VMware Cloud Community
netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Poll: Were you confused by vSphere pre-sales documentation?

Am I the only one who was confused by this? Before I purchased vSphere Essentials a couple of months ago, I was told (and read) that it supports up to 2 CPUs of up to 4 cores each. Naturally I assumed that meant that I could create Guests with up to 8 virtual processors. When I purchased and installed it, I was surprised to find out that I could only create Guests with up to 4 virtual processors.

Am I the only person who was duped by this? Just curious if everyone else realized what they were getting?

Reply
0 Kudos
9 Replies
schepp
Leadership
Leadership

Nope, wasn't confused. I think if it says 2 CPUs, up to 4 cores each it means the physical hardware you can run with this license can contain of 2 Quadcores.

The ability of 4-way vSMP is clearly stated in each licensing-document and it says you need Enterprise Plus for 8-way vSMP

Reply
0 Kudos
netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can you show me the licensing document you saw before you purchased vSphere?

Reply
0 Kudos
schepp
Leadership
Leadership

Reply
0 Kudos
netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Well, maybe you had a more conscientious sales rep. I purchased through Dell and was shown/told no such thing. Was simply told that it supported up to 2 CPUs with up to 4 cores each.

Reply
0 Kudos
RParker
Immortal
Immortal

Was simply told that it supported up to

up to That doesn't imply ALL CPU. Maybe vSMP was a tad vague, but you won't need the CPU's in a VM anyway, so it's a moot point.

So then the question becomes "Why do they allow multiple CPU in a VM then, if it doesn't work"?. The answer is because people are stubborn and don't want to listen to reason. So they have to try it for themselves to see that it doesn't work, then you come on here and find out what the problem is, and we will tell you to that you don't need multiple CPU in a VM.

Reply
0 Kudos
netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

We use vSphere for testing our software, and we purchased it specifically for the purpose of testing on multi-cpu systems.

Reply
0 Kudos
RParker
Immortal
Immortal

we purchased it specifically for the purpose of testing on multi-cpu systems.

OK, that's fine. 2, 4 vCPU is still a multi-CPU. So your testing will not be impeded. I am saying you are specifically addressing 8 vCPU, which your license does not cover. You are upset that you weren't informed about the limit of 4 CPU, but yet you knew there were different license levels, so it didn't occur to you to ASK what the difference was between the licenses?

What made you buy the lower tier license, price? That should probably have been discussed before you finalized your decision.

In the end, you can test with 2, 3, 4 CPU, Not having the remaining 4 CPU shouldn't be a problem, considering testing is done from low to high (usually) so you will see during your testing that when you start to reach 3 and 4 CPU your performance will probably remain constant.

But now that you have the correct information, you have a choice you can either BUY enterprise license so you can get 8 CPU which I am telling you is unnecessary, or keep what you have and do testing then decide later if you really need the additional CPU.

Reply
0 Kudos
netlib
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I would be happy to get the Enterprise edition. But it is about 8-10 times the price of the Essentials edition. It will be much cheaper to purchase a hardware server with two quad core processors and use that for testing. However, obviously it is a lot more difficult to go back to a previous "snapshot".

I was told that the various license levels affected the number of servers you could incorporate as well as the additional features. For example, I was told I needed Enterprise in order to use Lab Manager.

Reply
0 Kudos
weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

It sounding like you might need to find another partner to deal with because you do not need Enterprise to use Lab Manager - I know you can use advanced and I think even standard -

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
Reply
0 Kudos