VMware

vSphere 4.1 ™

Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview

Effective August 1, 2010

W H ITE PA P E R
 VMware vSphere 4.1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
VMware vSphere at a Glance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Key Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Key Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What’s New in vSphere 4.1?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
vSphere Licensing Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CPU Capacity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Memory Capacity (RAM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
License Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Centralized Licensing with No Single Point of Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Decentralized Licensing Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
vSphere Kits and Editions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
vSphere Essentials Kits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
vSphere Essentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
vSphere Essentials Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
vSphere Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
vSphere Editions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
vSphere Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
vSphere Advanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
vSphere Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
vSphere Enterprise Plus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
VMware vCenter Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
vCenter Server Packages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Key Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
À la Carte Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
vSphere Acceleration Kits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Upgrading to VMware vSphere 4.1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Upgrade Entitlements for Current Customers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Reinstatement Options for Customers with Inactive SnS Contracts. . . . . . . 9
How to Buy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Learn More. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

Executive Summary VMware vSphere at a Glance

VMware vSphere™ is the most complete and robust virtualization VMware vSphere is the industry’s most complete virtualization
platform on the market today for building cloud infrastructures. platform and the best platform for building cloud infrastructures.
The pricing, packaging and licensing schema for VMware vSphere transforms datacenters into dramatically simplified
vSphere 4.1 is designed to simplify the experience of buying, cloud infrastructures, enabling the next generation of flexible,
deploying and managing VMware products. Several changes in reliable IT services.
VMware vSphere 4.1 provide customers with additional value and
flexibility: Key Components
• Current customers will receive the new functionality in VMware • ESXi and ESX hypervisors—vSphere allows for a choice of
vSphere as part of their active support and subscription (SnS) VMware ESXi™ or VMware ESX® hypervisor architectures.
contracts. VMware recommends that customers deploy vSphere 4.1 on the
• Upgrade paths among VMware vSphere kits and editions provide ESXi hypervisor architecture as a best practice.
a cost-effective way to upgrade to more advanced functionality. • Centralized management—VMware vCenter Server provides
• Capacity pricing and centralized license management provide unified management for vSphere hosts and virtual machines
customers with more flexibility and simplify how customers and unlocks the key features in vSphere. VMware vCenter Server
purchase and deploy VMware vSphere. is licensed separately for use with vSphere editions and is
This white paper outlines the pricing and packaging options included in VMware vSphere Essentials kits and vSphere
available to customers when purchasing VMware vSphere and Acceleration Kits.
VMware vCenter™ Server. It also contains information about • Agent—VMware vCenter Server Agent enables central
changes to pricing and licensing, upgrade paths, and SnS management through vCenter Server.
entitlements in vSphere 4.1.
Key Features
• Infrastructure services—Dynamically allocate computing,
storage and networking resources.
• Application services—Deliver the highest levels of availability,
security and scalability.

What’s New in vSphere 4.1?

• VMware Storage I/O Control—Set quality-of-service priorities
for guaranteed access to storage resources.
• VMware Network I/O Control—Set network quality-of-service
priorities for guaranteed access to network resources.
• VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration—Offload tasks to
supported disk arrays for improved performance and more
efficient resource utilization.
• VMware Virtual Serial Port Concentrator—Enhance
management and aggregation through serial ports for low-
bandwidth links or Linux environments.
The sections that follow outline the pricing, licensing and
packaging options available to vSphere customers, along with
support entitlement and upgrade paths for SnS.

SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

vSphere Licensing Decentralized Licensing Option

Although VMware recommends that customers assign all
Overview vSphere licenses centrally through VMware vCenter Server,
customers also have the option to assign their license keys
The pricing and licensing model for vSphere 4.1 is designed to directly to individual hosts. There is no difference between
simplify and optimize the purchasing, deployment and support license keys assigned directly and those assigned centrally.
experience for all customers. When a vSphere host is added to the vCenter Server inventory,
any license key already on the host will become available for
CPU Capacity management, reporting and assignment in vCenter Server, just
like any license key added directly via VMware vCenter Server.
Each vSphere kit or edition is licensed on a per-processor basis,
according to the number of physical processors (CPUs) on each host. For more information on VMware vSphere licensing, visit
In the case of vSphere kits, the listed entitlement for CPU capacity http://www.vmware.com/support/licensing.html.
discussed later in this document applies to more than just one host.
Customers can purchase and deploy or redeploy any mix of servers,
as required; each processor in a socket may contain multiple cores.
Customers may deploy vSphere on physical processors that contain
vSphere Kits and Editions
up to six processing cores at no additional charge (see following To simplify and streamline the experience of purchasing and
note). Customers that require limits beyond the processor deploying vSphere, VMware offers several vSphere kits and
entitlements must purchase additional vSphere licenses. editions designed for a wide variety of deployment scenarios and
Note—VMware vSphere Advanced and Enterprise Plus editions customer types.
include expanded core entitlements up to 12 cores per CPU.
vSphere Essentials Kits
Memory Capacity (RAM) VMware vSphere Essentials kits are all-in-one solutions that
Each vSphere kit or edition is entitled to use up to 256GB RAM combine virtualization for up to three physical servers (up to two
per physical server (see following note). In the case of vSphere processors each) with centralized management capabilities. The
kits, the listed entitlement for RAM capacity discussed later in kits are self-contained solutions and may not be decoupled or
this document applies to more than just one host. Customers that combined with other VMware vSphere editions.
require memory beyond the entitlements must purchase vSphere Essentials
additional vSphere licenses. The VMware vSphere Essentials kit provides an all-in-one
Note—VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus edition has no memory solution for small offices to virtualize three physical servers for
limit or restriction. consolidating and managing applications to reduce hardware and
operating costs with a low upfront investment. vSphere
Essentials includes the following components:
License Management
• Hypervisor, with choice of ESXi or ESX architectures (VMware
VMware vSphere licenses are simple license keys (25-character
recommends ESXi)
alphanumeric strings) that contain encrypted information about
the kit or edition purchased and the processor quantity. These • VMware vStorage VMFS
license keys do not contain any server-specific information and • Four-way virtual SMP
are not tied to a specific piece of hardware. This means that the • VMware vCenter Server Agent
same license key can be assigned to multiple vSphere hosts, as
• VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection
long as the sum of physical processors on those hosts does not
exceed the encoded processor quantity in the license key. • VMware vCenter Update Manager
• VMware vCenter Server for Essentials
Centralized Licensing with No Single Point of Failure
VMware vCenter Server is the recommended interface for license The VMware vSphere Essentials kit must be purchased along
assignment to VMware vSphere hosts. When a license key is with a one-year subscription to software patches and updates.
assigned by vCenter Server, it is copied to the host and saved in a Support is optional and available on a per-incident basis.
persistent format. In the event that the host becomes disconnected
from VMware vCenter Server, the license key remains active on the
host indefinitely, even after a host reboot. Only a deliberate licensing
operation by the user can remove or replace a host license key.
SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

vSphere Essentials Plus vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices has all the
The VMware vSphere Essentials Plus kit provides an all-in-one features of the Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices kit plus
virtualization solution that includes application availability and the following features:
data protection capabilities for always-on IT. vSphere Essentials
• VMware High Availability
Plus includes all the capabilities of vSphere Essentials, along with
the following additional features: • VMware Data Recovery
• VMware vMotion
• VMware vMotion™ (new)
The VMware vSphere Essentials Plus kit for Retail and Branch
• VMware High Availability
Offices follows the same purchase rules described for the
• VMware Data Recovery Essentials kit for Retail and Branch Offices (starter kit purchase,
SnS for VMware vSphere Essentials Plus is sold separately, and a add-ons, three hosts per site, etc.). The difference is that this kit
minimum of one year of SnS is required. requires SnS (not just subscription) for a minimum of one year in
addition to the feature additions listed above.
vSphere Essentials for Retail and Branch Office Kits
VMware vSphere Essentials kits are also available for Retail and
Branch Offices. These kits offer a package solution for each of a
mid-size or enterprise’s branch offices in order to extend agility,
security and efficiency across the organization. Unlike the Essentials
and Essentials Plus kits discussed earlier, these retail and branch
office packages can be managed at the remote office or be
centrally managed from another location running vCenter Server.
vSphere Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices
VMware vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices
provides a turnkey solution to transform all of a mid-size or
enterprise’s branch offices into more agile, secure and cost-
effective businesses.
vSphere Essentials for Retail and Branch Offices includes
the following: VMware vSphere Essentials kits are all-inclusive packages that enable you to virtualize
and consolidate many application workloads onto three physical servers running
vSphere and centrally manage them with VMware vCenter™ Server for Essentials.
• Hypervisor, with choice of ESXi or ESX architectures
(VMware recommends ESXi)
• VMware vStorage VMFS
vSphere Editions
• Four-way virtual SMP
vSphere editions are highly scalable virtualization solutions for
• VMware vCenter Server Agent
midsize and enterprise organizations that want to optimize
• VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection existing IT investments, streamline IT operations and deliver IT as
• VMware vCenter Update Manager a service through private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructures.
• VMware vCenter Server for Essentials vSphere Standard
The VMware vSphere Essentials kit for Retail and Branch Offices VMware vSphere Standard edition provides an entry-level
must be purchased along with a one-year subscription to solution for basic consolidation of applications to slash hardware
software patches and updates. Support is optional and costs while accelerating application deployment. vSphere
available on a per-incident basis. There is a maximum of Standard includes the following key features:
three virtualized hosts per site and a minimum initial order
• Hypervisor, with choice of ESXi and ESX architectures (VMware
of a starter kit (covering 10 sites) plus the ability to add-on
recommends ESXi)
sites (per 1) as required.
• VMware vStorage Virtual Machine File System (VMFS)
vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices
• Four-way virtual symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)
VMware vSphere Essentials Plus for Retail and Branch Offices
provides a turnkey solution to transform all of an enterprise’s • VMware vCenter Server Agent
branch offices into more agile, secure and cost-effective • VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection
businesses with superior application availability and data protection. • VMware vCenter Update Manager

SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

• VMware High Availability automation. vSphere Enterprise includes all of the capabilities found
• VMware vStorage Thin Provisioning in vSphere Advanced, along with the following additional features:
• VMware vMotion (new) • VMware Storage vMotion
VMware vSphere Standard is licensed per processor with up to • VMware Distributed Resource Schedule
six cores, for use on a server with up to 256GB of memory per • VMware Distributed Power Management
physical server.
• VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration and Multipathing
vSphere Advanced VMware vSphere Enterprise edition is licensed per processor with
VMware vSphere Advanced edition provides a strategic up to six cores, for use on a server with up to 256GB of memory
consolidation solution that protects all applications against per physical server.
planned and unplanned downtime to provide superior application
availability. vSphere Advanced includes all of the capabilities found vSphere Enterprise Plus
in vSphere Standard, along with the following additional features: VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus edition offers the full range of
vSphere features for transforming datacenters into dramatically
• VMware Hot Add simplified cloud infrastructures, for running today’s applications
• VMware Fault Tolerance right alongside the next generation of flexible, reliable IT services.
• VMware Data Recovery vSphere Enterprise Plus includes all the capabilities found in
vSphere Enterprise, along with the following additional features:
• VMware vShield Zones
• VMware Virtual Serial Port Concentrator • Eight-way virtual SMP (only edition with this capability)
• VMware vNetwork Distributed Switch
VMware vSphere Advanced is licensed per processor with up to
12 cores, for use on a server with up to 256GB of memory per • VMware Host Profiles
physical server. • VMware Storage I/O Control
vSphere Enterprise • VMware Network I/O Control
VMware vSphere Enterprise edition is a robust solution that VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus edition is licensed per processor
customers can use to optimize IT assets, ensure cost-effective with up to 12 cores, and no memory limitation per physical server,
business continuity and streamline IT operations through and can be bundled with the Cisco Nexus 1000V.

VMware vSphere Kits and Editions Compared

Consolidation Availability Automated Resource Allocation Simplified IT Operations

Optimize existing Enable high availability, Deliver load balancing, power Advanced networking
infrastructure by converting data recovery and leverage management and live storage (distributed network switch)
physical systems to virtual live migration for applications migration (Storage vMotion) and host configuration
machines without manual intervention templates (host profiles)
for more OpEx savings

Essentials* ✓
Essentials Plus* ✓ ✓

Standard** ✓ ✓

Advanced** ✓ ✓

Enterprise** ✓ ✓ ✓

Enterprise Plus** ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

* All vSphere Essentials Kits contain a version of VMware vCenter Server for centralized management.
** A version of VMware vCenter Server (licensed separately) is required for all vSphere editions.

SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

VMware vCenter Server

À la Carte Features
VMware vCenter Server provides unified management for
vSphere environments and is a required component of a In addition to the kits and editions listed previously, customers can
complete VMware vSphere deployment. One instance of vCenter obtain the following products on an à la carte (standalone) basis:
Server is required to centrally manage virtual machines and their • VMware vSphere Hypervisor—A powerful enterprise-class
hosts and to enable all vSphere features. hypervisor that is free to license for a single server, with options
vCenter Server Packages for supplemental SnS.
VMware vCenter Server is available in the following packages: • VMware Data Recovery—An add-on module available for
purchase, treated as an upgrade to the VMware vSphere
• VMware vCenter Server for Essentials kits—Integrated
Standard license.
management for vSphere Essentials kits
• Cisco Nexus 1000V—A software network switch that integrates
• VMware vCenter Server Foundation—Centralized
with VMware vSphere to deliver virtual-machines-aware
management for up to three vSphere hosts
network services and is available for purchase as an add-on
• VMware vCenter Server Standard—Highly scalable product for use with vSphere Enterprise Plus.
management with rapid provisioning, monitoring, orchestration
and control of all virtual machines in a vSphere environment
vSphere Acceleration Kits
Key Components
VMware provides acceleration kits to simplify the initial purchase
All editions of vCenter Server include the following components: and deployment of VMware vSphere and VMware vCenter
• Management server—Acts as universal hub for provisioning, Server. Each acceleration kit consists of a number of licenses for
monitoring and configuring virtualized environments VMware vSphere, along with a license for one instance of a
VMware vCenter Server. The acceleration kits are often offered at
• Database server—Stores persistent configuration data and
promotional discounts. Visit http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/
performance information
buyvsphere-acceleration-kits.html or contact your local reseller for
• Search engine—Allows administrators to search the entire object more specific information on the latest available acceleration kit
inventory of multiple VMware vCenter Servers from one place offerings.
• vSphere Client—Provides administrators with a feature-rich
console for accessing one or more VMware vCenter Servers
simultaneously
• vCenter Web Access portal—Provides secure remote access to
vCenter Server from any system
• VMware vCenter APIs and .NET Extension—Allows integration
between vCenter Server and other tools, with support for
customized plug-ins to the vSphere Client
VMware vCenter Server Standard also includes the following
additional features:
• vCenter Orchestrator—Streamlines and automates key IT
processes
• vCenter Server Linked Mode—Enables a common inventory
view across multiple instances of vCenter Server

SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

Upgrading to VMware When customers upgrade supported licenses to a higher VMware

vSphere edition, the original license key is deactivated and a new
vSphere 4.1 license key is issued for the upgraded edition. The SnS fee is then
calculated. This new SnS contract will be extended by the value
VMware vSphere customers with an active SnS are entitled to remaining on the base edition. This process ensures that only a
vSphere 4.1 binaries of their kit or edition or may purchase an single license key exists that has a single SnS contract with a
upgrade to a higher VMware vSphere offering. For example, single termination date. This simplifies renewals.
VMware vSphere Standard customers can upgrade to either
VMware vSphere Advanced or VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus.
Upgrade paths are listed in Figure 3 under “License Upgrade.”

Figure 3 Upgrade Paths among VMware vSphere Editions

SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

Upgrade Entitlements for Current Customers In cases where support and subscription has expired for an
extended period, purchasing a new license may be more cost-
One benefit of VMware support and subscription is the
effective than reinstating the expired services.
entitlement rights to new features and upgrades. Existing
VMware Infrastructure 3 customers that have active SnS For more information, visit the VMware vSphere Upgrade Center
contracts will receive new VMware vSphere 4.x licenses at to determine the appropriate upgrade path for your organization:
no extra charge. http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/upgrade-center/.

VMwar e I n fr a str uc tu r e 3 ( VI3) V M wa r e v S p h e r e 4 .1 A d d e d F u n c t io n a li t y

VI 3 Foundation vSphere Standard vStorage Thin Provisioning

High Availability
vMotion

VI 3 Standard vSphere Standard vStorage Thin Provisioning

vMotion

VI 3 Enterprise vSphere Enterprise vStorage Thin Provisioning

vStorage APIs for Array Integration
vStorage APIs for Multipathing
Fault Tolerance
Hot Add
vShield Zones
Data Recovery
Virtual Serial Port Concentrator

VI 3 Foundation and vMotion vSphere Standard and Storage vMotion vStorage Thin Provisioning
VMware HA

VI 3 Standard and vMotion vSphere Standard and Storage vMotion vStorage Thin Provisioning

VI 3 Foundation and vMotion and DRS vSphere Enterprise vStorage Thin Provisioning
vStorage APIs for Array Integration
vStorage APIs for Multipathing
High Availability
Fault Tolerance
Hot Add
vShield Zones
Data Recovery
Virtual Serial Port Concentrator

VI 3 Standard and vMotion and DRS vSphere Enterprise vStorage Thin Provisioning
vStorage APIs for Array Integration
vStorage APIs for Multipathing
Fault Tolerance
Hot Add
vShield Zones
Data Recovery
Virtual Serial Port Concentrator

Reinstatement Options for Customers with

Inactive SnS Contracts
Customers who have an expired SnS must pay reinstatement
fees to purchase supported upgrades. Reinstatement fees are
based on the following criteria:
• The applicable SnS fees for the current contract term
• Fees that would have been paid for the period of time that the
customer’s SnS contract was not active
• A 20 percent fee on the sum of the fees in the previous two criteria
SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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 VMware vSphere 4.1

How to Buy Learn More

To purchase VMware vSphere, use the online VMware Partner For information or to purchase VMware products, call
Locator to find an authorized reseller in your area: 877-4-VMWARE (outside of North America dial 650-427-5000),
visit http://www.vmware.com/products, or search online for an
http://partnerlocator.vmware.com/
authorized reseller. For detailed specifications and systems
You can also visit the online VMware Store to determine which kit requirements, refer to the VMware vSphere documentation.
or edition of vSphere is right for your organization:
http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/vsphere_
purchaseoptions.html

SnS is required for all vSphere purchases.

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VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com
Copyright © 2010 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed
at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be
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