How does vsphere 5 licensing work

Processor manufacturers have announced plans to introduce CPUs that will exceed 12 cores. CPU manufacturers have introduced or plan to introduce technologiessuch as hyperthreadingthat work at the subcore level and increase processing power by improving parallelization of computations. This innovation trend in server hardware technologies is rapidly making the hardware restrictions of vSphere 4.

Moreover, vSphere 4. The hardware-based licensing model of vSphere 4. VMware vSphere 5. Each vSphere 5. The vRAM entitlement can be pooled across a vSphere environment to enable a true cloud or utility based IT consumption model. Just like VMware technology offers customers an evolutionary path from the traditional datacenter to cloud infrastructure, the vSphere 5. Why a Change was Necessary With the modification to vSphere licensing, we accomplish two objectives: Free customers from restrictive hardware-based entitlements Align the vSphere licensing model with IT as a service.

No Limits on Physical Resources vSphere 5. This change eliminates barriers to deploying vSphere on new multicore server configurations, improving customers ability to choose server hardware that best meets their requirements. When a virtual machine is created, it is configured with a certain amount of virtual memory vRAM available to the virtual machine.

Depending on the edition, each vSphere 5. When the virtual machine is powered on, the vRAM configured for that virtual machine counts against the total vRAM entitled to the user. There are no restrictions on how vRAM capacity can be distributed among virtual machines: a customer can configure many small virtual machines or one large virtual machine. The entitled vRAM is a fungible resource configured to meet customer workload requirements.

If workloads on one server are not using their full vRAM entitlement, the excess capacity can be used by other virtual machines within the VMware vCenter instance. At any given point in time, the vRAM capacity consumed by all powered-on virtual machines within a pool must be equal or lower than the pooled vRAM capacity.

The pooling of vRAM makes vSphere 5. At any given point in time, the amount of vRAM consumed by active virtual machines on a CPU could exceed the base entitlement of the vSphere 5. Customers can create reports and set up alerts to obtain automated notification of when the level of vRAM consumption surpasses a specified level of the available pooled capacity.

Benefits of vSphere 5. Flexibility Extends the concept of resource pooling from technology to the business of IT by allowing aggregation and sharing of vRAM entitlement across a large pool of severs. Fairness Better aligns cost with actual use and value derived rather than hardware configurations and capacity. Figure 2 shows a comparison between the vSphere 4. When a license key is assigned by vCenter Server, it is copied to the host and saved in a persistent format.

If the host becomes disconnected from vCenter Server, the license key remains active on the host indefinitely, even after a host reboot. Only a deliberate licensing operation by the user can remove or replace a host license key. Decentralized Licensing Option Although VMware recommends that customers assign all vSphere licenses centrally through vCenter Server, customers also have the option to assign their license keys directly to individual hosts.

There is no difference between directly and centrally assigned license keys. When a vSphere host is added to the vCenter Server inventory, any license key already on the host will become available for management, reporting and assignment in vCenter Server, just like any license key added directly via vCenter Server. Licensing Example In this section we will go over the key elements of vSphere 5. Hosts 2.

License Management vSphere 5. These license keys do not contain any server-specific information and are not tied to a specific piece of hardware.

This means that the same license key can be assigned to multiple vSphere hosts, as long as the sum of physical processors on those hosts does not exceed the encoded processor quantity in the license key. Both hosts are in the same vRAM pool as they are connected to the same vCenter Server and are running the same vSphere edition.

The user has two options to increase the vRAM capacity: Buy one additional vSphere license of the same edition, Enterprise. Upgrade all five vSphere licenses to an edition with a higher vRAM entitlement. Users can increase vRAM Capacity in two ways: 1. Adding new vSphere licenses of the same edition 2. Upgrading licenses to an edition with a higher vRAM entitlement In the example, the user then adds an additional host with a single CPU.

