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netlib
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Maximum Virtual Processors per VM

I recently purchased vSphere Essentials 4.0 and am basically happy with it. Before purchasing I was told that it supports up to 2 CPUs each with up to 4 Cores each. Any reasonable person would take that to mean that you can create Guest machines with up to 8 Virtual Processors (VCPUs). However after installing I found out that I could only create machines with up to 4 VCPUs! (I take that back - I can create them, but they won't run Smiley Sad )

When I brought this up to the sales rep, he gave me some reasons that I still can't understand and then gave me an extremely expensive option for getting up to 8 VCPUs: over 4 times the price of the original vSphere. I still don't understand how vSphere can claim to support up to 8 cores, but only allow you to run VMs with up to 4 cores.

I have gone back and re-read the literature and still cannot find anything stating this limitation. Can someone 'splain this to me? I think VMWare owes me another 4 VCPUs.

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NuggetGTR
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Enterprise plus is the only licence that offers 8 vcpu, they may have been refering to your licence can go on 2 cpu's with 4 cores each. but I thought it was up to 6 cores per cpu..

there is a document around showing the differences, http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf I know this one but im sure ive seen better

Cheers

________________________________________ Blog: http://virtualiseme.net.au VCDX #201 Author of Mastering vRealize Operations Manager

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NuggetGTR
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Enterprise plus is the only licence that offers 8 vcpu, they may have been refering to your licence can go on 2 cpu's with 4 cores each. but I thought it was up to 6 cores per cpu..

there is a document around showing the differences, http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf I know this one but im sure ive seen better

Cheers

________________________________________ Blog: http://virtualiseme.net.au VCDX #201 Author of Mastering vRealize Operations Manager
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athlon_crazy
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Correct vSphere can support vSMP up to 8x vCPU per VM. However Essential only up to 4 vCPU. Check this Comparison

vcbMC-1.0.6 Beta

vcbMC-1.0.7 Lite

http://www.no-x.org
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NuggetGTR
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thats the better one ^^^ I was talking about Smiley Happy

________________________________________ Blog: http://virtualiseme.net.au VCDX #201 Author of Mastering vRealize Operations Manager
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netlib
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> there is a document around showing the differences,

Thanks NuggetGTR, but I can't find anything related to that limitation in this document.

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netlib
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Correct vSphere can support vSMP up to 8x vCPU per VM. However Essential only up to 4 vCPU. Check this Comparison

Thanks, but I still don't get it. Where in this document is it telling me that I am limited to 4 VCPUs on a Virtual Machine?

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mcowger
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See the line that says 'vSMP' support?

--Matt

VCP, vExpert, Unix Geek, Storage Nerd

--Matt VCDX #52 blog.cowger.us
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weinstein5
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This is really the document you need to review since it covers what is included in each licensing level - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf - and you will see only Enterprise Plus will support 8 way virtual SMP -

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful
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NuggetGTR
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VMware vSphere Essentials includes:

• VMware ESXi and VMware ESX (deployment-time choice)

• VMware vStorage VMFS

• Four-way virtual SMP

• VMware vCenter Server Agent

• VMware vStorage APIs / VCB

• VMware vCenter Update Manager

• VMware vCenter Server for Essentials

VMware vSphere Essentials is available for USD $995 including

one year of subscription. Support is optional and available on a

per incident basis.

________________________________________ Blog: http://virtualiseme.net.au VCDX #201 Author of Mastering vRealize Operations Manager
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netlib
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What does VSMP support mean? Am I the only one who was confused to find only four virtual processors per VM?

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athlon_crazy
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What is vSMP ?

Yes, you are.






vcbMC-1.0.6 Beta

vcbMC-1.0.7 Lite

http://www.no-x.org

http://www.no-x.org
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schepp
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Well if you plan to buy a product that costs some money and I'm not a 100% sure if I understood the licensing modell right, I'd ask some people (maybe the vmware hotline).

Don't blame the documentation because you mixed up vSMP and the physical cpu licening (up to to 4 cores). VMware got a bunch of documentation and even as a non native english speaker it's no problem for me to understand it. (Lots of documents are available in other languages too)

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netlib
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Well, maybe you had a more conscientious sales rep. I purchased through Dell and was shown/told no such thing. This is the first time I ever saw such a document. I was simply told that it supported up to 2 CPUs with up to 4 cores each.I think it was a bit of a surprise to the Dell sales rep too, because he had to research the problem to get back to me.

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RParker
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Well, maybe you had a more conscientious sales rep.

That's why you ask questions, you did the right thing by coming on here. Most like CPU is not the problem. 8 vCPU is a lot of CPU, even physical machines don't need that much, that's why Virtual Machines make sense. Most hardware is overkill for single purpose machines.

I would FIRST try your apps with just one CPU, test it see how it works, do some benchmarking. Then try 2, see what the difference is. You will find it's almost no difference going from 1 to 2 (except Linux). Anything beyond 2 is a waste, because of the technology behind how vCPU work. I can guarantee attempting to use 8 vCPU in a machine is a complete waste of time, a VM cannot utilize all of the hardware, for disk, network, and CPU, so those CPU might show up in a benchmark meter, but the host machine will show the CPU are largely underutilized.

netlib
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Because we use the vSphere for testing our software, not for production software. And we purchased it specifically to allow testing on multi-processor systems.

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NuggetGTR
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isnt 4 cpu's enough to test multi proccessor systems?

________________________________________ Blog: http://virtualiseme.net.au VCDX #201 Author of Mastering vRealize Operations Manager
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netlib
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Some problems don't come to light unless you have many CPUs and tons or RAM, particularly for server software running on an x86 OS

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soren3
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Since vSphere 5.x release, the Essentials license allows you to have up to 8-way vSMP... so if since 2010 you have had stick to the 4.x essential's license you should upgrade it to vSphere 5.x and start using up to 8vCPUs in VMs

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/18149-102-1-23435/vSphere%205%20Cheat%...

Look at the Essentials section...

" Server virtualization for 3 hosts on

servers with up to two processors.
Includes vCenter agents, 8-way vSMP,
vStorage Thin Provisioning and vCenter
Update Manager"

For vSMP comparison between vSphere 4.x and vSphere 5.x look at:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101057...

and

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/18149-102-1-23435/vSphere%205%20Cheat%...

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