Since the announcement of the two new VMware offerings: VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) at the end of 2023, I have been trying to wrap my head around the new offers and to better help me understand the next level of details, I have put together several diagrams across the various offers and applicable add-ons that can be purchased.
After sharing these diagrams internally, the feedback was extremely positive and I thought I would also share these diagrams with our users and partners who might still have questions around the new offers. I have also created a short URL which you can access by going to vmwa.re/skus
In addition, we have also published a VMware KB 95927 (Inventory Script) and VMware KB 96426 (Calculator Script) that can be used to help our users understand the new licensing model which uses both CPU cores and TiB (for vSAN storage sizing), please refer to the KB articles for more details.
Changelog:
- 11/08/24 - Updated with new SKU offers (vSphere Enterprise Plus & VCF Edge)
- 03/20/24 - Updated with VMware Live Recovery (VLR includes LSR & LCR) and Private AI Foundation Add-On
- 02/16/24 - Updated VCF w/CSP + new VMware by Broadcom theme colors
- 02/13/24 - Removed 8TiB minimal purchase per new VMware KBs & updated VCF w/VMware Data Services Manager (DSM)
- 01/12/24 - Updated VCF w/TAM, PSO and Learning Service Add-On
- 01/09/24 - Updated VCF w/CSP Add-On and VCDR/RWR/SRM Add-On for VVS/VVEP
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)
Products & Support Services includes:
- SDDC Manager
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Server Standard
- vSphere with Tanzu (includes TKG Runtime)
- vSphere ESXi
- vSAN Enterprise (includes 1TiB per CPU Core)
- NSX Enterprise Plus
- Aria Suite Enterprise
- Aria Automation
- Aria Automation Orchestrator
- Aria Operations
- Aria Operations for Logs
- Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise
- HCX Enterprise
- VMware Data Services Manager (DSM)
- Activation & Upgrade Support Service
- Broadcom Software Maintenance
- Support Account Manager (SAM) Support Services (highly recommended)
Available Add-Ons for purchase for VCF:
- VMware Live Recovery (VLR)
- Sold as Per Protected VM
- VMware Live Site Recovery (LSR)
- VMware Live Cyber Recovery (LCR)
- Sold as protected TiB
- vSAN Enterprise
- Sold as Per TiB (no minimum purchase)
- VMware Load Balancer (NSX Advanced Load Balancer)
- Sold as per service unit (Service Engine x vCPU)
- VMware Firewall
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
- Security Intelligence
- Container Security with Antrea
- VMware Firewall + Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
- Security Intelligence
- Container Security with Antrea
- Distributed and Gateway Intrusion Detection and Prevention Service (IDS/IPS)
- Malware Prevention
- Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) and Network Detection and Response (NDR)
- Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TMC SaaS
- TMC (Self-Managed)
- Tanzu Application Platform (TAP)
- TAP
- Sold as per vCPU
- Tanzu Spring Runtime
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TAP
- Tanzu Spring Runtime (TSR)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Tanzu Guardrails Enterprise (TGE)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Aria Automation Config (formally Saltstack)
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Automation for Secure Host
- Tanzu Guardrails Advanced (TGA)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Tanzu Cloudhealth Enterprise (TCE)
- Sold as percentage of monthly cloud spend
- Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC)
- Sold as active artifact
- Tanzu Ops for Apps (formally Wavefront)
- Sold as point per second (PPS)
- Tanzu Insights (TI)
- Sold as event per month
- VMware Private AI Foundation (COMING SOON)
- Support Services
- VMware Learning Education Services
VMware Cloud Foundation Edge (VCFE)
Products & Support Services includes:
- SDDC Manager
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Server Standard
- vSphere with Tanzu (includes TKG Runtime)
- vSphere ESXi
- vSAN Enterprise (includes 1TiB per CPU Core)
- vSphere w/vSAN Witness
- vSAN Witness must be deployed locally
- NSX Enterprise Plus
- Aria Suite Enterprise
- Aria Automation
- Aria Automation Orchestrator
- Aria Operations
- Aria Operations for Logs
- Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise
- HCX Enterprise
- VMware Data Services Manager (DSM)
- Activation & Upgrade Support Service
- Broadcom Software Maintenance
- Support Account Manager (SAM) Support Services (highly recommended)
Available Add-Ons for purchase for VCFE:
- VMware Live Recovery (VLR)
- Sold as Per Protected VM
- VMware Live Site Recovery (LSR)
- VMware Live Cyber Recovery (LCR)
- Sold as protected TiB
- vSAN Enterprise
- Sold as Per TiB (no minimum purchase)
- VMware Load Balancer (NSX Advanced Load Balancer)
- Sold as per service unit (Service Engine x vCPU)
- VMware Firewall
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
- Security Intelligence
- Container Security with Antrea
- VMware Firewall + Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
- Security Intelligence
- Container Security with Antrea
- Distributed and Gateway Intrusion Detection and Prevention Service (IDS/IPS)
- Malware Prevention
- Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) and Network Detection and Response (NDR)
- Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TMC SaaS
