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CCJNL
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

vSphere 5 License Query Script - Results Thread

I'm not sure if this has type of results thread has been started else where but I am interested to see what the real world scenarios are and how VMware's customers may or may not be affected.

Some nifty scripts have appeared that cut right to the chase and informs you if you are currently using more or less vRAM that you would be entitled to  under vSphere 5 licensing rules.

Check the scripts out here and post your results!!!

  

AuthorLink
Alan Renoufhttp://www.virtu-al.net/2011/07/14/vsphere-5-license-entitlements/
LucDhttp://www.lucd.info/2011/07/13/query-vram/
Hugo Peetershttp://www.peetersonline.nl/index.php/vmware/calculate-vsphere-5-licenses-with-powershell/

Cheers!

-Justin

Edit:

It is worth noting that as Hugo mentioned on his blog, his script "assumes the environment is homogeneous, so uses only one type of edition."  I've also had feedback that it does not take into consideration how many CPU licenses are registered in vCenter.  Rather it looks at how many CPU licenses are in use by the hosts managed by vCenter.  What that means is that if you own 36 CPU licenses but are only using 22 CPUs, the calculation will be based off of 22, not 36.

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56 Replies
kopper27
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I am getting nothing from this script

I added my VC name but I get nothing from it

$vCenterServerName = "VC_FQDN"
$VC = Connect-VIServer $vCenterServerName
......

is there something else I need to change? or add?

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CCJNL
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@kopper27:  I believe it requires vSphere 4.1, you can try another script that Hugo Peeters wrote.  Not sure if that has same requirement.

http://www.peetersonline.nl/index.php/vmware/calculate-vsphere-5-licenses-with-powershell/

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logiboy123
Expert
Expert

I found the PeetersOnline script easier to use;

My present company is one of the lucky ones, we are using Enterprise licensing.

======
pCpu Count: 38
vRAM (GB):  482
======
Resulting license options:

Edition                                                Entitlement                                       Licenses
-------                                                     -----------                                            --------
Essentials/Essentials Plus/Standard       1 pCpu + 24 GB vRAM                     38 with 430 GB vRAM overhead
Enterprise                                             1 pCpu + 32 GB vRAM                     38 with 734 GB vRAM overhead
Enterprise Plus                                      1 pCpu + 48 GB vRAM                     38 with 1342 GB vRAM overhead
======

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kopper27
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

yeah I am using vpshere 4.1 update 1

trying the other script

to tell you the truth I don't understand the results I might need to read this PDF for licensing

vSphere PowerCLI.jpg

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CCJNL
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@kopper27

Depending on your license level you either have:

32GB of vRAM Overhead (Essentials,Essentials+, Standard)

96GB of vRAM Overhead (Enterprise)

224GB of vRAM Overhead (Enterprise+)

Either way it looks like you are good to go and won't need additional licensing when moving to vSphere 5 based on your environment (Powered on VM's) today.

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Jwalsh2
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Also using the other script my results are:

Counting physical cpu's and vRAM in your environment. Please be patient...
======
pCpu Count: 114
vRAM (GB):  2389
======
Resulting license options:
Edition                                          Entitlement                           Licenses
-------                                             -----------                                 --------
Enterprise Plus                             1 pCpu + 48 GB vRAM           114 with 3083 GB vRAM overhead
======
NOTE: vRAM only counts memory allocated to vm's that are POWERED ON.
NOTE: Please double check the results of this script, since hosts may have been omitted due to errors.
Disclaimer: No rights can be deduced from this calculation.
======
John Walsh | vExpert 2012, 2013, 2014 | @jwalsh2
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chriswahl
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

======
pCpu Count: 30
vRAM (GB):  2190
======
Resulting license options:
Edition                                      Entitlement                                  Licenses                                   
-------                                      -----------                                  --------                                   
Enterprise Plus                              1 pCpu + 48 GB vRAM                          46 with 16 pCpu overhead                   
======
VCDX #104 (DCV, NV) ஃ WahlNetwork.com ஃ @ChrisWahl ஃ Author, Networking for VMware Administrators
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Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

Here's a couple snips from our NON VDI vCenter Instances.  Looks like we're ready for vSphere 5 Smiley Happy

Untitled2.png

Untitled1.png

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Rumple
Virtuoso
Virtuoso


vram.jpg

Holy MotherF$%^$#

We are currently using 4x vsphere 4 Standard licenses currently on 2 hosts with 144GB of Physical memory between them (96GB on one and 48Gb on the other)

According to this page - http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/pricing.html

By using existing 4 Standard licenses I would still need to purchase 12 Standard Licenses (because I will need growth budgeted) thats $15000 best case...$12k if I push hard

Assuming vmware gave me upgrade pricing for difference between Enterprise and Standard for my 4 vCPU's and didn't increase my S&S thats still going to hurt.

Standard to Enterprise Licenses

4x upgrade licenses = $7520

I also need at least 2 extra licenses to growth:

8x$2870+S&S = $28744

Total upgrade coverage = $36264...even with discounts that $30k...

Standard to Enterprise Plus

4xUpgrade licenses = $10000

4xEnterprise Plus = $17476

Best case I get a deal for 24k or so....

Thats to provide me features I do not use...and to allow me to upgrade to vsphere 5...which for me, really means vmfs 5 functionality increase (ie larger then 2TB volumes..)

I obviously use my environment to the extreme...which is what I paid for vmware for...if I wanted to kinda use it I would have been on hyper-V already since I already paid for the datacenter licenses for these servers...I would have saved myself 10k upfront.

