Another vsphere essentials core limit question

[Donnie65]

I'll admit I'm not an expert on vsphere licensing but I've been unable to find a specific answer to a core related question.

I bought vsphere 6 essentials ... I have a license.

I have a server with 2 processors ... 12 cores each ... 24 cores total.

I can create a VM with 1 socket and 4 Cores per Socket (4vCPUs)

I can create a VM with 2 sockets and 4 Cores per Socket (8vCPUs) ... but that's my limit.

I cannot create a VM with more than 8vCPUs.

Is this a limit of a licensed vsphere essentials or should I be able to create a VM with more than 8vCPUs?

[tayfundeger]

Hi,

If you are using Essentials, there should be no vCPU limit. There are no limitations as far as virtual machine resource assignment goes. The 8vCPU limit is only available in free ESXi. Can you check the license key?

Thanks.

[a_p_]

As mentioned before, there's no technical limitation for the Essentials Edition. However, there may be one depending on the guest OS that you've selected for the VM, which is based on the guest operating capabilities/maximums.

André

[Donnie65]

Okay ... so I'm not crazy ... good. Attached is an image of what my licensing looks like, pretty straightforward.The image also includes a combination of what happens when I try to edit the settings of a VM and increase it from 8vCPUs to 16vCPUs ... oh and thanks for the input!

The VM is running Windows 2106 Standard.

[tayfundeger · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I want to make a little suggestion. If you are using virtual machine hardware version 8, I recommend that you upgrade it. Also vmware tools is not installed on the virtual server. Be sure to install vmware tools.

You're switching CPUs with the virtual machine power off, aren't you?

[Donnie65]

Yes, this was an older VM that survived an update from 5 to 6. It's a very rough sandbox server ... regardless, the same thing happened on all of the VM11 VMs as well.

The most important thing was asking me if the VM was powered off. It was not. It is now. And I can now reconfigure CPU's. No, I was not dropped on my head as a child.

What the heck ... I realized early on there are some configuration settings that required you to shutdown a VM ... but those specific options are obvious, they're greyed out or disabled altogether. In this case, the interface allows you to "appear" to make edits while the VM is running ... it allows you to select more CPUs from a drop down menu and provides a "save" button once you've finished ... only to present you with an "insufficient license" error message ... but the problem has nothing to do with licensing ... it's that I'm configuring CPUs while the VM is running ... really?

Thanks again for the help. The good news is that I'm able to make the changes I needed ...