- TMC (Self-Managed)
- Tanzu Application Platform (TAP)
- TAP
- Sold as per vCPU
- Tanzu Spring Runtime
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TAP
- Tanzu Spring Runtime (TSR)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Tanzu Guardrails Enterprise (TGE)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Aria Automation Config (formally Saltstack)
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Automation for Secure Host
- Tanzu Guardrails Advanced (TGA)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Tanzu Cloudhealth Enterprise (TCE)
- Sold as percentage of monthly cloud spend
- Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC)
- Sold as active artifact
- Tanzu Ops for Apps (formally Wavefront)
- Sold as point per second (PPS)
- Tanzu Insights (TI)
- Sold as event per month
- VMware Private AI Foundation (COMING SOON)
- Support Services
- VMware Learning Education Services
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) for Cloud Service Providers (CSP)
Products & Support Services includes:
- SDDC Manager
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Server Standard
- vSphere with Tanzu (includes TKG Runtime)
- vSphere ESXi
- vSAN Enterprise (includes 1TiB per CPU Core)
- NSX Enterprise Plus
- Aria Suite Enterprise
- Aria Automation
- Aria Automation Orchestrator
- Aria Operations
- Aria Operations for Logs
- Aria Operations for Networks Enterprise
- HCX Enterprise
- VMware Data Services Manager (DSM)
- Activation & Upgrade Support Service
- Broadcom Software Maintenance
- Support Account Manager (SAM) Support Services (highly recommended)
Available Add-Ons for purchase for VCF CSP:
- VMware Live Recovery (VLR)
- Sold as Per Protected VM
- VMware Live Site Recovery (LSR)
- VMware Live Cyber Recovery (LCR)
- Sold as protected TiB
- vSAN Enterprise
- Sold as Per TiB (no minimum purchase)
- VMware Load Balancer (NSX Advanced Load Balancer)
- Sold as per service unit (Service Engine x vCPU)
- VMware Firewall
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
- Security Intelligence
- Container Security with Antrea
- VMware Firewall + Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
- Security Intelligence
- Container Security with Antrea
- Distributed and Gateway Intrusion Detection and Prevention Service (IDS/IPS)
- Malware Prevention
- Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) and Network Detection and Response (NDR)
- Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TMC SaaS
- TMC (Self-Managed)
- Tanzu Application Platform (TAP)
- TAP
- Sold as per vCPU
- Tanzu Spring Runtime
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TAP
- Tanzu Spring Runtime (TSR)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Tanzu Guardrails Enterprise (TGE)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Aria Automation Config (formally Saltstack)
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Automation for Secure Host
- Tanzu Guardrails Advanced (TGA)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Tanzu Cloudhealth Enterprise (TCE)
- Sold as percentage of monthly cloud spend
- Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC)
- Sold as active artifact
- Tanzu Ops for Apps (formally Wavefront)
- Sold as point per second (PPS)
- Tanzu Insights (TI)
- Sold as event per month
- CSP Entitlement
- Partner must be signed up to Broadcom Expert Advantage program
- Cloud Director
- Cloud Director Availability
- Cloud Director Plugins and Extension
- Chargeback
- Usage Meter
- VMware Private AI Foundation
- Support Services
- VMware Learning Education Services
VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF)
Products & Support Services includes:
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Server Standard
- vSphere with Tanzu (includes TKG Runtime)
- vSphere ESXi
- vSAN Enterprise (*includes 250GiB per CPU Core per host as free trial)
- Aria Suite Standard
- Aria Suite Lifecycle
- Aria Automation Orchestrator (Basic)
- Aria Operations
- Aria Operations for Logs
- Broadcom Software Maintenance
Available Add-Ons for purchase for VVF:
- VMware Live Recovery (VLR)
- Sold as Per Protected VM
- VMware Live Site Recovery (LSR)
- VMware Live Cyber Recovery (LCR)
- Sold as protected TiB
- vSAN Enterprise
- Sold as Per TiB (no minimum purchase
- VMware Load Balancer (NSX Advanced Load Balancer)
- Sold as per service unit
- Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TMC SaaS
- TMC (Self-Managed)
- Tanzu Application Platform (TAP)
- TAP
- Sold as per vCPU
- Tanzu Spring Runtime
- Sold as per CPU Core
- TAP
- Tanzu Spring Runtime (TSR)
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Tanzu Guardrails Enterprise (TGE)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Aria Automation Config (formally Saltstack)
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Automation for Secure Host
- Tanzu Guardrails Advanced (TGA)
- Sold as per resource
- Tanzu Hub
- Tanzu Guardrails
- Automation for Secure Clouds
- Tanzu Cloudhealth Enterprise (TCE)
- Sold as percentage of monthly cloud spend
- Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC)
- Sold as active artifact
- Tanzu Ops for Apps (formally Wavefront)
- Sold as point per second (PPS)
- Tanzu Insights (TI)
- Sold as event per month
- Support Services
- VMware Learning Education Services
For applicable customer segments, we also have our VMware vSphere Standard (VVS) and VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus (VVEP) offers.
