Will I be needing a paid ESXi license for my HP ProLiant / ESXi 6.7 server?

[Quadrimium]

This will be my server: A HP ProLiant DL380 Gen10 with two Intel Xeon-Silver 4114. (i.e., it has 2 physical CPUs with 10 cores each).

I want to install ESXi hypervisor 6.7. I will not be using vCenter server.

The server will be used to host about 40 Windows guest machines. I've got the Windows licenses covered.

So will I be needing a paid license for ESXi?

[SupreetK · Accepted solution]

For the 60 day evaluation period, the ESXi will be available with full blown feature set. Post the evaluation period, certain features will be locked until a valid license is applied. However, the basic functionality will still be available post the evaluation period. Please take a look at the below links -

https://www.altaro.com/vmware/esxi-free/​

A quick look at VMware vSphere Editions and Licensing​

Please consider marking this answer as "correct" or "helpful" if you think your questions have been answered.

Cheers,

Supreet

[a_p_]

Whether you are going to use the free Hypervisor license, or a paid license is up to you, and basically depends on your needs.

The free Hypervisor is limited to 8 vCPUs per VM, and has restricted API access, which prevents from using most commercial VM based backup applications.

Please remember that you'll need to use the HPE customized ESXi installation image for that host (includes additional HPE drivers, and tools).

André

[FAUCONH]

Hi,

@Leadership 

If I buy a standard licence (cheaper for me, I'm a teacher) from Vmware will it be accepted inside HPE customized ESXi installation ? or Have I to buy a specific HPE licence ?

Cheers !

[e_espinel]

Hello.
The license can be entered online, VMware licenses apply to both its standard distribution, as well as to the server manufacturers' distributions, this customized image is nothing more than the same VMware standard image + the hardware manufacturer's own drivers.