Redhat Virtualization Licensing For VMware (new)

[kcollo]

I am not sure how many people actually know that Redhat now has special licensing for VMware. This actually has wound up saving the company I work for a lot of money, since we have migrated most of our RedHat systems to virtual hosts. Here are a few links concearning the licensing:

From Redhat

Example License From CDW

Also, more information can be found on my blog:

Colovirt Blog

Check the blog for information on how licensing ended up for our ESX hosts. Let me know of what everyone thinks and if anyone has used this licensing.

Kevin Goodman

kevin@colovirt.com

[jadamt]

I'm not sure I follow this. For example there is

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Basic (up to 2 sockets) $349

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for VMware, Basic (up to 2 sockets) $594

I don't see where they say on the website per system vs per server. Your blog seems to imply that the second $594 is unlimited Basic installs on one ESX server?

We have 2 socket ESX servers with quite a few RHEL VMs. This could definitely be helpful but am I following you? How does that work with VMotion?

[kcollo]

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Basic (up to 2 sockets) $349

This would be used as either one standalone install of Redhat Basic on a physical server, or as one virtual machine.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for VMware, Basic (up to 2 sockets) $594

CDW has this version for 489.99

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1392802

Now here is where the headache comes in. You can only use this license on an esx host if it has 2 or less physical processers. This license would then allow you to create 4 virtual machines licensed with Redhat Basic. From the documentation:

"Basic subscription ( 1 year ) - 1 system, up to 2 sockets, 4 guests"

So this means

Basic subscribtion. 1 year license, for one VMware ESX server which gives you 4 virtual machines.

If you wanted to license 16 RedHat basic virtual machines on your esx host, you would need to buy 4 of these subscriptions.

In our case, we have 4 ESX servers and each have 4 physical processers. This is what forced us into the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform for VMware license. Redhat allows you to pool these licenses if you have an esx cluster. We wanted ~60 licenses, and the Advanced Platform allows for 10 RH VMs per license. To cover our need, we had to order 10 of these licenses.

>"I don't see where they say on the website per system vs per server. Your blog seems to imply that the second $594 is unlimited Basic installs on one ESX server?"

Yeah, Redhat almost seems like they are trying to hide the availability of this product line. If you need prices, check CDWs website. I searched for hours and found almost no documentation on RedHats site.

>"We have 2 socket ESX servers with quite a few RHEL VMs. This could definitely be helpful but am I following you? How does that work with VMotion?"

As long as you hold the correct number of licenses to cover the RH VMs, pooling is allowed and you will be fine. All RH VMs could migrate all of the VMs to one host and would not have a problem.

Just an FYI, we did go with this licensing and we did save a lot of money. Keep in mind though that you can do the RH basic license since the servers are 2cpu, but there is a downfall. If you do only basic, then the support contract for basic would apply. I think that's something like Mon-Fri 24 response time for support. So if there are critical systems that you might need immediate 24hr support on, talk with a RedHat rep or CDW. You might wind up needing to get a mix. Something like X number of basics, and one advanced license for the critical systems. Does that make sense? Let me know if you have any other questions.

Feel free to email me

kevin@colovirt.com

[jadamt]

Makes sense, thanks. I wonder if they'll keep this policy long term. It's good to hear you can cluster the licenses and not have to worry about VMotions.

Why did you guys have to get 10 licenses (at 10 VMs each) for 60 VMs?

[kcollo]

sorry.. typo. Was doing about 5 things at once. only needed 6 of the 10vm licensing. Thanks for the catch!

[DITGUY2012]

I realize this discussion is old and the licensing skus have changed but we're having a hard time understanding something and you guys seem to know your stuff.

We have a 3 node vmware cluster. We have 3 RHEL VMs we want to license. You'd think we could purchase the 1-4 VM license. However our sales rep's RHEL person is saying that if those VMs are ever spread across multiple nodes in the cluster (instead of all 3 sticking together on the same host), such as in vmotion, then we'd have to buy enough licenses for each node in the cluster to handle that situation. This seems ludicrous because now you're going to pay for more RHEL licenses just to sit there for when you spread the load among nodes.

To us what seemed more likely and reasonable is the pooling you're referring to. Where as long as your nodes are up to 2 sockets, the total number of VMs licensed across various licenses your purchase cannot be exceeded by the total number of RHEL VMs in your environment regardless of which node they happen to be on.

In their reasoning if we vmotion 2 vms to one node and the other to another node while we do maintenance on the first node, we'd be out of compliance for licenses unless we bought extra licenses.

Am I wrong or are they?