What Were the Primary Changes Made in the August 3, Announcement?

Below is a summary of the primary areas of concerns raised around the new licensing model and the actions taken by VMware to resolve.

Downgrade Rights

Clients will have the right to downgrade vSphere 5 licenses to vSphere 4.

• When purchasing vSphere 5 part numbers, customer can downgrade to a previous version 4.x or VI 3.5
• Downgraded vSphere 5 licenses will be subject to the licensing model and EULA of the version they have been downgraded to.

Upgrade Rights

Customers with active SnS contracts will be able to upgrade to vSphere 5 at no additional cost according to the entitlement path for the vSphere 4.1 edition they own.

• vSphere 5 licenses will be automatically pushed to customers via the VMware Licensing portal
• Customers will receive a new vSphere 5 license key for each vSphere 4.1 key they own
• Customers can choose to upgrade to vSphere 5 at their convenience
• When upgrading from existing licenses of vSphere 4.x or older to vSphere 5.0 users must accept the vSphere 5.0 EULA. Users may not maintain the vSphere 4.x licensing model if they upgrade.

vSphere Upgrade Paths Summarized Below

vRAM Explained

Keep in mind the new VMware vSphere 5.0 licensing model only applies to new purchases of vSphere licenses or to existing licenses of vSphere 4.x or older that are upgraded to vSphere 5.0.

Key Notes on vRAM:

• Each CPU must have at least one vSphere license assigned. The number of cores and physical RAM do not matter.
  
  
• Each processor license managed by a vCenter or multiple vCenters in linked mode contributes an amount of vRAM capacity to the total vRAM pool. Each vSphere Edition creates a separate pool that must be kept in licensing compliance.
  
• Example: Four vSphere 5 Enteprise licenses create a vRAM pool of 256 GB of vRAM (4 x 64 GB).
  
  
• The vRAM pool is shared among powered-on VMs running on all hosts in a vCenter. It doesn’t matter how many VMs you run and on which hosts you run them. vMotion, DRS, and HA do not require additional licenses.
  
• Example: 20 VMs with 4GB of configured vRAM consume a total of 80GB vRAM
  
  
• At any point in time the 12 month rolling average of daily high watermark of consumed vRAM must be equal or less than the vRAM pool capacity. Compliance is at the vCenter level not the host level.
  
  
• Clients can extend the vRAM pool by upgrading all CPUs to higher end vSphere Edition or adding processor licenses to the same set of CPUs.

vRAM Entitlement:

vRAM, a transferable, virtualization-based entitlement to offer customers the greatest flexibility for vSphere configuration and usage. vRAM is defined as the virtual memory configured to virtual machines. When a virtual machine is created, it is configured with a certain amount of virtual memory (vRAM) available to the virtual machine. Assigning a certain amount of vRAM is a required step in the creation of a virtual machine. When the virtual machine is powered on, the vRAM configured for that virtual machine counts against the total vRAM entitled to the user.

Depending on the edition, each vSphere 5.0-CPU license provides a certain vRAM capacity entitlement. See table below for vRAM entitlements.

	vSphere 5 Edition
	Essentials Kits (up to 3 hosts)	Standard	Enterprise	Enterprise Plus
vRAM Entitlement per CPU License	32 GB (192 GB Max)	32GB	64GB	96GB

Pooled vRAM Capacity:

An important feature of the new licensing model is the concept of pooling the vRAM capacity entitlements for all processor licenses. The vRAM entitlements of vSphere CPU licenses are pooled—that is, aggregated—across all CPU licenses managed by a VMware vCenter instance (or multiple linked VMware vCenter instances) to form a total available vRAM capacity (pooled vRAM capacity). If workloads on one server are not using their full vRAM entitlement, the excess capacity can be used by other virtual machines within the VMware vCenter instance. At any given point in time, the vRAM capacity consumed by all powered-on virtual machines within a pool must be equal or lower than the pooled vRAM capacity.


