ESXi installations with one key

[Dave_Delta_Mike]

Hello.

I've been using ESXi 6.5.0 for about a year and a half and recently I've installed the same license on a new server, but running ESXi 6.7.0, which is working perfectly.

When I check the licensing information in any of these servers I get:

"Expiration date: never

Features: Up to 8-way virtual SMP"

2 Questions:

Can I still use the same license if I get a new server? We are a very small university department on a /dev/null budget - buying a license is out of the question.

Those 8-way virtual SMP mean that each ESXi installation can virtualize 8 CPUs, or let's say, if I have 2 installations, some data is sent vmware and it only allows 4 virtual CPS on each server?

Thanks and regards.

Dave

[IRIX201110141 · Accepted solution]

1. Yes you can re-use the free Hypervisor key up to 100 times

2. The key havent change between 6.0,6.5 and 6.7 versions

3. 8way SMP means that you can setup a VM with up to 8 vCPU. There is no limit in pSocket count or amount of VMs on the Host. If you have resources to run 20 8vCPU VMs you can do it with the free license

Regards,

Joerg

[Dave_Delta_Mike]

Thank you so much for the reply.

That's really good news for our almost non existing budget

Thanks!

[IRIX201110141]

About the non existing budget.  The Academic vSphere Essentials is around 250,- bucks and ~60,- for one year subscription. I also have seen ppl sign up to VMUG Advantage to get some cheap vsphere licenses.

Regards,

Joerg

[Dave_Delta_Mike]

Yes, I've tried that , but no luck.

Thanks

[fars]

I'd been confused about why when I was selecting 8vCPUs on the awesome free hypervisor licence, but was only getting 2 threads in the VM.

Not the same as this thread but this is what many searches took me to so tacking it on the end in case it helps anyone else.

What solved my vaguely related issue was expanding the CPU icon in VMs settings to get to the detailed settings, and changing the sockets to one.  I don't know why the CPU had options covering multisocket as the mobo only has one CPU, but changing that setting allowed the full 8 vCPU's to be recognised.

Also a thanks - the free hypervisor licence to have 8 vCPUs is appreciated as I can fiddle around learning stuff, and leave a VM running BOINC (maths for the power of good) in the background to chew up CPU cycles 🙂

[IRIX201110141]

fars​

a windows desktop OS is limited of supporting up to 2 Sockes. Thats the reason why you only get 2 Threads within inside the GuestOS when assigning multiple vSockets based vCPUs instead of one and 8 vCores for example.

vSphere supports the vSocket configuration since version 4.1 but only by editing manualy the *.vmx. Support within the GUI comes later.

Regards,
Joerg