Inquiry Regarding VMware ESXi Licensing for Local Development

[mohdnaseem292]

HI Support,

We are currently exploring the possibility of developing a small environment using the VMware hypervisor ESXi for our local development needs. We would appreciate some information regarding the licensing requirements for this purpose.

Our primary question is whether VMware ESXi is available for free for local development purposes. We intend to create virtual machines (VMs) in our local development area and would like to know if we can use ESXi without acquiring a license for this specific use case.

Could you please clarify if the usage of VMware ESXi without a license is permissible for local development environments? Additionally, if a license is required, what are the licensing options available for such development scenarios?

Your guidance on this matter will assist us in making informed decisions about the implementation of VMware ESXi in our local development environment. We appreciate your time and assistance in providing the necessary information.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,
Naseem

[a_p_]

VMware basically differentiates between two use cases: Commercal use, and Non-Commercial use.
There are some more like Education, Government, etc.. However, these likely do not apply here.

The free Hypervisor has been retired with the change to the new licensing model. The inexpensive "Essentials Kit" is also not available anymore.

In case of your Commerial use case - as it sound to me - you'd need to purchase a Core based subscription.
The Core count to license is the number of CPU sockets * the number of cores/CPU. Please note that a minimum count of 16 cores/CPU is required.

André

[sicnarf_latosa]

Just additional info.

https://redresscompliance.com/analyzing-vmware-licensing-changes/

https://redresscompliance.com/broadcom-vmware-licensing-and-subscription-changes-explained/