Multiple Essentials Kits

[ThePants999]

Hi folks,

I'm fully aware that if you buy multiple Essentials Kits, you have to set up multiple independent vCenters, with at most three servers on each. However, I was told today that you're not allowed to have more than one Essentials deployment per physical site. Anyone know whether this is true? I can't find any documentation supporting that. I found something like it in a document talking about "Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices", but that's a separate thing from ordinary Essentials, right?

Thanks in advance!

[a_p_]

I too am not aware of this limitation.

AFAIK only Acceleration Kits are limited to one per site.

André

[ThompsG]

Hi ThePants999 and welcome!

I like your thinking!!

I'm also not aware of any specifically mentioned limitation or licensing agreement that says you cannot do what you are doing however as much as I like VMware, they do have all their back teeth and the truth will lie with the VMware licensing auditors :smileyhappy:

I reckon the sticking point is going to be this statement and the intention thereof:

While your argument would be that you have multiple small environments, it would/could be argued that it's part of a singular larger environment. If each of the "small" environments had no network connectivity between them then you might have a leg.

NOTE: I'm not saying this isn't possible or that you are currently doing anything wrong. As mentioned there is nothing that can be seen in the agreements that specifically excludes what is proposed.

Honest truth is that you need to engage a VMware licensing person to confirm as if you are audited then it could become expensive to get this wrong. If you don't mind, I'll ask my TAM this question and see if something official comes back?

Kind regards.

[ThompsG]

Hi ThePants999,

Looks like the Essentials limitation of a single site might have been removed according to this older thread: License question on VMware Essentials kit

Kind regards.

[TheBobkin]

Hello ThePants999​

Welcome to Communities.

I too have never heard of any such limitation - where perchance did you hear/read this?

This is generally a great (and current!) resource for such information:

Edit: for some reason it is preventing posting comment if I include resource link if you google vmware-product-guide 2019 you will find it.

Potentially your source was thinking of limitations of these licences for VSA <sniggers in HCI :smileygrin: >:

"If You obtain a license to VMware vSphere Storage Appliance for VMware vSphere Essentials Plus as a part of Your

license to VMware vSphere Essentials Plus, You may use VMware vSphere Storage Appliance for VMware vSphere

Essentials Plus only on a single Cluster."

Or multiple vCenter limitations:

"You cannot connect multiple instances of VMware vCenter Server to the same Single Sign On (SSO) federation."

Other than the above examples I can see no indication of such limitation and if there were it would be stated in the linked documentation.

If you want to be sure for sure though, consider calling our licensing team, if they inform of something not noted in the documentation then that would need amending.

Edit2: Had a look and seems was potentially a limitation in the past - not looked into documentation to corroborate though:

License question on VMware Essentials kit

Bob

[TheBobkin]

Looks like this was just a thing in the past for older license types (Essentials for ROBO):

# Again won't let me link the vSphere product guide from 2012...

"VMware vSphere Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices VMware vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices VMware vSphere Essentials Plus with vSphere Storage Appliance for Retail and Branch Offices (collectively, the "ROBO Kit") In addition to the general license notes above, if You purchase a license to VMware vCenter Server as a part of the ROBO Kit, the following terms apply: You may only use VMware vCenter Server, included in the ROBO Kit, solely to manage up to three (3) Servers per physical building, with each Server having up to two (2) Processors, or You may use a separately purchased VMware vCenter Server Standard license to manage such Servers. The number of physical buildings with Servers may not exceed the number of Your ROBO Kit licenses."

Who knows though, ThompsG could be on to something regarding specific parlance around 'small environments' so yes give licensing team a call.

Bob

[IRIX201110141]

There was NEVER such that kind of limitation for the vSphere Essentials (Plus) or at least in the last 11 years.  The ROBO comes way later and for my under standing the OP doesnt speak about ROBO.

If my brain doesnt fool me the one and only Package that was a limited about buy per Customer was "Accelerator Kit...."

Regard

Joerg

[TheBobkin]

Hello Joerg,

"The ROBO comes way later and for my under standing the OP doesnt speak about ROBO."

Sure, but OP also never informed about where they were informed of such information or what possible product combination the person informing them of such was thinking of when they considered this - could be a multitude of sources when you consider all of the above information (but likely no longer relevant).

If you were planning/running such configurations and went through an audit at some point that could inform 100% then this is good info.

Bob

[ThompsG]

Also back in at least 2014 there appeared to be such a limitation:

See in the fine print there is a Maximum of 3 ESXi Hosts per site mentioned. This will likely be the information that is being gone on and was for both the Retail and Branch Office.

Agree with TheBobkin that information received is likely not relevant now days but would still get the official word and in writing (sadly though this doesn't always help at audit time with VMware but that's a story for another day and another audience :smileywink:)

Thanks and kind regards.

[IRIX201110141]

Again.... todays ROBO have a predecessor which wasnt a huge  "success" so VMware have re-range to Produkt to better meet the customers needs :smileywink:  The screenshot from above only covers todays ROBO and the predecessor and not the normal vSphere Essentials Bundle which costs around 460,- plus Subscription (60,-).

Regards

Joerg

[ThePants999]

Many thanks everyone, really helpful!

My source on this was a VMware employee, but an architect rather than anyone on the customer side, so I can easily believe he had out-of-date information about licensing.

That Product Guide is exactly what I've been looking for, thanks. I think the old ROBO limitation relating to "3 hosts per physical building" is probably what he was thinking of.