VMware vSphere Standard (VVS)
Products & Support Services includes:
- vSphere Standard
- vCenter Server Standard
- vSphere ESXi
- Broadcom Software Maintenance
Available Add-Ons for purchase for VSS:
- VMware Live Recovery (VLR)
- Sold as Per Protected VM
- VMware Live Site Recovery (LSR)
- VMware Live Cyber Recovery (LCR)
- Sold as protected TiB
- Support Services
VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus (VVEP)
Products & Support Services includes:
- vSphere Enterprise Plus
- vCenter Server Standard
- vSphere ESXi
- Broadcom Software Maintenance
Available Add-Ons for purchase for VVEP:
- VMware Live Recovery (VLR)
- Sold as Per Protected VM
- VMware Live Site Recovery (LSR)
- VMware Live Cyber Recovery (LCR)
- Sold as protected TiB
- Support Services
Lastly, I know many of our users currently consume our VMware Validated Solutions (VVS) and I thought it would also be useful to include a mapping of the available and planned VVS for the VCF offering.
VMware Validated Solutions (VVS) for VCF
Available VVS for VCF:
- Private Cloud Automation for VCF
- Intelligent Operations Management for VCF
- Intelligent Logging and Analytics for VCF
- Cloud-Based Network Visibility for VCF
- Developer Ready Infrastructure for VCF
- Cross Cloud Mobility for VCF
- Cloud-Based Workload Protection for VCF
- Cloud-Based Ransomware Recovery for VCF
- Site Protection and Disaster Recovery for VCF
- Advanced Load Balancing for VCF
Hey William, as an update to this: VCDR, Ransomware Recovery and SRM are still available to any vSphere users per pending updates below:
Q: Are VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery, VMware Ransomware Recovery, and Site Recovery Manager only available as add-ons to VCF or VVF?
A: No. In addition to them being available as add-ons to the new VCF, VVF, vSphere Standard and vSphere Essentials SKUs, customers can purchase VCDR, VMware Ransomware Recovery, and SRM separately to protect existing vSphere and VCF environments. They can also purchase VCDR and VMware Ransomware Recovery separately for VMware Cloud on AWS and Google Cloud VMware Engine environments. VMware Cloud DR with VMware Ransomware Recovery is the best way to deliver cyber resiliency for vSphere and VCF environments."
Brett - where is this wording from? Ingram Micro is telling us that "add-ons" (specifically SRM in our case) are only available for VCF and VVF.
There was also a Broadcom/VMware partner call back in December where I swear they said add-ons are only for VCF/VVF.
What Brett said is accurate and has also been reflected in blog post earlier this week
Thanks so much William. Ingram is telling us they have different info from Broadcom, so I'll bring this up when we speak with them.
yea, the same was shared internally until it was further clarified and hence the update
Is this info still accurate William? I'm being told in the Netherlands that vcf is the minimum version that accepts add-ons.
Sorry, specifically meant the vsan add on.
I'm being told the same... SRM is ONLY available with VCF and VVF, and
NOT with VMware vSphere Standard (VVS). Pointed them to this blog and they told me this is "Not Official" VMware info, and it is not reflected anywhere on VMware's site.. Sigh...
This is incorrect. They’re more than welcome to reach out to me internally, if they’re confused 🙂
Great article. It is surely to answer many queries and remove doubts for the large VMware user base.
