Check that your supplier sits on that list and get it confirmed |
The cost of postponing a VMware migration, measured on a real project
An Italian service provider had started the VMware migration of its own data centre after licensing terms changed. Three heterogeneous physical nodes, external storage, around fifty virtual machines hosting business software for end customers. Sizing done, configuration chosen, quotation issued.
Then the project stopped, for internal corporate reasons.
When it resumed, more than a year later, the quoted machine had gone end of life. The configuration was rebuilt on the following generation, with a different choice on disks and a full requote. The time lost had not stood still waiting: it had changed the hardware market around the project.
A second episode works as a warning. At another company the IT contact had no idea the licensing regime had changed. The system integrator had never mentioned it, because no version upgrade was planned. The news arrived when the decision was already close to the contract deadline.
Insight. Withdrawing the library stops no VMware migration that has already been decided. It does make postponing one more expensive, because the variable moves from licence pricing to tool availability, and that variable cannot be negotiated.
The routes still open for a VMware migration
Technically, reading virtual disks does not run through the VDDK alone. Migration tools can work at guest operating system level, replicating the contents of the machine rather than the disk file. Alternatively they lean on the platform’s own management interfaces. Both routes are already used in other scenarios and vendors are pushing them forward.
On the project side, the part that carries most value stays available immediately, as we set out discussing business continuity management on Nutanix. Collect a week of real data on the environment, separate consumed from allocated, clear the inventory of machines that will not move, decide the headroom to keep for running with one node missing. None of that depends on a library. Arriving at cutover holding those numbers recovers the weeks that tool unavailability can cost.
One consideration on the operating model is worth adding. An estate under continuous management picks up a change like this within hours rather than at the next quarterly review. That is the difference we described when discussing protecting corporate documents, where the same principle governs who watches what and how often.
Questions that arrived in the past few hours
Does anyone who already installed the VDDK have to remove it?
No. The decision concerns distribution of the kit, not copies already held by those who downloaded them under the development licence applicable at the time. Anyone working on a configured environment can complete the planned waves. It is worth avoiding a rebuild of the machine hosting the migration tool while the project is open.
Are backups of VMware machines at risk?
Backup is the use case Broadcom explicitly declares as covered, through selected partners. The most widely used data protection products sit inside that perimeter and keep working. One check is enough: ask your supplier to confirm in writing that it retains access.
Should a VMware migration be accelerated to stay ahead of further restrictions?
Accelerating execution before sizing is settled is the quickest way to buy the wrong infrastructure. What should be brought forward is everything that precedes the move: data collection, configuration choice, hardware order. Delivery times today are counted in months. Cutover happens when the tools are ready, and by then it will be the only task left.
Is a single node or two node cluster a viable shortcut?
It is a choice to make with open eyes. Below three nodes a cluster cannot expand while running: it is born at the size it has, and growing means emptying and rebuilding it. For a remote site or a contained workload it remains a sensible configuration. For the main data centre of a company that expects to grow, rarely so.
What should be asked of a supplier at offer stage after this news?
Three written commitments: which tool will move the machines, which technical route it adopts if the library is unavailable, and what downtime window each wave carries. An offer describing only hardware and licences leaves uncovered exactly the part that has become uncertain.
Let’s talk
Withdrawing the VDDK says something beyond the single library. When a vendor’s strategy turns, the tools everyone treated as given turn with it, and notice is not guaranteed. The defence is method rather than technology. Know what runs on your own infrastructure, keep consumption data current, and hold decisions ahead of contract deadlines instead of behind them. Aesir Srl is a Nutanix Professional Partner and operates its own Tier IV data centres in the European Union with replication. It runs migration projects throughout Italy as an MSP and MSSP under the same contractual perimeter. If you would like to explore the subject or assess the situation in your own company, you can fill in the form at the bottom of this page or write to support@aesir-tech.it: we will arrange a free consultation and start from your numbers.