Free version 6.5 - is there a socket limit or not?

[alphadog00]

The Vsphere site says the following in regards to the free hypervisor, but every site online says 2 sockets only. If I buy a quad xeon box (R820) can I use all 4 CPU for a total of 32 cores? Or will i only have access to 2 CPU and 16 physical cores? This is for a home lab, but I need to run some heavy VMs and I want room to expand.

Specfications

• Number of cores per physical CPU: No limit
• Number of physical CPUs per host: No limit
• Number of logical CPUs per host: 480
• Maximum vCPUs per virtual machine: 8

[bluefirestorm]

Number of physical CPUs per host: No limit

Is that not as good as saying there is no limit in the number of CPU sockets?

[ThompsG]

Hi there and welcome to the community

The limitations which used to exist have been eroded until they are almost not limits any more. If you take a look at VMware Knowledge Base then you will see the only limitation that is mentioned is the 8 vCPU limit for the guests. Nothing else, though there is the standard limitations:

• No commercial support (But great community support)
• Free ESXi cannot be added to a vCenter Server
• Some API functionality is missing
• Number of logical CPUs per host: 480

Here is a look at the license installed on my ESXi server:

As you can see the only feature/limitation is the 8 vCPU. And here is the server running with this license:

Hope this helps

I did try to find some more official guidance from the VMware website but it is a little lacking (or my Google searching is getting worse). The only Terms and Conditions they have on the license is that it is restricted to 100 or less Physical servers.

Kind regards.

[alphadog00]

Re: Free version 6.5 - is there a socket limit or not?

bluefirestorm

Number of physical CPUs per host: No limit

Is that not as good as saying there is no limit in the number of CPU sockets?

@bluefirestorm

I wish what i pasted were enough, but if it were I would not have asked. A google search only yields results that claim a 2 socket limitation - some of these posts are not that old. There are no posts that say "go out buy a server with more then 2 sockets".

But vsphere offers an unlimited license to start with - so is the "free" terminology and features applying to the trial? Is all the same after the trial period expires?

If you have more references that would be helpful.

[alphadog00]

@ThompsG

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I had ordered an R820 and cancelled. I now feel confident I can do a 4 socket server and use it with 6.5 and have access to all cores.

Thanks again for the confirmation.

[alphadog00]

@ThompsG

How many cores do you have per CPU? 2? So you have 16 physical cores available?

[bluefirestorm]

From page 6 of an old pricing whitepaper (for version 6.0), I can't seem to find the one for 6.5, I am pretty sure I have come across that before.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-pr...

Emphasis added

VMware vSphere Hypervisor is a free product that provides a simple and easy way to get started with virtualization at no cost. vSphere Hypervisor provides only basic virtualization

capabilities, allowing customers to virtualize servers and run applications in virtual machines in a matter of minutes. vSphere Hypervisor cannot connect to vCenter Server and therefore cannot be centrally managed. Users can remotely manage individual vSphere Hypervisor hosts using the vSphere Client. There are no restrictions on the number of cores per physical CPU, on the number of physical CPUs per host and on the amount of RAM per server/ host. The maximum vCPUs per virtual machine is eight.

I guess it is a question whether what website / blog you choose to believe in. I suppose in a sense yours is an edge case; as in most cases a person or a company who has the budget to purchase a four-socket CPU server would also have the budget to purchase ESXi for vCenter features and added peace of mind with VMware support.

The irony is the paid version limit for 2-socket CPU come with the vSphere Essentials.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/vsphere/vmw-flyr-vspherecomparekit...

[ThompsG]

Excellent find on the official word and good enough for me

Yes, I'd be a little miffed that I'm paying extra for more with Essentials as well. I guess you get a management layer so that might be some comfort. Of course this is perfectly adequate for most as a 2-socket server can pack an awful lot of cores these days.

Have a great day and thanks for the link. Very handy.

[ThompsG]

I was actually cheating there in the screenshots. Most of our physical servers are 2 socket servers so I was running a virtualized ESXi server and increased the virtual socket count to get beyond the 2 physical sockets - only built it with 1 core per socket but could have been more

If it gives you a level of comfort I can reconfigure to a 4 socket (with 8 cores each) server and post a screenshot showing that this will work? Will not be straight away but can do it if that helps?

[alphadog00]

I am not sure if virtualizing ESXi under ESXi proves it or not. It might, but then again, VMware has some of its own stuff going on in the background that could be skewing the results.

I feel fairly confident now that I can use a 4 socket box, but if not I should have opted for more cores. So I guess it is not 100% conclusive in my mind.

If google's results didn't have a 100% of blogs/articles saying "2 socket limit on free vsphere" I would feel better. Seems odd that everyone is so misinformed, but certainly possible.

[Dave_the_Wave]

Are you asking this without actually first trying the free hypervisor, because the answer you expect will be a decision factor in purchasing new hardware for it?

[alphadog00]

Re: Free version 6.5 - is there a socket limit or not?

Dave_the_Wave

Are you asking this without actually first trying the free hypervisor, because the answer you expect will be a decision factor in purchasing new hardware for it?

Yes

I want a lot of vCPUs for some VMs that require it, and I want room to grow. If I buy an older 2 socket box, I can get 20 cores for my budget. A  4 socket box, I can get 32 cores. If i buy the 4 socket box and I am restricted to 2 sockets, I only get 16 cores available - so that would be a bad purchase. Unless I want to then purchase Vsphere.

But since i don't need any of the management stuff for my home lab, I would rather spend on hardware.

EDIT - I can find one blog post that says 6.7 removed socket limit, but posts relating to 6.5 always mention 2 socket limit. The Gen 1 and Gen 2 Xeon chips I am looking at are limited to vSphere 6.5.

[alphadog00]

someone on reddit said they are running quad proc ibm with 6.5 and get all the cores. So that confirms it for me.

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

Have full confidence there is no limit. There is no difference between physical and virtual when doing what I was doing - ESXi is unaware of that and simply looking at the hardware. Same as if you deployed any Windows OS - what the guest gets presented it uses based on the licensing limitations.

For example if you deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard and build a VM with 8 sockets - the resulting guest OS will only be able to use 4 of them.

No only do you have the official word from VMware (https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-pr...) but there is various blogs saying the same thing. For example: https://www.virten.net/2018/05/free-esxi-6-7-how-to-download-and-get-license-keys/

Yes I have seen blogs that say "limited to 2" but I don't think they have read the product brochures or even given it a try

As long as your hardware is on the HCL (https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php) then go for it!!