VVF and other schemes cannot be added on NSX security scheme, which is a security risk for many users.
Thank you for good information. Any limitations on vCenter Server usage(QTY or Instance) in VVS? How many can I make vCenter Server?
1 vCenter Instance per CPU Core for both VVF/VCF
thank you. 🙂 good day!!
Nice Article William, thanks for sharing
Thanks William, this is transparency at its best. Very much needed in these times.
Hello, Do you know if MSP/CSP will be able to deploy both VVF and VCF ?
I don’t know, you’ll want connect with your account team for those additional details
No. you pick one or the other, and you will like it.
Hi William,
I do not see anything related to VCD... will it be still available or it will be "killed" as happened years ago?
VCD will indeed continue with the updated VCPP program, which I believe is called "Broadcom Expert Advantage Partner Program" and there'll be an add-on
Blog post has just been updated w/CSP add-on
The VCD add-on is only available for CSP partners?
Can it be used for enterprise customers?
That's correct. I don't know about Enterprise, best to check with your account team as they would know of any potential exceptions.
What my vSphere+ (Ent+ edition) customers really want and need to know is what will happen to them? Will their licenses be converted to vSphere Foundation ?
There'll be a migration path for those who've already onboarded, I don't have the details as some of that is still being worked on from technical standpoint. If vSphere+/VCF+ customer hasn't onboarded, you have a few more options which you can reach out to your account team for further assistance.
Thanks. I guess it's still a waiting game 🙂
Hello William, thank you for the informative article. We have a vsphere enterprise+ cluster and use vDS / LACP LinkAgg as well as DRS/HA/SVMotion with SAN storage connected via NFSv3. We don't need aria, srm and vsan. Which license modell fits our needs?
Hi William,
Thank you for this overview!
I am wondering that there is no Add-On for TAS (Tanzu Application Services) and TKGi (Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated)? AFAIK the majority of enterprise customers still preferes these solutions instead of TAP/TKG.
Ist it also possible to use the VCF subscription without actually using VCF? Please correct me if I am wrong, but you just need NSX DFW and some additional Add-Ons you have to choose the VCF subscription?
Kind regards,
Thomas
If you want to get the benefits of SRE Essentials which is included in Select Support for the VCF offer, you will need to deploy the full VCF stack including SDDC Manager. While nothing stops you from deploying a subset, it wouldn't be considered "VCF" and hence you wouldn't qualify for SRE Essential services (which is included in offer) is my understanding
Hi William
Great overview, but it raises a question:
VCF includes NSX Enterprise Plus, but in Add-Ons it states:
VMware Firewall
- Sold as per CPU Core
- Distributed Firewall
- Gateway Firewall
So is firewalling (for micro segmentation) not included in the VCF license?
Regards,
Brian
That’s correct, these are now all add-ons
Hi William,
is the per core per host core or per edge core?
and is it per month or per year? i know vcf
list prices are all per year per core etc
What is the SKU for the "VMware firewall" addon?
Hi William,
Is the Gateway Firewall add-on specific to VCF 5.x and NSX-T 4.x? https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX/4.1/administration/GUID-8C23836B-52A6-4014-A4E0-DC5A4C2787EF.html
In this article, in the "Add-On Licenses" section, there are two tables. The first table, "Add-On Licenses ( From v4.1.2.3 and later)," has a row for "VMware Firewall (Core)." However, the second table, "Add-On Licenses (From v3.2 and later)," does not mention any Gateway firewall. Thus, is it correct that the Gateway Firewall add-on license is not needed for NSX-T 3.2.x?
With VCF will you still have flexibility on how you deploy Aria? In other words, how does Aria Universal factor into this situation?
To get the full benefits of the new VCF offer including SRE support services, you'll need to deploy the full VCF stack (as prescribed). While nothing stops you from deploying a subset, it wouldn't be considered "VCF" and hence you wouldn't qualify for SRE Essential services (which is included in offer) is my understanding. I don't know the specifics about Aria Universal ... so best you reach out to your account team to dive deeper into your specific entitlements, as there maybe some transition programs/etc. that is unique to each customer based on their purchases.
Hi Adam,
If you haven't already had this cleared up, going forward the Aria Suite products will only be deployable on-premises. The SaaS versions were announced as being end of availability. If you're already running in SaaS, you can continue to use your instance(s) until the end of your term. At that point you will need to migrate to an on-premises deployment. You will have a 30 day grace period (60 if you plan to purchase VCF/VVF) to migrate off, and your account team can nominate you for resources to assist with the migration if necessary. You can review this blog for more information: https://blogs.vmware.com/management/2024/01/dramatic-simplification-of-vmware-aria-as-part-of-vmware-cloud-foundation.html
Great work William. Great post.
