free vSphere limit on cores

[tlowry]

According to VMware KB:     Product offerings for vSphere 6.x   , the free Hypervisor version of vSphere 6 allows up to 128 cores (Maximum virtual SMP).  However, when I downloaded it and installed a free license key, it shows "Product Features: up to 8-way virtual SMP" and won't boot with more than 8 cores assigned, giving the message:

There are insufficient licenses to complete this operation

       Feature 'Virtual SMP' not licensed, requires 20 have 8

The server has 2 sockets with 10 cores each and hyperthreading is enabled.

Some previous versions of ESXi had a limit of 8 (VMware KB: Product offerings for vSphere 5.x ) so I'm wondering if this is just a mis-print on the vSphere 6 product offerings page.

[iiToby]

Hi Tlowry,

Hopefully someone can correct me if I am wrong but here goes.

SMP doesn't = vCPU

SMP = Number of Cores the Host can Schedule a VM to use at once

I know the "Multi Processor" part is a bit of bad terminology.

In the Free vSphere you still limited to 8 vCPUs regardless of how many cores you have. So the 128 is little bit miss leading, saying that it can schedule 128 cores, but then you can't allocate anymore than 8 vCPU to a single machine.

I hope that helps

Cheers

@iiToby

[sastre]

What won't boot? Are you talking about an ESXi host, or a VM guest?

[ThompsG]

Hi there,

I wonder if VMware have updated the document because when I look at the table it says "Maximum vSMP" is 8 - same here: https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/gettingstarted

The host cores/processors is essentially unlimited at 480 cores max.

Kind regards.

[MattiasN81]

Nothing to update, the free license only allows 8 vSMP regardless how many cores/cpus the host have

[ThompsG]

Hi MattiasN81,

Not sure what you mean? The  original poster gave a link which said that ESXi free allowed for 128 vSMP whereas when looking today (document updated in February 2016) it now lists a maximum of 8. Have no idea what is said 10 months ago when the question was first raised as to whether it did or did not have the correct information. Either way the limit as you say is 8.

Kind regards.

[MattiasN81]

VMware must have done a typo 10 months ago, only the licensed versions have 128 vSMP :smileyhappy: