VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘licensing’

According to the America VMware VIP Partner Newsletter – April 2008 email I just received, ESX 3.5 can be installed on single processor servers. From the email:

“Effective immediately, customers may install VMware ESX and VI licenses on single processor, physical hosts that are included on our Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). This includes servers with two sockets that are populated with a single processor. Each processor may contain up to four cores. Please note that licenses of VMware ESX and VI are still sold in minimum increments of two processors. With this announcement, VMware is clarifying that a two processor license grant may now be split and used on two, single processor, physical hosts.”

More information can also be found Read the rest of this entry »

RTFM has become a common acronym among IT professionals. An administrator having a good day will tell you it stands for “Read The Fine Manual.” On a bad day the expression can become a little more colorful. The point of bringing it up is that I actually read the ESX Server 3 Installation Guide and was surprised to find out that the VMware FLexlm License Server no longer needs to use a single .lic file. In VC 2.x you can simply place multiple .lic files in the Licensing Server’s directory.

In the ESX 3 Guide mentioned above page 59 starts out: Read the rest of this entry »

First reported by theinquirer.net in the March 14 article Dell set to absorb price of ESX3i hypervisor, it appears Dell will be offering ESX 3i for free when purchasing PowerEdge servers. Virtualization.info posted Dell to give VMware ESX Server 3i for free? the following day which was then followed by a few other blogs reacting to the news with similar posts. Although the announcement of this possibility was, and still is, exciting, the comments posted by readers and bloggers have been very insightful and interesting.

Comments from theinquirer.net’s article: Read the rest of this entry »

A Few Thoughts on Xen posted on blog.scottlowe.org got me thinking about the pricing differences between Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX Server. It is a general assumption that Xen Server is more affordable than ESX. I decided to figure out exactly what the products cost and how they compare to each other. I am not factoring in the cost of Sales and Support in this post because I would want that regardless of which vendor I choose.

I found Citrix XenServer list pricing from a Citrix presentation slide deck that was presented to me via a webinar several weeks ago. Click on the image to see a larger version. Read the rest of this entry »

Cost comparison: Virtual vs. Vista desktop management is a great article from Barb Goldworm published on techtarget.com explaining the costs of implementing virtual desktops and comparing those costs to upgrading existing desktops to Vista. Working through Barb’s cost model should be mandatory homework for any company trying to decide if they should use VDI or begin another PC refresh project. I am going to high-lite some points with quotes from the article and then provide my own opinion. Personally, I believe VDI is a great solution for specific application scenarios, but is probably not a good solution for replacing hundreds (or more) of users’ desktops – both from a cost angle as well as an implementation and administration angle. I am curious to hear from the community about costs associated with migrating to VDI as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s another upgrade to ESX 3.5 issue reported to me by Mohammad, a UK VMware professional and VM /ETC reader. This issue is specific to ESX hosts that have 4 or more CPU sockets and are using a host based license. VMware has now released a patch to resolve this issue – http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003214

From our email conversation:

Mohammad:

Just a quick question on ESX 3.5 note.. Have you come across using 4x CPU (quad core, so 16cores total) host-based license with ESX 3.5 yet? One of my customers got an issue with that and VMware’s response was that they need a patch to fix the issue which sounds little strange.

Me:

I have not come across this yet. Just so I understand, your customer has a 4 physical socket ESX server that is also quad core and ESX host based licensing won’t work? Meaning what, that they have at least a 4 cpu license but ESX can’t read it correctly on this particular platform? It was not a problem in ESX 3.0.2 or earlier?

Mohammad:

Yes thats right, 4 sockets, 4 CPUs and all quad core, ESX 3.5, hostbased lic. On Vi Client, when pointing to lic file, ESX shows licensed, but when clicking on ESX edition to select lic type starter or standard, clicking on standard and OK, still shows ESX unlicensed. Lic file is correct. Apparantly VMware has just said there this is an issue (ESX 3.5 with 4 or more CPUs, host-based lic) which they will fix in patch release..

Did you know that if you deploy a VM with a Windows desktop OS on any virtualization server you are violating Microsoft licensing if you use your Volume Licensing key? Did you know that if you P2V a desktop OS that is using an OEM Windows License to a virtual server you are also in violation?

The only way Microsoft allows you to run virtual desktops on a virtual server is using an annual subscription license called Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktops (VECD), and VECD is only available if you buy Software Assurance. Microsoft announced VECD back in April 2007.

VMware published a .pdf that is a FAQ about VECD. Here’s some cut and pastes from the .pdf: Read the rest of this entry »