Therefore, in order to implement a Hyperconverged Infrastructure we will have to propose at least the VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF). From what is indicated the solutions:
VMware vSphere Standard (VVS)
VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP)
I don't understand vSAN addons.
Right?
Fabio
vSAN is only available in VVF/VCF as clearly shown in the post 🙂 Depending on raw capacity required, you'll need to purchase vSAN add-on which is sold as 8TiB per CPU Socket. If you have more questions, please reach out to your account/sales team who can help with specific questions/quotes.
This is really dissappointing to remove the flexibility to start with Standard, then later migrate to vSAN requiring a full lift to a suite of Foundation tidbits that are likely to not be used (for a small enterprise). Kind of encourages continued use of traditional SAN cost wise.
No. vSphere Enterprise Plus is included in VVF. That includes stuff a lot of enterprises who are *still* firmly entrenched in on prem will need (and they WILL like it): DRS and vDS.
Hi William, thanks for share the information. About vSAN, i believe it is based on RAW capacity off all cluster disks correct? Not usable?
You already answer in another post... 8TiB per CPU socket... the combination of 8TiB per CPU socket will be a interesting exercise... thanks again!
Correct, raw capacity
only the capacity drives get counted for vSAN license, or the cache capacity as well?
Please see https://kb.vmware.com/kb/95927 for more details including inventory script and/or vSphere UI guidance
Within one refresh (can't remember which one) of the "Critical Business Update- Positioning & Portfolio Simplification FAQ" document released by Broadcom that was made clear:
"8. What is considered raw storage capacity?
A. Raw capacity refers to the aggregate that is claimed by all the hosts that comprise the vSAN cluster. Cache capacity is excluded from raw storage capacity. Note, in the OSA the caching devices never contributed to capacity. In ESA, there are no dedicated caching devices."
vSAN will become more expensive, back to external storage ?
vSAN is a superior product to traditional storage, and you WILL like it.
Completely concur that vSAN is a superior product. I am leading a migration to VMware from HV right now, before Christmas I was 100% in the vSAN camp. Since the licensening changes and forcing a requirement to license Foundation or Cloud Foundation, the maths changed a lot. TL/DR version is we went with traditional SAN and VMware Standard at just less than $0.5M for a small 3 datacenter config over 5 years. Percent wise vSAN was 24% more, so as long as your traditional SAN is being replaced no more quickly than every 4 years, you are ahead to avoid vSAN. I would argue that although vSAN is the superior product, I am convinced its not 24% better by many dimensions of measurement.
Back of the napkin, I've got 3 small datacenters where I need 100TiB of shared high performance storage in each site. A "to the door and mostly implemented" 100TiB all flash SAN is just about $250k for me. Licensing vSAN, adding (as per the build tool for ESA) relevant minimum number of NVMe disks to get the same storage in a 6 host cluster is $408k more, everything else is like for like. That's with dual CPU sockets and 16 core processors.
For us the math is about replacing that all flash SAN every 5-7 years versus vSAN becoming more of an OPEX conversation. I have been unable to justify it on performance, money wise, or quite frankly risk wise. Because I'm buying into VMware clean right now, and with it entirely a greenfield license, its easy to watch how Broadcom adjusts to market dynamics over the lifetime of my new traditional 3 SAN's, and maybe we make the jump once the pricing has rationalized a bit.
I'm not bashing Broadcom at all. I see what they are doing, it makes sense. They are still the market leader technology wise. Their value proposition was extremely good, Broadcom have corrected that to just be OK to good. I feel really sorry for organizations that have 24 and 32 core CPU's all over the place, the cost increases are nearly exponential. I suspect you will see companies that can't move away from VMware suddenly doing a run on higher frequency lower core-count processors here in the next 12-18 months!
Do your own detailed math, don't leave anything out. Also, I feel sorry for William, he's done a great job of pointing to all the resources, yet ppl are still posting in this thread things that have already been linked, haha! Keep up the good work William!
We have some and happy with but the updated release of price presentation will be a stakeholder for new project
Thanks for the post, William! It seems to me that Aria Enterprise / vSphere Enterprise Plus customers will need to upgrade to VCF to retain Enterprise functionality in the Aria Suite or downgrade Aria functionality to Standard and go with VVF. Is that true?
