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hutchingsp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Licensing with multiple ESX boxes?

Could someone point me to black and white licensing info that specifies how VMware licensing works when you purchase licenses for X number of CPUs spread across multiple boxes?

I'm planning a VMware environment and of course licensing plays a large part of the cost.

For example the licensing PDF mentions the "Price per 2 processors" but I've seen conflicting information as to whether, for example, a single Enterprise license would cover two physical ESX boxes, each with a single physical CPU connected to a SAN?

I'd appreciate any clarification.

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TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

the official answer will be ESX is licensed in 2 CPU blocks, it is a fluke of the FlexLM license server that allows 2 single CPU server to be licence from one 2CPU pair. also this scenario would be unsupported by VMware

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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admin
Immortal
Immortal

It's allowed by the licensing agreement, but is not a "supported" configuration. I can however confirm that I have tested it in this configuration and it works perfectly (on Dell PE1950s w/ Single E5345s).

Check out the first section of page 7 in this PDF.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_pricing.pdf

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hutchingsp
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks both. Just working out the licensing "fun"!

Am I right in thinking that with 2 boxes I'd simply need 2 Enterprise Licenses and that would give me everything I needed?

I'm afraid I'm finding it confusing trying to work out what the "hidden costs" are with things like management consoles - with 2 servers I'd be happy to manage them individually but I'm unclear if you need additional licenses to be able to actually access/configure the functionality included with Enterprise.

And that's before I look at the Windows licensing side of things... Smiley Happy

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VirtualNoitall
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hello,

Here are two good pricing docs:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi_pricing.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_license_FAQ.pdf

For functions like HA, DRS, VMotion, clones, templates you do need a VirtualCenter management server.

The licensing docs should clear things up. Good luck!

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