What You Need to Know About Per VM Licensing
As cloud computing becomes the norm in IT environments, IT increasingly needs to manage at the virtual machine (VM) level rather than the physical hardware from which it is abstracted. With virtual machines now being the new unit of management, IT organizations need flexible deployment and licensing options that fit the demands of the new model.
Starting September 1, 2010, some VMware vCenter products will transition from the existing per processor licensing to per VM licensing. Other vCenter products will continue to be sold under existing licensing models.
How This Affects You
If you are new to the VMware vCenter products, you will benefit from the new pricing model which makes it easier and less expensive to take advantage of the vCenter product capabilities.
If you have previously purchased per processor licenses for vCenter AppSpeed, vCenter CapacityIQ, vCenter Chargeback or vCenter Site Recovery Manager, VMware will provide a transition plan that allows you to exchange your current per processor licenses for ones that are based on the new per VM licensing model. If you own per processor licenses for the above products as of September 1, 2010 you will be able to exchange them for per VM licenses.
Do I Need to Convert to Per VM Licenses?
No. You can continue to use the per processor licenses you already own. You can continue to renew VMware Support and Subscription (SnS) for the per processor licenses using your regular renewal terms.
If you have purchased per processor licenses and wish to continue with this model, you will also be able to continue purchasing per processor licenses through December 15, 2010. However, after December 15, 2010, you will only be able to buy per VM licenses for vCenter AppSpeed, vCenter CapacityIQ, vCenter Chargeback and vCenter Site Recovery Manager. These products will be sold in increments of 25 VMs per license.
How Per VM Licensing Works
Per VM licensing is more flexible. Rather than requiring licenses for every server deployed, you will only need licenses for the average maximum number of virtual machines that are managed. Let’s look at an example:
- You want to manage cost reporting effectively and decide to buy VMware vCenter Chargeback.
- On an average day, you run between 90 and 125 virtual machines.
- As shown in the chart above, at the end of the year, usage typically spikes to 200 to 250 virtual machines for two months.
- The daily maximum total virtual machines still averages only about 130 virtual machines.
- You would only need enough licenses for 130 VMs – the average high watermark over the course of the trailing12 months. In this case, the customer would buy six licenses for a total of 150 VMs (each license contains a pack of 25 VMs).
- If the average usage over time exceeds 150 VMs, you will receive an alert through VMware vCenter Server, but will be able to continue managing the environment without restrictions.
Determining Licensing Usage
VMware vCenter AppSpeed, CapacityIQ, Chargeback and Site Recovery Manager are licensed per managed VM. A license will be required for each managed VM – this is based on the number of VMs that the specific product is managing. VMware vCenter Server will provide information on actual license usage for each of the products, and will alert you if average usage has exceeded the number of available licenses.
The table below summarizes how managed VMs are measured for each product.
| Product | Managed VM Definition |
|---|---|
| vCenter Site Recovery Manager | Any VM that is part of a SRM protection group, regardless of power state (defined as a “Protected VM”) |
| vCenter AppSpeed | Any powered-on VM that is actively monitored by AppSpeed |
| vCenter CapacityIQ | Any powered-on VM managed by CapacityIQ |
| vCenter Chargeback | Any powered-on VM in a Chargeback hierarchy |
What You Need to Use Per VM Licenses
Per VM licensing is only supported by AppSpeed 1.5, Chargeback 1.5 and Site Recovery Manager 4.1 or newer versions of those products. CapacityIQ will require the upcoming release or a newer version to support the per VM licensing. These versions work with either per VM or per processor licenses. However, you will receive either the per processor or the per VM license key, depending on which one you purchase. Earlier versions of these products cannot be used with per VM license keys.
License keys are managed through vCenter Server. vCenter Server 4.1 or later is required to support per VM licenses. It will also support per processor licenses for all products. vCenter Server 4.0 and earlier versions will not accept per VM license keys for the products mentioned above.
Additionally, per VM licenses cannot be combined with per processor licenses for the same product on the same vCenter Server instance. You will need to use either per VM or per processor licenses for a given product.
How Much Will the Per VM Licenses Cost?
Products will be sold in packs of 25 virtual machine licenses (prices do not include SnS). This is a more cost-effective way for customers to implement the management products since it eliminates the need to license them on a per processor basis.
| Product | Price for 25-pack of per VM licenses |
|---|---|
| vCenter AppSpeed | $3,750 |
| vCenter Capacity IQ (per VM pricing available late 2010 / early 2011*) |
$1,875 |
| vCenter Chargeback | $1,250 |
| vCenter Site Recovery Manager | $11,250 |
Support and Subscription (SnS) will be the regular 21%/25% of list for these products.
*VMware vCenter CapacityIQ will be offered in a per VM model beginning at the end of 2010 / early 2011, and you can continue buying per processor licenses for vCenter CapacityIQ until then.
Converting from Per Processor to Per VM Licenses
As noted above, if you have purchased per processor licenses for these products you will be eligible to exchange their licenses at no cost to receive a specific number of per VM licenses for each per processor license. If you choose to convert your per processor licenses, VMware will issue new per VM licenses to replace the per processor licenses. As noted in the table below, the number of per VM licenses you receive will depend on the product.
| Product | Number of VMs for each Converted Per Processor License |
|---|---|
| vCenter AppSpeed | 10 |
| vCenter Capacity IQ (per VM pricing available late 2010 / early 2011*) |
10 |
| vCenter Chargeback | 20 |
| vCenter Site Recovery Manager | 5 |
For example, if you own 6 per processor licenses for Site Recovery Manager and would like to convert to per VM, you will receive 6 license packs that contain 5 VMs each for a total of 30 VMs.
To initiate a conversion request, you should complete a Customer Service Request. When you submit your request, please provide:
- Primary license administrator’s name and e-mail address
- Products that you would like to convert to per VM
- The contract or order numbers if known
- License keys if available
- Information on whether the existing license keys have been split or combined
Alternatively, or if you have additional questions, call 877-4VMWARE and choose licensing support. (You can also visit the VMware Phone Page to find international phone numbers.)
Note that VMware will only accept requests from the primary license administrator. Once you have submitted a request online, you will be given a case number. You will be contacted by a conversion specialist within one business day to start the conversion process.
