License Renewal / Product License Support

[RParker]

So we have ESX, and there seems to be a dispute over how a license is renewed.

We have FULL ESX standard licenses for 24 CPU (something like that, the numbers don't matter for this discussion).

What I would like to know is if we buy say 6 / 3 CPU licenses this year, next year we have to renew, correct?

That being the case, do we JUST pay for support on the licenses and once you pay for the license, they last forever, as long as you pay for support, or..

Do we have to buy some upgrade license in addition to support? We just want to make sure that we are up to date with licenses, and what to expect for cost.

We pay approx $7200.00 (give or take a few gallons of gas..) for 1 (2) socket license, with platinum support.

So do we pay some pro-rate amount for a license for the same license next year, or just pay the support (platinum) for this license to keep it valid?

[nick_couchman]

Not sure about your specific situation, but I do not pay at all to renew the license, I pay to renew the support contract. As far as I know, you can let the support contract lapse if you want to and continue to run the ESX software. Of course, then you don't have anyone to call when it breaks...

[weinstein5]

As I understand it, as long as your are paying support you can get upgrades to you licenses - so if you are paying support for your 3.5 licenses when 4.0 comes out you will be able to upgrade with no additional cost - lets say you stopped paying support then when 4 or any subsequent release you would have to pay to upgrade -

[RParker]

Thank you gentlemen