ESX Server Foundation vs. ESX Server Standard license

[MKguy]

Greetings gentlemen,

According to all VMware documents i have read, the only difference (apart from the price of course) between a VI Foundation and VI Standard license is the additional HA license in VI Standard.

Now we planned on deploying 2 new ESX Servers, while another old ESX was going to be put out of business for them. We still have enough unused HA and VMotion licenses to use these features with 2 new servers, but have no ESX/VC Agent license left. So we thought on just getting a ESX Foundation license since this would obviously fill the hole for that.

Now that we got our license file, the ESX license itself is being registered as ESX Server Foundation instead of ESX Server Standard in the license server. We can currently only attach that license to one ESX 3.02 host and to no other 3.5 host, even while some of them don't use any VMotion, HA, DRS or even VCB licenses at all (I can only chose between Unlicensed and ESX Server Standard). What is the reason for that?

Why does the ESX license differentiate between ESX Server Foundation and ESX Server Standard, while all VMware documents state that VI Standard is only supplementing HA?

Exampled of said documents that never differentiated between several ESX host licenses:

http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/buyVI3.html

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ESX_Server_3i_presentation.pdf page 12

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_installation_guide.pdf page 29

Did i miss something there?

Running VC 2.5U2.

Any hints on this are appreciated.

[MKguy]

Shameless bump.

[Peter Geiger]

im not sure, but i think the foundation (starter) edition is restricted in the features you can use.

do you use host based license or centralised licensing?

for vmotion,drs, ha you need centralised licensing AND virtualcenter!

[Peter Geiger]

i have found this:

VMware VMotion is included in the VMware Infrastructure Enterprise edition. VMware VMotion and VMware Storage VMotion are available as an add-on product to VMware Infrastructure Foundation and Standard editions.

so the foundation should work for you!

are the correct quantity of license listed in you vc server under administration / licenses?

you can check your license file here:

[MKguy]

We are using using centralized licensing with the VC Enterprise (the non-Starter Edition of VC).

I know that the VI Foundation license does not include HA, but apart from that it should make no difference at all (at least according to the documents).

Since we were only short of an ESX Host licenses and have enough unused HA/VMotion and even VCB licenses from previous VI Standard purchases left, we decided to get only a VI Foundation license. We thought it would provide us with the sufficient ESX Host (and VC Agent) license that are scarce in our licensing pool.

As I said in my previous post, we can't even attach that ESX Server Foundation license to ESX 3.5 Hosts that do not participate in HA/DRS Clusters, don't have VMotion enabled etc. This is really confusing us here.

>are the correct quantity of license listed in you vc server under administration / licenses?

Yes, the amount of licenses matches with what we have purchased.

[Peter Geiger]

Mh, i think it is possible an bug, that prevents the foundation license from working with addons.

In the license files, the foundation edition shows as PROD_ESX_STARTER, the standard edition as PROD_ESX_FULL

Thats the only different i can see here.

Can you open an SR for this problem?

[MKguy]

Seems like I got stuff working now...

I added a new ESX 3.5 Host (fresh install) to VC and was able to attach the new ESX Server Foundation license to it. Then I changed one of the ESX Hosts that ran with an ESX Server Standard licenses to unlicensed, changed the license of the new Host to ESX Standard and was then finally entitled to attach the Foundation license to the other host.

Everything is working and I can't see any licensing related warnings or other issues so far, but I will keep an eye on it.

Notwithstanding that I got it working now I am still confused whether there is a difference between an ESX Server Foundation and ESX Server Standard license (Note: I do NOT refer to the difference between VI Foundation and VI Standard).