Not William here of course 🙂 But I've had some of the same questions as current vSphere+ customers with basic VROps, so I've been looking at this a lot. I do believe you're correct, the Aria Automation piece being the key component between the two. I suspect our vSphere+ w/ Aria Ops licenses will become VVF and we'll be set for our needs.
Great article!
I don't see any mention of VMware Data Service. Do you know how this product line will be handled?
DSM details will be shared at a later date
Where I do find difficulties comparing apple to apple is the NSX capability of VCF. In fact it does not have "NSX Enterprise Plus", since that had overlay + security (DFW+GW), we can call it NSX Enterprise Plus wo DFW/GW. In fact this is a complete change in there, sincs NSX security only - which came out 1-2 years ago - is gone, only NSX overlay only stays in VCF.
You made it very clear, thanks!
Hello William! Congrats about the post! Very nice! Do you have any information about Remote Office Branch Office (ROBO) offers? tks!
Yes, that'll be addressed by our Edge Division and the details will be shared once its available. I've certainly received my fair share of inquiries both internal/external and will also provide similiar diagrams when ready.
Any updates regarding changes for ROBO customers?
Hi Bill,
Yes, there's been some update in this space depending on your use case. Its best that you reach out to your account team for the latest options, but basically if you've got Factory Automation use cases, then you can look at the new Edge Compute Stack (ECS) offers from our Edge Division https://blogs.vmware.com/sase/2024/02/07/vmware-edge-compute-stack-new-editions-and-features-for-optimized-edge-solutions/ which will be more focused on a GitOps and desired-state approach of managing workloads compared to what you may typically do today with Edge/ROBO deployments that is vCenter Server centric. For all other use cases that may span Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing Media, Energy, etc. we do have VCF for Edge from a commerce standpoint, again best to work with your account team as they can provide you with more specifics on your scenario and actual pricing/discounting
For the vSphere Standard option - does this allow the end user to spin up multiple vCenters or is it limited to x1 vCenter per vSphere Standard core license? Tks
just in case folk need to know - you get an instance of vCenter with every vSphere Standard core license.
Hi William, great post. Is it safe to assume that the features in the current NSX Data Center SP Base will be part of VCF under "NSX Networking"? We are particularly interested in NSX gateway firewall (stateful).
Please see the diagram/notes again … FW is add-on and so is ATP (eg not part of the base VCF)
How would VCF customers utlising vCD for customer segregation give Internet access to those vDC instances with out the Firewall addon?
Excuse me if I'm misunderstanding.
Regarding "PPS" for "Tanzu Ops for Apps (formally Wavefront)", it does not mean "packet per second", but "point per second".
ah, that would make more sense! My experience w/Wavefront has been the consumption of metrics, so in my mind PPS = packets per second. Thank you for correction
Hello Wiliam! What about NSX Enterprise Plus (which already had GW and DFW) and that new Addon for VCF? Will Ent plus include just Networking part and new VCF Addon GW and DFW??
Please see the blog post for your answer
Question relating to the VSAN capacity licensing.
It says that minimum purchase is 8 TiB per socket. But will we be able to purchase individual TiB increments past that or is it sold in packs of 8 TiB?
For example, I have 3 servers running VSAN, 2 sockets, 16 cores per. For VVF, that would mean if I add on 8 TiB per socket, that gets me to 48 TiB. What if I have an existing VSAN cluster with 55TiB? Can I purchase 10 TiB per socket to get me to 60 TiB total or do I have to purchase another 8 pack per core?
Thanks!
8TiB per CPU Socket is minimum purchase. Once your TiB requirement > minimum, then you’re simply buying by the TiB (sold 1 TiB and not by 8)
Perfect - that's what made sense, but hadn't seen anything to confirm that!
Thanks for the quick response.
Also, I realized you mentioned this was for VVF and not VCF. For your scenario, the final vSAN Addon required would be 55TiB where as for VCF, it would be 7TiB to meet your 55TiB since you're getting 48TiB (1TiB per CPU Socket) when going to VCF
So the chart above says for VCF you get 1 TiB per core, not per socket - is that a misprint? If thats the case, it would be 32 TiB per server (2x16), and 96 TiB total (32x3) for VCF in my scenario right?
I had looked at it with those numbers, and if I had more storage in VSAN, then that might justify the additional cost of VCF over VVF - I'd have to calculate the break point.
If its 1 TiB per Socket, then that would only be 6 TiB (2x3) for VCF, and in my use case, I'd need another 49 TiB add-on with VCF right? That would push VCF well out of range from a cost POV.
My understanding is: You will need to buy 16 cores x 2 sockets x 3 servers = 96 Cores of VVF to license vSphere Ent Pl. With this pack you will get for free 9.6TiB of vSAN (100GiB x 96 cores) and you need to complement TiB as you need. Agree?
Mark - You're entitled to 1TiB of vSAN per CPU Core for VCF (I miss-spoke earlier). You'd get 96 TiB and you'd have surplus of 41TiB if you only need 55 TiB.
I'm actually working on a quick/dirty calculator for VVF/VCF
Quick clarification on the vSAN entitlements: Are the capacity entitlements for ONLY the hosts running vSAN? Or is it additive for how many cores of say VVF/VCF you 'own'.
Example to illustrate:
1 x 8-node vSAN with HCI Mesh Cluster : (8 hosts x 2soc x 16 cores) = 256 cores
* 128TB of RAW Storage for vSAN total for this cluster
4 x 8-node Client Clusters : (32 hosts x 2soc x 24 cores) = 1536 cores
* No direct vSAN, just consuming the HCI Mesh Cluster
All licensed for VVF: (Total 1792 Cores)
Is the entitlement for the environment 1792 * 100GB = 179TB which I can use completely on the 8-node vSAN cluster?
OR
Is the entitlement ONLY for the nodes running vsan so 256 * 100GB = 25TB in which I would ALSO need to purchase the vSAN Addons to make the HCI Mesh cluster 'whole'?
It is the latter, only VVF/VCF cores deployed in a vSAN cluster can use the capacity entitlements. Since 25TiB < 128TiB needed, you would need to license the 128TiB I've got a sizing tool that hopefully will be published soon, so that should also help calculate what you need
Is it 100% confirmed that VVEP will be limited to 3 hosts?
Nice Job as always William. Sales needs you on their side to help clear the confusion.
vSphere Standard - what is the "applicable customer" range here? I know Essentials is below 100 cores if I am not mistaken, but no info on criteria for Standard.
can someone create an online calculator, so we can copy/past the output from william's powercli function of getting cores&vsan license info, and get a list of thing we need to buy? please? 🙂
I've already created a calculator/sizing tool, its currently internal for some user testing but hopefully we'll also get that published where you can then run arbitrary sizing for both VCF and VVF deployments
thank you!
some would expect VMware to come up with such calculator if not before then right at the time of announcing the end of sale for their most sold products to date, right? (incredible change of lanes really, made with this announcements)
anyway, you're a good guy Will, at least VMware can thank you for having their back all the time.
good job!
Thank you so much for the article. We were trialling Salstack Secops in our organization and are almost convinced that we need to buy it. So does that mean we will have to buy Tanzu GuardRails Enterprise? We are not looking for a container solution like Tanzu , we just need features for Saltstack and Secops for our on prem VMs dished out of vRA. What would you recommend?
This is the official farewell for Horizon, I suppose...
Lam, it will be possible to make downgrades of these new solutions ? And the path to do that will change ?
I dont understand why the Distributed Firewall is not a add-on for vvf? Any guesses why that is?
VMware Firewall & ATP both require NSX and NSX is only available via VCF, so that's the reasoning
Yes, but they could do it with "Naked" vSphere, so why not chose to have this as an option. It's not like you chose DFW over NSX. In my world DFW and NSX are to different approachs to network/security. Why not capitalize on the the ability to choose DFW on the "low end" VVFs! It's not like the DFW is the driving force behind NSX. Ohh well, lets see what the future brings! And thanks for you awesome blogs:)
Willam, Thank you for this information. Very comprehensive list of information. The link near the top of the blog post for skus links back to this blog. Are the skus something that is made public yet so we can get accurate quotes from our vendor partners like Dell?
Also, the announcement included language about incentives for those on perpetual licensing and moving to subscription. Have there been more details released on that?
Thank you!
Nate - The short URL was purely for convenience to this blog post. For next level of details, especially quotes/discounts/etc. please reach out to your account team who’ll be able to help
My account team(s) reply:
As per conversation with VMware's Team in [Country], yes there is internal news regarding vSphere Standard is able to purchase add-on of VMware SRM.
It is understandable that there is a blogpost by VMware's Staff William Lam mentioning that it is possible. however there is still no official document/slide stating that it is possible to purchase vSphere Standard and add-on VMware Site Recovery
I'd highly suggest to wait for official document/announcement for it frorm VMware by Broadcom, in order to protect ourselves and the End user.
