vSphere 5.5 Free version licensing - physical CPU's limit

[zakldz]

Hello!

I'm newbie in VMware licensing. Please explain me some limit of licensing the ESXi 5.5. I'm confused by "licensing per processor" term. After registration, I've got the one free license. I applied it on my server, and it work well. But this box has 2 physical CPU sockets, and the second one is not used yet. vSphere Client show "Product: VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor Licensed for 1 physical CPUs (unlimited cores per CPU)", so I mean, that I need another license key for the second physical CPU. Am I right? When I got this, and tried to put it in vSphere config tab, it replaced the first one only. On http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2064117

I read "Each physical processor (CPU) in a server must have at least one vSphere 5 processor license key assigned to be able to run vSphere."

I'm confused about it.

Regards, Petr

[a_p_]

As of vSphere 5.5 most limitations for the free Hypervisor have been removed (see e.g. http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2064117)

A host with a free Hypervisor license will show the number of installed processors, i.e if you add the second one it should show s.th. like "Product: VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor Licensed for 2 physical CPUs (unlimited cores per CPU)".

André

[zakldz]

Thank you! It's very nice.

Is there any official document telling this explicity? That, my first one free license showing now "Product: VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor Licensed for 1 physical CPUs (unlimited cores per CPU)", after adding the second CPU in the server box will automatically changed to something like "Product: VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor Licensed for 2 physical CPUs (unlimited cores per CPU)"? I can't check it on my own practically, and I want have no need to worry about it, for next year or two. Please point me some official doc.

Regards, Petr

[a_p_]

From https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/gettingstarted

~snip~

Number of cores per physical CPU: No limit

Number of physical CPUs per host: No limit

~snip~

André

[zakldz]

Thank you Andre!

Isn't this document referred to vSphere 6.0 version? I can't find any refer to 5.5, and any mention to vSphere versions at all.

Regards, Petr.

[a_p_]

VMware used to have different limitations for the free Hypervisor, but as far as I remember there has never been one for the number of physical processors. Most of the limitation have been lifted with ESXi 5.5 anyway (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2064117), and from my personal experience I can confirm that the free Hypervisor license works for single CPU hosts as well as for multi CPU hosts.

If you are still not convinced, you can easily verify the behavior by creating an ESXi VM on your host (or in VMware Workstation) with a single vCPU, applying the Hypervisor license, and then adding additional vCPUs.

André