Do i need vCenter Server for vGPU

[jwsl224]

i have been digging around every corner of the internet and spoken to both vmware (who only spoke enough to tell me they can't talk to me) and dell, but i can't find the answer to a simple question: do i need a vCenter Server License to use Nvidia GRID vGPU?

vSphere Enterprise Plus is required to run Nvidia GRID. that's fine. i have created a setup with an evaluation license and everything is running. but where i'm confused is, i can't assign a vGPU profile in the ESXi host; i need to do that in vCenter instead. so will i then need to license vCenter Server on top of vSphere Enterprise Plus? i feel like it's an important question, since the vCenter Server license costs more than the Enterprise Plus vSphere license. i would really appreciate if someone could answer that for me.

jared

[maksym007]

Enterprise license for ESXi hosts and vCenter Standard license for vCenter itself. 
No additional license required for NVIDIA GRID vGPU 

[jwsl224]

so just to be clear, that is $4,800 for vSphere Enterprise Plus, and then i additionally need the $7,500 for vCenter Standard?

[virtualinca]

indeed. yes, you need vCenter. Did you tried evaluation license for 60 days?

[jwsl224]

yes. and vCenter is the only place i can assign/edit vGPU profiles. so the Enterprise Plus version of vSphere is still missing what it takes for vGPU? just want to be sure bofore i buy something i don't need, because we are only running one or two hosts at this time.

[virtualinca]

Hi @jwsl224  yes. you will need an Enterprise Plus license and vCenter for it. You can check it here: VMware vSphere® Product Line Comparison

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