Licensing Question

[kelwood]

Since NSX is installed at the cluster level do we need to purchase a license for each host in the cluster (2 for dual CPU)? I am referring to the SDDC reference architecture: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/VMware-On-Demand-Infra-Secure-Networks-WP-EN.pdf and it looks as though not all hosts contain NSX components. Page 10 states "Compute cluster networking is completely virtualized using NSX for vSphere" but on page 14 there is no component of NSX indicated for the compute cluster. Would it be possible to take advantage of NSX networking without applying any licenses to those hosts?

I am trying to build the beginnings of a SDDC but want to ensure we are not over purchasing if these licenses aren't required. Thank you all in advance for your help.

-Kevin

[kelwood]

Okay, I think I found the answer here: NSX 6 Documentation Center. The component I was missing is the actual NSX vSwitch that would be on each host and would require a license applied to the host. Can anybody confirm or deny this?

[smitmartijn · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You're half right, only the hosts that you'll be using with any NSX features (NSX vSwitch (VXLAN), Distributed firewall, LDR, etc) have to be licensed.

For instance, if you have a management cluster that only hosts the NSX VMs (the NSX Manager/controllers) and don't use any NSX features for that ciuster, it doesn't have to be licensed. On your compute cluster, where you use the NSX features for your workloads, you need all hosts licensed.

[kelwood]

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you for the clarification.