VMware vSphere 5 licensing update

At August 3 VMware announced a new license policy for vSphere 5. The original one got many complaints from customers and partners. Lots of postings on the internet so the highlights only:

• VMware has increased vRAM entitlements for all vSphere editions, including the doubling of the entitlements for vSphere Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. Below is a comparison of the previously announced and the new vSphere 5 vRAM entitlements per vSphere edition:

• VMware has capped the amount of vRAM we count in any given VM, so that no VM, not even the “monster” 1TB vRAM VM, would cost more than one vSphere Enterprise Plus license. This change also aligns with VMware’s goal to make vSphere 5 the best platform for running Tier 1 applications.
• VMware adjusted the license model to be much more flexible around transient workloads, and short-term spikes that are typical in test & development environments for example. VMware will now calculate a 12-month average of consumed vRAM to rather than tracking the high water mark of vRAM.
• vSphere Enterprise and Enterprise Plus limits are soft. That means the total number of available vRAM licensed can be exceeded. Standard Edition , Enterprise and Enterprise Plus bundles are hard limited.
• vSphere Hypervisor (free) will have a 32 GB physical RAM limit per host. (was 8 GB per socket). This limit is hard limited so cannot be exceeded.  So you can configure more than 32 GB for your VM’s (memory overcommit). There is no vRAM limit!

Finally, VMware introduced the vSphere Desktop Edition to address vSphere licensing in a desktop environment. vSphere Desktop is licensed on the total number of Powered On Desktop Virtual Machines allowing  customers to purchase vSphere for VDI use case on per user basis.

more info:

http://lonesysadmin.net/2011/08/03/official-revisions-to-vmware-vsphere-5-licensing/
http://www.virtu-al.net/2011/08/03/vsphere-5-license-entitlement-changes/
http://jasonnash.com/2011/08/03/vmware-announces-revised-vram-licensing/
http://blogs.vmware.com/partner/#tp
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/news/2240039150/VMware-blinks-on-vSphere-5-licensing