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What vmware license do i need?
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What vmware license do i need?

Looking to activate a esxi host to get all features and unblock the core limit in the free edition, and connect it to vcenter ? The license thing is hard to understand. Do i need Only a vcenter license or do i also need something more ?

Comments

  • https://www.vmware.com/uk/support/support-resources/licensing/product-licenses.html

    According to that, you need a vcenter server license per app

  • Generally saying the more expensive the more fitting should be your licenses when we're talking about VMware.

  • Looks like i need a vcenter for the vcenter and a vsphere for every host. Or am i stupid ?
    eBay gets you cheap licenses, so pricing is not really an issue, but dont wanna buy if i really dont need it

  • Couldn't you deploy with the free tools and find out if you need to buy licences as you go?

  • @NewToTheGame said:
    Couldn't you deploy with the free tools and find out if you need to buy licences as you go?

    I could. I just got the vsphere license for the host (was going to need that anyway), and going to fire up trial of vcenter and try out. Vmware is fairly new to manage for me.

  • emilvemilv Member
    edited October 2020

    vCenter Server for Essentials license (up to 3 physical servers).

    https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/VMware_vSphere_6_Editions_Overview

    Thanked by 1NewToTheGame
  • Basically you will need vsphere license(per CPU license) and vcenter server (1 license for 1 vcenter).

    Vsphere have several editions,

    Standard edition, this is per CPU license and include several basic feature.

    Enterprise plus edition, this is per CPU license and will enable all vsphere feature

    Check https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-feature-comparison-datasheet.pdf for comparison.

    Vcenter also have several edition

    Standard edition, 1 license per 1 vcenter and will enable feature depend on your vsphere license

    Foundation edition, can manage up to 4 servers, usually available on vsphere acceleration kits

    Essential edition, only available from vsphere essential kits and only can manage 3 server with vsphere essential license.

    Depend on your number of host and your future planning, you got several options :

    Vsphere essential kits, you will get 1 vcenter essential license and 6 CPU vsphere essential for 3 server. Vsphere essential have 2 edition, essential and essential plus and both have limited feature ( https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/vsphere/vmw-flyr-vspherecomparekits-uslet.pdf ). You cannot use this for more than 3 servers and also you can't manage more than 3 servers with vcenter essential. Use this options if you only got 3 server or less,doesn't need any advanced feature, no plan to add more than 3 servers and no plan to use other vmware products.

    Vsphere acceleration kits, this is a package version that will contains 1 vcenter license (foundation or standard) and 6-8 vsphere license (standard or enterprise plus) for 6-8 CPU. If you plan to use more than 4 server in the future then choose vcenter standard.

    Buy 1 vcenter standard and several number of vsphere license (standard or enterprise plus) depend on the number of your server and cpu on each server. 1 vsphere license is for 1 CPU socket with maximum 32core per CPU.

    You can read more at https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-pricing-whitepaper.pdf

    Note :
    VMware also have several bundle/suites that include vsphere license and other vmware products such as vCloud suite, vCloud foundation. Those suites doesn't include vCenter license so you will need to buy vCenter license.

    If you want to use VMware in public service provider then you cannot use all the license that I wrote above. The only legal way to use Vmware products as service provider is join as VMware cloud provider partner program.

    Thanked by 1webcraft
  • I've had very good experiences with eBay 2nd hand licenses for VMWare. For ESXi and vCenter, I recommend getting cheap 20$ eBay licenses, and only paying for VMWare licenses that they require you to purchase directly.

  • So proxmox it is? :D

    I just got a $4 standard vsphere 7 license and put it on the host, works like a charm with 2 cpus. Currently testing out vcenter with a trial license.

    I am going to add more hosts over time. How many is very hard to say. We are not planning to sell virtual servers on this, but rather services that we run in vms ourself.

    I can not do it as easily as this ?

    -1 vcenter license running in a vm to manage x hosts
    -1 vsphere license per host

    When and where will i hit the wall with this? The whole vcenter thing is not really something we REALLY need. It just makes it so much more easy to manage with all info about all hosts and vms in one place. Again, i am fairly new to vmware, other than using their free license to run a few personal vms at home.

    Thank you so much for your time @hardgamers

  • Just noticed that i cannot connect through the hosts local ip anymore. Starting to realize that this vcenter thing is a little to complicated for me, lols

  • hardgamershardgamers Member
    edited October 2020

    1 vcenter license for 1 vcenter can manage all your host

    For vsphere license it's depend on the number of cpu you have and how many cpu your license cover. For example, if you got 4 server with 2 cpu each then you will need 8 cpu license vsphere. 1 license key can cover 1 or more cpu.. so for this case you can buy 1 license vsphere key that cover 8 cpu or more or you can buy 4 license key that cover 2 cpu each etc...

    For your problems where you cannot access host directly after join vcenter that means you set Lockdown Mode to enable or strict when you add host to vcenter. Disabled lockdown mode from you vcenter and you can access host directly again, just follow this guide :
    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1008077

  • @Barnesanger said:
    Looks like i need a vcenter for the vcenter and a vsphere for every host. Or am i stupid ?
    eBay gets you cheap licenses, so pricing is not really an issue, but dont wanna buy if i really dont need it

    Are they real? Are they legit?

    Thanks

  • @Yakooza said:

    @Barnesanger said:
    Looks like i need a vcenter for the vcenter and a vsphere for every host. Or am i stupid ?
    eBay gets you cheap licenses, so pricing is not really an issue, but dont wanna buy if i really dont need it

    Are they real? Are they legit?

    Thanks

    So far no issues. I have a friend running a pretty large cluster on licenses like this, been working fine for 3 years now.

    Thanked by 1Yakooza
  • @hardgamers said:

    For your problems where you cannot access host directly after join vcenter that means you set Lockdown Mode to enable or strict when you add host to vcenter. Disabled lockdown mode from you vcenter and you can access host directly again, just follow this guide :
    https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1008077

    Got it working again, pretty sure i disabled lockdown mode when i installed the vcenter vm, but guess not. Works like a sharm now.

  • @Barnesanger said:

    @Yakooza said:

    @Barnesanger said:
    Looks like i need a vcenter for the vcenter and a vsphere for every host. Or am i stupid ?
    eBay gets you cheap licenses, so pricing is not really an issue, but dont wanna buy if i really dont need it

    Are they real? Are they legit?

    Thanks

    So far no issues. I have a friend running a pretty large cluster on licenses like this, been working fine for 3 years now.

    So can be used for hosting cloud VPS?

  • @Yakooza said:

    @Barnesanger said:

    @Yakooza said:

    @Barnesanger said:
    Looks like i need a vcenter for the vcenter and a vsphere for every host. Or am i stupid ?
    eBay gets you cheap licenses, so pricing is not really an issue, but dont wanna buy if i really dont need it

    Are they real? Are they legit?

    Thanks

    So far no issues. I have a friend running a pretty large cluster on licenses like this, been working fine for 3 years now.

    So can be used for hosting cloud VPS?

    I guess it can, but if vmwares terms allow that, i dont know.

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