I want the high density consolidation which obviously works very well with vmware...but now after you get me hooked on crack you jack the price...

Realistically speaking, I do not purchase hardware to scale out because every server I add, at a minimum adds $500/month to my datacenter costs (not withstanding the lease costs for the hardware).  I therefore increase the RAM in my systems.

Obviously this means no revenue stream for vmware...I get it, I really do...

So..why not drop this stupid CPU count and go strictly with minimum host charge and then change me an incremental cost for vRAM increments (say 64GB)

At least then when I upgrade RAM, I can easily budget for the additional costs and you get a re-occuring revenue stream.

Hell, even if you said vRAM was sold in 64GB increments then I would only need to need to cover a couple increments of memory and since I would expect it to be closer to the $1000/64GB vs $3200, then I probably would not even squeek about $2k right now...

$12-30k...thats going to force me to move to Hyper-V...its not even in the same freaking ballpark pricewise...

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LucD
Leadership
Leadership

Do you have vSphere Standard licenses ?

If yes, the Key for that type was incorrect, I changed it to the correct licensekey value.

Unfortunately, there is afaik no enumeration (in the SDK Reference) that lists all the available licenseKeys.

For now I have

                                    licenseKey

Essentials                "esxEssentials"


Essentials Plus      "esxEssentialsPlus"


Standard                   "esxFull"


Advanced                  "esxAdvanced"


Enterprise                "esxEnterprise"


Ënterprise Plus       "esxEnterprisePlus


Blog: lucd.info  Twitter: @LucD22  Co-author PowerCLI Reference

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SandyB
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

vram.JPG
If i'm reading this correctly we are using 714Gb of vRam and have 1686Gb remaining. We have Enterprise Plus across the board, which means we are ok, but i still think for the extra cost of Enterprise Plus the 48Gb limit is too low, should be at least 64Gb,

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sysbeheer
Contributor
Contributor

Great script, worked inmmediatly and the results are:

vCenter        : vcenter.asvznet.nl
vRAMConfigured : 569.8
vRAMUsed       : 541.3
vRAMEntitled   : 960
LicenseType    : vSphere 4 Enterprise

Guess we already did some good sizing in the past.

Not running more than 15-20 VM's/host because we don't want to end up in the dark when the hardware fails 🙂

André van de Werken

IT Consultant

Carante Groep

the Netherlands

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pcmanning
Contributor
Contributor

======
pCpu Count: 54
vRAM (GB):  1364
======
Resulting license options:
Edition                    Entitlement                Licenses
-------                    -----------                --------
Essentials/Essentials P... 1 pCpu + 24 GB vRAM        57 with 3 pCpu overhead
Enterprise                 1 pCpu + 32 GB vRAM        54 with 364 GB vRAM ov...
Enterprise Plus            1 pCpu + 48 GB vRAM        54 with 1228 GB vRAM o...
======

The majority of our CPUs are now HP dual CPU blades with 96GB RAM.  These have been replacing older 32GB machines, and we're looking to remove the last of these - so the CPU count will drop to 40.  So we'll need to keep more Enterprise licences than we would have done or upgrade to Enterprise Plus, which we'll need to utilise all the extra physical RAM.

Bottom line is we're at best looking at a reducing on our planned savings or more likely an increase in costs Smiley Sad  Fortunately, I guess, we were planning at costing Enterprise Plus to get some of the added features (host profiles and distributed switches really are needed now)

Paul

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digitlman77
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

1.jpg

So, does this mean that I am using 226Gb total, and have compliance for 268?

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DBeasley
Contributor
Contributor

My organization is Enterprise Plus, so we're okay at the moment. We're actually licensed for 36 CPUs. Still interested to see what our upgrade costs will be. Of course, we just ordered some new blades with 256GB of RAM each... and to use all of it we'll need more licenses.

======
pCpu Count: 22
vRAM (GB):  451
======
Resulting license options:

Edition                                                                 Entitlement                                                             Licenses                                                              
-------                                                                 -----------                                                             --------                                                              
Essentials/Essentials Plus/Standard                                     1 pCpu + 24 GB vRAM                                                     22 with 77 GB vRAM overhead                                           
Enterprise                                                              1 pCpu + 32 GB vRAM                                                     22 with 253 GB vRAM overhead                                          
Enterprise Plus                                                         1 pCpu + 48 GB vRAM                                                     22 with 605 GB vRAM overhead                                          
======
NOTE: vRAM only counts memory allocated to vm's that are POWERED ON.
NOTE: Please double check the results of this script, since hosts may have been omitted due to errors.
Disclaimer: No rights can be deduced from this calculation.
======

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CCJNL
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It depends on what your license type is.

You either have:

(Essentials,Essentials+, Standard) - You'll need to buy one more CPU license

(Enterprise) - You have 62GB of vRAM overhead to use

(Enterprise+) - You have 206 GB of vRAM overhead to use

What type of licensing are you under?

Thanks!

-Justin

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digitlman77
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Enterprise.(1-6 Cores per CPU).

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CCJNL
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

@digitlman77

Your licenses give you 62GB of remaining vRAM to assign to Powered On VM's.

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digitlman77
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Wow.  EPIC FAIL.

My 2 cluster hosts have a total of 262GB pRAM  by themselves.

2 other hosts have a total of 75GB pRAM.

And by vRAM, they mean among all 4 hosts, an aggregate total of 62GB of vRAM may be used, right?

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