VMware vSphere Standard

Licensing overview

vSphere 8 licensing: Per Processor or Per Core, Per Year

vSphere 8 licensed on a per-processor basis applies to select editions:

vSphere Standard, vSphere Enterprise Plus, vSphere Acceleration Kits, vSphere Essential Kits, and vSphere Scale Out. Each physical processor (CPU) in a server needs to have at least one processor license key assigned to be able to run vSphere.

Each per-processor license will cover CPUs with up to 32 physical cores. If the CPUhas more than 32 cores, additional CPU licenses are required. For more information, please refer to the VMware Product Guide or visit Update to VMware’s per-CPU Pricing Model (https://news.vmware.com/company/cpu-pricing-model-update-feb-2020)

vSphere licensed on a per-core basis applies to the following offerings:

vSphere+, vSphere+ Standard, vSphere Enterprise Plus with Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, vSphere Standard term license.

Each physical processor is required to be licensed with a minimum of 16 core licenses. The number of core licenses required equals the number of physical cores on the licensed processor, subject to a minimum requirement of 16 core licenses per physical processor.
No limit on the number of virtual machines

There are no restrictions on the number of virtual machines (VMs) that can run on each properly licensed vSphere 8 processor.
vSphere for virtual desktop deployments VMware vSphereDesktop is specifically designed forlicensing vSphere when used to run virtual desktops. It can only be used as a virtualization platform for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments with either VMware Horizon® View™ or third-party connection brokers. For more details, see the Packaging overview section.

License management

vSphere 8 licenses are simple license keys (25-character alphanumeric strings) that VMware vSphere Compute Virtualization WH I T E P A P E R | 4 contain encrypted information about the vSphere edition or kit purchased and the processor quantity. These license keys do not contain any server-specific information and are not tied to a specific piece of hardware. This means the same license key can be assigned to multiple vSphere hosts as long as the number of licenses required for physical processor units on those hosts does not exceed the encoded license quantity in the license key. To calculate the number of licenses required, consider that each perprocessor license includes licensing for up to 32 physical cores in each CPU. If using per core term licenses, calculate the number of physical cores per CPU (requires minimum of 16 cores / CPU for per core licensing).

Centralized licensing with no single point of failure

vCenter Server is the recommended interface for license assignment to vSphere hosts. When a license key is assigned by vCenter Server, it is copied to the host and saved in a persistent format. If the host becomes disconnected from 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.

Decentralized licensing option

VMware recommends that customers assign all vSphere licenses centrally through vCenter Server. However, vSphere customers have the option to assign their license keys directly to individual hosts. There is no difference between directly and centrally assigned license keys. When a vSphere host is added to the vCenter Server inventory, any license key already on the host will become available for management, reporting and assignment in vCenter Server, just like any license key added directly via vCenter Server