Multicore licensing question

[kfzig]

Hello all,

Everything Google could tell me about my issue, to include VMware's currently posted multicore licensing policy, was a year or so old so I figured I'd ask here.

The last parts for my new home lab server arrive today, I'm refreshing from my old single-socket dual-core opteron box that I've been using for the past couple of years; the new system is being built around a single-socket G34 motherboard with an 8-core Magny-Cours Opteron processor.  From what I was Googling earlier it looks like VMware hasn't fixed the "6 cores per socket" licensing issue.  This licensing issue strikes me as very odd since brand-new 8-core processors can be had for under $250 and 12-core processors can be had for just over $500, so these aren't exactly going to be unique to large datacenters.

I really want to stay with ESXi; with that said, can anyone tell me if I'm going to have to move to Hyper-V, which I already have rights to, just to be able to use all of my shiny new cores?  A couple of thousand dollars just to support a processor whose capabilities are roughly comparable to a quad-core xeon w/ hypethreading turned on, which would work under the free license the way I read it, just isn't in the budget.

Thanks ahead of time for up-to-date insight on this.

Regards,

kfzig

[DSTAVERT]

I have seen posts that suggest that all your cores would work with the free hypervisor.

[kfzig]

Well, I've gotten it together enough to throw ESXi on there to see if it'll work.  I entered my freebie license key and it does continue to show "Licensed for 1 Physical Processor (1-6 Cores per CPU)".  Under the Processor information, it shows "1 physical socket" with "8 physical cores per socket" and "8 logical CPUs".  It would indeed seem that this configuration exceeds the license limit on paper, if not necessarily the spirit of the limit.  With that said, I'm not getting any outward indications that ESXi is actually unhappy about anything, I don't get a popup or any warning/error under the "licensing" or "processor" views, but I don't actually have any VMs on the system yet either.

I'll follow up with results from throwing a few dummy VMs on the system tomorrow.

I'd still really appreciate someone from VMware chiming in to say authoritatively whether this is all intended/authorized behavior or whether I should switch over to Hyper-V to avoid running afoul of the current EULA (and thus any legal hounding which could potentially ensue).  I'll tend to err on the side of caution and move to Hyper-V if I don't hear anything within the next couple of days.

Thanks again all.

[mcowger]

No one from VMware will give you a definitive answer here on this forum - its a community forum.  If you need a legally binding response, you need to talk to VMware directly via a sales rep.

[kfzig]

Thanks for all the input.

I'll contact a rep directly about the legal answer.  However, insofar as functionality alone is concerned, after testing ESXi currently appears to operate without the implied 6-core count restriction of the free license.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The following link applies to other editions of ESXi but you'll see that your experience with ESXi free is not a licensing glitch - http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/multicore.html.  If I'm using ESXi Essentials which is licensed up to 6 cores,  I need to assign 2 licenses to a 12 core CPU.  With ESXi free the license is for a "unlimited" number of CPU licenses (I think it may be up to 99)  so a 12 core CPU simply uses 2 of the available CPU licenses and you're able to use all 12 cores.