Malaysia VMware Communities » License

XenDesktop License Server Flexibility

craig — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:31:32 +0000

While I am attending the training for XenDesktop today, we had covered the topic of License Server for Xendesktop.
I had raised the question to the trainer.

what if the license server go down, will all the existing connections or sessions been terminated automatically?

He had explained as the configuration in the license server and license files are design to prevent the point of failure in the scenario of license server unavailable due to any failures. You will be given 28 days period of time with unlimited seats in the event of license servers unavailable during the outage.

In normal scenario, assume your license server is functioning with 1000 seats, you will also allow to provision 10% extra within 28 days before you increase the purchased licenses. This will allow you to turn on extra capacity temporally in the short period.

New license offer from VMware vSphere 5 on 3rd party VDI solution

New license offer from VMware vSphere 5 on 3rd party VDI solution

craig — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:59:58 +0000

VMware vSphere 5 had been revised to provide better business case to the users who willing to maintain VMware as the hypervisor and run 3rd party VDI solution beside VMware view. The pre-requisite to do this, you must 1st ensure the ESX host cluster are separated from the existing Server cluster which are not running VDI in place. This could be good news to all of us which think to maintain the VMWare as the hypervisor and utilize 3rd party VDI solution in the same organization.

There will be no VRAM limit for this case, but it may be capped around 100 VDI per ESX host. I still yet to go in to details to really find out this. With the new revise, it seems had pleased some of the users who complained about the vTAX issue in vsphere 5, but there are still many users who are complained the SNS entitlement who had purchased upfront for 36 months which end up require to top up their license now.

VMware vSphere 4.1 License Comparison Chart

jlchannel — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:39:57 +0000

VMware vSphere 4.1 was release on 13 July 2010 last week. VMware vSphere 4.1 introduced an impressive number of new features and new licensing format.

The following is complete VMware vSphere 4.1 license comparison chart.

Click here to enlarge.

Please feel free to download from here.

Extending VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Availability FAQ

jlchannel — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:22:12 +0000

What will happen to VMware vSphere Enterprise License after 15 December 2009?

Read FAQ show below as posted VMware Sales portal few days back.

FAQ
1. Are the promotions extending as well?
No the upgrade promotions are ending as planned on December 15, 2009

2. Why is VMware changing its position?
Customers have asked us to make this change in policy as they plan out their 2010 budgets and plan their vSphere implementations. They want these items to align with their Enterprise Plus upgrades. We want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

3. Is there a new date for Enterprise end of availability?
No, no specific date has been set. We expect Enterprise unit share to continue to decline as customers upgrade to Enterprise Plus and higher core processors enter the market. However, we want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

4. What happens to customers that bought Enterprise Plus because they believed Enterprise was going away?
VMware will not be implementing any kind of price protection program. Enterprise Plus provides exceptional additional value through the new features (vNetwork Distributed Switch, Host Profiles, 8-way vSMP, large memory configurations) and additional processor core entitlements. Ultimately, Enterprise Plus provides a significantly lower total cost per application than any other solution or option.

5. How does the 6-core restriction work for Enterprise?
The Enterprise core entitlement remains at 6-core and is technically enforced in the product. However, two Enterprise licenses can license one 8, 10, or 12 core processor

6. Will you introduce STD->ENT upgrade SKUs?
No, there are no plans at this time. Enterprise unit sales are already declining versus Enterprise Plus and this trend will only accelerate over Q4 and 2010. Enterprise Plus provides significant additional value at a lower cost per application.

7. Will VMware re-introduce the Enterprise Acceleration Kits?
No, there are no plans at this time. Our market research has shown that the vSphere Advanced Acceleration Kit provides a compelling set of integrated availability features for mid-size businesses at a lower initial price than vSphere Enterprise while vSphere Enterprise Plus provides the tools for minimizing total cost per application for larger deployments.

8. What kind of customer feedback did VMware receive?
Customers have asked us to make this change in policy as they plan out their 2010 budgets and plan their vSphere implementations. They want these items to align with their Enterprise Plus upgrades. We want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

9. Will Enterprise support more than 6 cores?
No, the Enterprise core entitlement remains at 6-core and is technically enforced in the product. However, two Enterprise licenses can license one 8, 10, or 12 core processor

10. Does this mean customers are not buying Enterprise Plus?
No, not at all. Customers are already buying and deploying Enterprise Plus as they upgrade from VI3 to vSphere 4. However, some customers have longer budget cycles and need to plan their upgrades far in advance. We want to provide maximum flexibility for every customer situation.

Hope this is clear and useful!

License key VS License file in vSphere 4

craig — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:05:14 +0000

Many of you may had noticed the changes in vSphere 4 if you had previously implemented or managed any of the virtual environment running vmware infrastructure. VMware had converted every license file we previously own to a new license key which allow us to apply to the vSphere hosts we had in our environment. If you had sign up the SNS previously, you will be entitled for an upgrade and under the license portal of your official log in ID that previously register with the license you bought, you will notice the new licenses key provided once you log on. Generally, the way of managing the CPU licenses will no longer be the previos method as we did in ESX 3.5.

Questions to VMware new licensing model

craig — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:05:12 +0000

I read through a lot of articles this week and spoke to numbers of users and friends who are the current VMware customers and future potential customers, and I found there are numbers of questions we need VMware to provide a better and clear answer to all of us. While we are excited with the new features from VMware vSphere, but the licensing model they apply now is killing the happiness of the customers.

Technodrone had highlighted couples of the important points that stated by the official document from VMware and I am absolutely agree that VMware need to answer these questions. Now it had started another heat discussion which turn the happy customers to become an unhappy customers soon as you will be forced to pay more if what Technodrone stated is correct. Existing enterprise users and new enterprise users will be forced to be upgraded to enterprise plus version to keep the system running, and I think VMware has to clear this up ASAP.

Beside this, I am really disappointed with 8 virtual SMP will be only available to Enterprise Plus users. Please take note that the competitors had been provided up to 8 Virtual CPU per VM quite some times ago, and they do not apply the similar license model to force the customers to pay more. This had make some of the partner and users run in to trouble as extra cost involve for upgrade to entitle the new features. I think VMware should re-think and revise their licensing model before the start selling it and I can see many users are disappointing with the situation after they went through the documentation release earlier.

If you are referring to vinternals there are more details that vinternals point out and I absolutely agree with them.

6 cores limitation per socket for vSphere enterprise

craig — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:57:00 +0000

As the new licensing model from VMware vSphere 4, it clearly show that you may require additional 620USD per sockets to entitle yourself for the enterprise plus if which come with 12 cores per sockets, host profiles, distribution switch and etc.

For existing enterprise users, they will no longer entitle everything as they did in the past due to the new scheme that will apply by vmware. There is a clause which stated by the official documentation released from vmware.

” vSphere Enterprise is available for USD$2,875 per one processor with up to six cores for use on a server with up to 256GB of memory. “

This clearly stated as six cores per sockets is the max you can go if you are previous or new enterprise customer. Here is the concern now, as six cores is in the market now, and soon we will see 8 cores and 12 cores in the market too. When the hardware technology improve and provide more cores per CPU, we will end up require to pay for additional charges to entitle the features due to this licensing model.

Personal point of view, to provide alternative licensing model with new features should be acceptable, but it shouldn’t fix the limit for number of cores to be allowed in each CPU sockets licenses. A customer may end to pay more not because the new features they really need, it may just purely due to the maximum number of cores per socket is allowed. I hope VMware should reconsider the clause they had included in the release.

VMware ESX 3i licensing details

craig — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:24:02 +0000

Here is some explanation from VMware regarding the different module been offered on the ESX 3i from VMware.

6 cores and 8 cores CPU licensing module for VMware

craig — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:04:15 +0000

As 6 cores and 8 cores per cpu is going to be launched in the market, there had been some discussion going on about the licensing model current apply to the VMware licensing policies. As current agreement, it will maximum allow 4 cores per CPU sockets. Down the road, it will be 6 cores and 8 cores per CPU. They might be a chances of VMware to change their CPU licensing model in the future, or they may stick with the current policy which base on the physical CPU sockets. VMware is the best products at the current Virtualization market, but they do need to understand that the TCO for a users to start the Virtual Infrastructure Enterprise is more or double the price of the potential customer to switch for Xen, Citrix or Hyper-V. Personally,

I do hope the Licensing Module will be remain and VMware may need to consider to reduce the licensing or provide additional software or services to be bundle together. Let’s keep an eye on this and soon will have some announcement on this by VMware.