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Question for all the guru’s.

I haven’t gone through this process yet but I figured I would educate myself (sales reps don’t always know what they talk about).

I know their licensing is based off processors (which is better than MS as you just license based on the numbers of CPU’s rather than their individual cores) but I see different versions of their licensing for their hypervisor and then there is also vsphere licensing.

So what does a company have to pay for at minimum in order to operate successfuly? I thought vsphere just comes with the hypervisor by default.

6 Spice ups
2

vSphere is the overarching umbrella term for VMware virtualisation products.

When you are buying licensing you are really paying for backup APIs, vCenter etc. So if you bought vSphere Essentials with 6 Sockets that would license you for three servers with 2 Sockets each and vCenter.

3 Spice ups
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The “at a minimum” parameter really depends on your infrastructure.

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4

You’ll need to define your needs a bit because that will affect the cost based on edition.

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vcentre is a paid product, part of essentials or greater licensing.

You don’t need anything if you are happy to use the free version, but you lose the API access so no backup apps work at the ESXi level.

How many hosts/guests are we talking, and remember guests need their own licenses.

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Running just ESXi hosts and managing them individually is free. It’s when you want vSphere/vCenter that starts costing money.

All hypervisors are free, and some offer more “features” for free than others. Search around and you’ll see.

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Honestly it was just a general inquiry but my current environemt is about 3 servers each capable of housing 2 CPU’s with x amount of cores. My servers are quite old (HP Proliant 380 G6 so the maximum they can support is 5.5 update 3 according to Vmware).

So when you license vshpere, by default this will come with vcenter and backup capabilities?

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Yes.

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Are there only essentials and essentials plus to worry about or does this licensing model get more complicated?

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For 3 servers, just those two.

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There are more licensing options like Standard, Enterprise, Plus, and ROBO licensing, but most of that doesn’t fit your environment. Look at a feature comparison. If you need Storage vMotion or VDS, for example, then Essentials won’t suit you.

If you buy an Essentials Kit (probably the right fit here), then the host licensing and vCenter Server license are bundled together. That’s why it’s a kit.
If you need Standard or higher, then vCenter Server will be one line item, and each vsphere host CPU license will be a line item.

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Keep in mind that Essentials licensing maxes out 3 hosts (6 sockets). If you decide to add a 4th host into your environment, Essentials won’t cover it. You also cannot combine an Essentials bundle with a different license type; the license limitations won’t let you add a 4th host to vCenter Server on an Essentials license, even if you pay for a vSphere license to cover that host - you’ll have to upgrade the whole environment.

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This just went from simple to a potential headache!

K so I know my environment doesn’t need more than essentials plus but should I add a 4th server, I am looking at the standard licensing which doesn’t cover Vcenter etc…?

I looked at the comparison based on the licensing models but I think i may have missed it. The blue bullets in the charts mean individual licensing?

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Also scenario:

Current environment is 3 servers which means essentials kit. Later on more servers are added, would it be unwise to have 2 essential kits if its the only package needed? Is it against their agreement to do that?

Thanks

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Can’t manage more than 3 hosts from the vCenter on essentials licensing. You could do it with 2 vCenters but that’s a bit of a nightmare. Use bigger hosts instead.

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Oh. I didn’t know that even Vcenter had that restriction as well.

I think all my questions are answered.