VMware ESX Manual

A SERVICE OF

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VMware, Inc. 33

Chapter 3 VirtualCenter and ESX Server 3 Licensing Overview

License Key Functionality

SpecificentitlementtorunVMwaresoftwareisdeterminedbylicensekeys.Depending

ontheESX ServerandVirtualCenterfeaturesyouwanttouse,purchasekeysbasedon

oneofthefollowing:

 Per‐processorbasis–Toactivateafeature,ahostrequiresafeaturelicenseforeach

ofitsprocessors.

 Per‐instancebasis–Toactivateasingleinstanceofcertainfeature,asinglelicense

isrequiredregardlessofhowmanyprocessorsareused.

Licensedfeaturesalsodifferintheiroperationbasedonwhethertheyareconsideredto

beESX ServerorVirtualCenterfeatures.ESX Serverfeaturescanbelicensedusing

eithersingle

‐hostorcentralizedlicensingmechanisms.Theydonotrequire

VirtualCenteroralicenseservertouse.VirtualCenterfeaturesrequirecentralized

licensing.ESX ServerfeaturesandVirtualCenterfeaturesalsodifferintheirbehavior

whenthelicenseserverisnotavailable.See “LicenseServerAvailability”onpage 35.

Table 3‐2summarizesthelicensefeaturetypes

forVMwareInfrastructure 3.

Per-Processor Licensing

FormostVMwareInfrastructureproducts,youpurchaselicensesonaper‐processor

basis,whichmeansthatyouneedtoindicatethetotalnumberofprocessors,nothosts,

thatwillruntheproducts.Youcandeployandredeploythepurchasedprocessor

capacity,soldinincrementsoftwoprocessors,onanycombinationof

hosts.

Table 3-2. Summary of License Feature Types

Feature

ESX Server or

VirtualCenter

Per-Processor or

Per-Instance

ESX Server ESX Server Per‐Processor

VirtualCenter Server VirtualCenter Per‐Instance

VirtualCenterAgentforESX Server VirtualCenter Per‐Processor

VMwareConsolidatedBackup(VCB) ESX Server Per‐Processor

ServerVMotionandStorageVMotion VirtualCenter Per‐Processor

VMware HA VirtualCenter Per‐Processor

VMwareDRSandDPM VirtualCenter Per‐Processor