We have a vSphere Enterprise Plus license and have been told that we are restricted to running only a total of 20 virtual desktops (VM's with a Windows desktop OS installed) on our ESXi 4.1 servers. Apparently this is some restriction in the EULA. I had a look at the ESXi 4.1 EULA (http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/esx_esxi41_update1_eula.html), but I can't find anything in there that restricts the number of desktop workloads that you can run on ESXi. Am I just overlooking it, or is there no such restriction? For clarity, we do not have a VMware View license.
Welcome to the Community - As long as you are running a regular Enterprise Plus license you can run as many operating system, server and desktop, as your host can handle. It is View that will limit the number of concurrent desktop OSes you cam run
Thanks for the reply. According to the VMware sales engineer, the virtual desktop limitation is part of the Enterprise License Agreement we have with VMware. I haven't seen the actual ELA, but I'm wondering if this is a normal clause in an ELA?
I would push back on that -Here is a link to the EULA for ESXi - http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/esxi50_eula.html and as long as you are not licensing vVMware View it does not make a difference as to what operating system you are running
Maybe you should check your ELA contract.
No one can say what is in your ELA. It is not possible AFAIK to get this type of license through the normal licensing agreement. The closest thing is the desktop virtualisation license for vSphere 5, but that only allows virtual desktops, no servers. Your company may have been given a large discount based on this restriction.