Monitoring of Pooled vRAM Capacity:

After upgrading to vSphere 5: Available and consumed vRAM capacity can be monitored and managed using the licensing-management module of VMware vCenter Server. Customers can create reports and set up alerts to obtain automated notification of when the level of vRAM consumption surpasses a specified level of the available pooled capacity.

Before Upgrading to vSphere 5: Customers can use a separate free utility that analyzes a VI3 of vSphere 4 environment, and determines vRAM consumed. (The tool will be available around the release date of Aug 22.

Selected FAQs

Q: What is vRAM?
A: vRAM or virtual RAM is the total memory configured to a virtual machine.

Q: What is the available pooled vRAM capacity of my environment?
A: Available pooled vRAM is equal to the sum total of vRAM entitlements for all vSphere licenses of a single edition, managed by a single instance of VMware vCenter Server or by multiple instances of VMware vCenter Server in Linked Mode.

Q: How is consumed vRAM capacity determined?
A: Consumed vRAM is equal to the sum total of vRAM configured to all powered on virtual machines managed by a single instance of VMware vCenter Server or by multiple instances of VMware vCenter Server in Linked Mode.

Q: How big a vRAM pool can I make?
A: The pooled vRAM capacity can be extended indefinitely by adding more vSphere licenses to VMware vCenter Server.

Q: Can the pooled vRAM capacity be extended by using any vSphere edition?
A: No, vRAM entitlements are pooled by vSphere edition. Therefore, a vRAM pool can be extended by adding vSphere licenses of the same edition.

Q: How am I compliant with this licensing model? Is there a “hard stop” at my vRAM limit?
A: To be compliant, consumed vRAM must be equal or less than the available pooled vRAM capacity. VMware vCenter Server will not impose a hard limit (with the exception of VMware vCenter Server for Essentials) on consumed vRAM, but will provide alerts that consumed vRAM is approaching or has surpassed available pooled capacity. The VMware policy is that customers should buy licenses in advance of use.

Q: I have received an alert from VMware vCenter that I have exceeded the available pooled vRAM, but the product did not prevent me from deploying a new virtual machine. What is going on?
A: Only vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus implement hard enforcement of vRAM capacity. VMware vCenter Server Standard will not prevent you from exceeding the available vRAM capacity; it will only signal that the licensing of the environment is out of compliance. VMware licensing policy is that customers should buy licenses in advance of use, so we recommend monitoring the vRAM consumption and extending the available pooled vRAM capacity before exceeding it. In this example, to become compliant you should immediately add enough vSphere licenses to cover the high watermark of consumed vRAM capacity.

Q: Once I use a vSphere license to add vRAM to a pool, can I later assign that vSphere license to a CPU?
A: Yes, using the VMware Licensing portal http://www.vmware.com/licensing/license.portal you can combine or split vSphere processor licenses. This process will create new license keys that can be reassigned to new and existing CPUs using the Licensing Module in vCenter Server.

Q: What is the process through which I add vSphere licensing to the vRAM pool?
A: There are two ways to add vSphere licenses to the pool:

• • Introduce a new host to the pool and assign processor licenses to its CPUs
• • Add new processor licenses, combining them to existing ones using the VMware licensing portal

Q: Can I add vRAM to an Essentials or Essentials Plus kit?
A: No, the total vRAM capacity of Essentials and Essentials Plus kits cannot be extended.

Q: Does my SnS calculation change?
A: SnS continues to be linked to vSphere processor licenses.

Q: Do the licensing terms differ depending on which server I deploy vSphere 5.0 on?
A: No. No vSphere license entitlement is linked to physical characteristics of the server on which vSphere is deployed.

Q: How do I procure more vRAM?
A: You simply need to buy and assign more vSphere CPU licenses.

Q: Will this licensing model cost me more?
A: Although it is impossible to predict the effects of the new model in every type of environment, the licensing model has been designed to minimize the risk of potential impacts in existing environments while also providing room for growth. vRAM entitlements have been set to provide enough capacity to scale well beyond today’s average consolidation ratios of 5:1. In addition, thanks to pooling, customers will be able to share entitlements among multiple hosts, thereby making more efficient use of available capacity.