This requires the user to purchase an additional license of vSphere Enterprise. The user opts for the first option and purchases one additional license of vSphere Enterprise. The user does not need to purchase an additional vSphere license for this host, because it has one license that is not deployed to a CPU. The user deploys that license to the new host. VMware vSphere and vCenter Server Packaging VMware offers several packaging options designed for a wide variety of deployment scenarios and customer types see Figure 3.

For information on local currency prices for vSphere Editions and Kits visit: www. It is possible to manage mixed environments of hosts licensed with different vSphere Editions from the same vCenter, however this will create multiple vRAM pools. Single Reboot Upgrade and vSphere Quick Boot ensure that the time spent on patching and upgrading the system is significantly reduced as the host reset is discarded. Per-VM Enhanced vMotion Compatibility and Cross-vCenter Mixed Version Provisioning enable the smooth transition of workloads across a hybrid cloud environment, even if they have different vCenter versions.

Instant Clone allows you to instantly copy clone a source parent VM by using a copy-on-write technique. Created clones share the disk and memory of the parent VM, but any changes made in the child VM are reflected and stored in it alone.

This feature ensures maximum efficiency and high performance when working in large environments that operate on multiple virtual desktops. VMware constantly works to improve its functionality by adding more new features and improving the existing ones. With the help of vSphere 6. The Director is the central component of the product, and is responsible for the management of various operations, including licensing.

Only one license can be installed at a time. If needed, the license can be changed in the Configuration section. Target hosts for your replicas, or hosts that are used for the recovery of VMs, do not require licensing. This licensing type is available on either a perpetual or subscription basis. VM licensing is only provided for VMs that you back up or replicate. You do not need any additional licensing for replica VMs or recovered VMs.

Moreover, Cloud Providers can increase or decrease the number of licensed VMs once a month. There are three types of licenses: trial license, perpetual license, and subscription license. Perpetual licenses do not have an expiration date, while trial licenses and subscription licenses do have an expiration date. To restore the functionality, simply install a new license. Thus, when a VM backup or replication job is created, the product automatically assigns socket licenses to hosts that contain your source VMs.

If you have run out of socket licenses, you should choose one of the following options:. The product is currently compatible with vSphere 6. Most modern organizations are interested in building and deploying virtual environments, as it is a more flexible and cost-effective solution for data protection. VMware vSphere is considered to be one of the most efficient and reliable virtualization platforms.

To determine how to improve your virtual environment with VMware vSphere, you need to have a close look at the available VMware vSphere editions and licensing. Your choice should be primarily based on the size of the environment in which you operate, the required features and components, and the desired support.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure that you have a data-protection solution in place that is compatible with the virtualization platform and that meets all the system requirements.

In the navigation pane, click Manage and go to the Licensing tab. Information about the current license is displayed on this page. On the following screenshot, see information about the day Evaluation license used after installing ESXi. The key for the Evaluation license is The expiration date and the set of available features for the current license are displayed.

The Assign license window opens in the web interface. Enter your license key and click Check license to check whether the license key is valid. If the license key is valid, the green icon is displayed, and the Check license button transforms into the Assign license button. Click Assign license to apply this license for this ESXi host. Now you can see updated information about your new license for the ESXi host in the Licensing tab. On the following screenshot, you can see that the VMware vSphere 7 Standard license is assigned on this ESXi 7 host, and the appropriate list of supported features is listed for this license.

Now the ESXi host is licensed for an unlimited time. Click the Configuration tab to check information about the current license for the selected ESXi host, including supported features, license name, license key, expiration date, and the number of used CPUs. The Assign License window opens in the web interface. If you added multiple license keys to vCenter, click Existing licenses and select a license that has unused CPUs. Enter your license key and a license name that is convenient for you, for example, License 6.

If the license key is valid, the appropriate notification is displayed in the Assignment Validation section. Click the i icon to see the list of features that are supported by the current license. The license you have added is now displayed in the list of existing licenses in VMware vSphere Client. Make sure that the needed license is selected, hit OK to assign this license to the needed ESXi host, save settings, and close this window. The ESXi license is now assigned.

You should buy a license for the needed vSphere edition to license ESXi hosts. You can re-assign licenses that have been already assigned.