Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
of products including vSphere, vCloud Automation Center, vCenter Site Recovery Manager,
vCloud Networking and Security, vCloud Director, and vCenter Operations Management Suite.
While licensing vSphere via the vCloud Suite is likely the preferred way of licensing vSphere
moving forward, we don't have the room in this topic to discuss all the other products that are
included in the vCloud Suite. Instead, we'll focus strictly on vSphere, and we'll explain how the
various features that we've discussed so far i t into vSphere's licensing model when vSphere is
licensed standalone.
vSphere or vSOM?
VMware sells “standalone” vSphere in one of two ways; as vSphere, with all the various kits and
editions, and as vSphere with Operations Management, referred to as vSOM. vSOM is the same
as vSphere but adds the vCenter Operations Management Suite. In this section, we are focused on
standalone vSphere only, but keep in mind that vSOM would be licensed and packaged in much
the same way.
You've already seen how VMware packages and licenses VMware vCenter Server, but here's
a quick review:
VMware vCenter Server for Essentials, which is bundled with the vSphere Essentials kits
(more on the kits in just a moment).
◆
VMware vCenter Server Foundation supports the management of up to three vSphere
hosts.
◆
VMware vCenter Server Standard, which includes all functionality and does not have a
preset limit on the number of vSphere hosts it can manage (although normal sizing limits
do apply). vCenter Orchestrator is included only in the Standard edition of vCenter Server.
◆
In addition to the three editions of vCenter Server, VMware offers three editions of VMware
vSphere:
vSphere Standard Edition
◆
vSphere Enterprise Edition
◆
vSphere Enterprise Plus Edition
◆
No More vRAM and no vCPU Limits
If you've been around the VMware vSphere world for a while, you might recall that VMware
introduced the idea of vR A M—the amount of R A M confi gured for a VM—as a licensing constraint
with the release of vSphere 5.0. As of vSphere 5.1, and continuing into vSphere 5.5, VMware no
longer uses vRAM entitlements as a licensing mechanism. VMware has removed any licensing
limits on the number of vCPUs that can be assigned to a VM.
These three editions are differentiated primarily by the features each edition supports,
although there are some capacity limitations with the different editions. Notably missing from
the licensing for vSphere 5.5 are limits on vRAM (see the sidebar titled “No More vRAM”).