Hi Bob,
Apologies, you're getting bounced back/fourth. I just checked (again) with our Pricing/Packaging team responsible for SRM add-on and they have confirmed you can indeed purchase. If the account team is still concern or have issues, they can reach out to me internally and happy to direct them to PnP folks for SRM.
Hi William,I really want to verify if VCDR/RWR/SRM Add-On is applicable VVS/VVEP.Could you please provide any comments about this?Many thanks in advance.
Please re-read blog post, it’s already answered
Hi William,
Thank you for the excellent blog and detailed explanation. What will be the behavior of the implemented solution if the purchased subscription licenses expire? Will the functionality be limited? Will the expiration date be listed in the license management?
Many thanks in advance.
Jan
William,
I have two questions regarding the new licensing, when counting TiB for vSAN, assuming OSA do you count cache disks, as part of the total RAW, when looking at RVTools, or vSAN cluster capacity reports, it seems to only be based on Available Storage (based on Capacity disks).
The second question is whether you can go into the bios and turn off cores, in order to reduce the number of cores they need to license?
Thank you for all that you do to inform!
Its raw capacity which is being licensed and no, disabling cores isn't sufficient and from my understanding, this is same policy other software vendors have in their EULA as well. If you need further assistance, I recommend reaching out to your account team for more details
Latest news I've heard the (minimum purchase is 8TiB per CPU Socket) is removed. Can you please confirm and if yes remove this from blog?
Thanks,
Yup, the policy was changed on 2/12 with the updated VMware KBs (linked in the article) but I just forgot to update the blog post. Thanks for reminder
Hi William, Thank you in advance.
Can i used mix licensed on vcenter that vvf and vcf??
one cluster - used SRM > VVF and add-ons
other cluster - used SRM, NSX > VCF and add-ons
You can NOT mix if you've got a proper VCF environment deployed (includes SDDC Manager), you wouldn't be deploying standalone clusters which are not managed by SDDC Manager within that VCF Instance. With that said, you can certainly "buy" VCF and only deploy subset of the components and from that standpoint, you could mix
Thank you so much William for this content. Extremely helpful. I do have a question thought on any limits to the number of cores a customer can purchase of the VVS licenses. I'm not finding that info anywhere... so far.
Hi William, your post is very inforative I understand that the top 2,000 VMware strategic customer's Broadcom will bring direct. I also understand these customer's will be granted the option to purchase VMware Edge. Is this true and will other customer's also be granted the option to purchase VMware Edge?
Hi William, thanks for this post!
I can't totally understand the vSAN Max licensing model...
Let's suppose this scenario:
Cluster A ("vSAN client")-- >3 nodes, 2 cpus each, 32 cores each, 4TiB of disks each
total cores = 192
total raw space = 12TiB
Cluster B ("vSAN client") -- >4 nodes, 2 cpus each, 32 cores each, 4TiB of disks each
total cores = 256
total raw space = 16TiB
Cluster C ("vSAN server")--> 7 nodes, 1 cpus each, 32 cores each, 10TiB of disks each
total cores = 224
total raw space = 70TiB
Let's use VCF for an easy calculation.
How I have to license the cluster "A/B/C", supposing that only "C" will be a "vSAN MAX storage cluster"?
Thanks and regards!
This is easily answered by using the VVF/VCF calculator script https://williamlam.com/2024/02/updated-inventory-calculator-scripts-for-counting-cores-tibs-for-vmware-cloud-foundation-vcf-and-vmware-vsphere-foundation-vvf.html
If I understand your scenario, the input CSV should look like following:
CLUSTER_NAME, NUMBER_OF_HOSTS, NUMBER_OF_CPU_SOCKETS, NUMBER_OF_CPU_CORES_PER_SOCKET, VSAN_ENABLED_CLUSTER, TOTAL_RAW_VSAN_TIB
Cluster A ("vSAN client"), 3, 2, 32, No, 0
Cluster B ("vSAN client"), 4, 2, 32, No, 0
Cluster C ("vSAN server"), 7, 1, 32, Yes, 70
Since Cluster A/B are just "Clients" & then only Cluster C is implementing the vSAN storage and with the number of VCF cores, you'd be entitled to 224TiB and you'll be in excess of 154TiB but has no licensing impact to "Client" clusters AS long as they're using the VCF core licenses. With the pending vSphere 8.0 Update 2b release (today), it will have a check in place to ensure you're in compliance so you don't attempt to use non-VCF Client vSAN cluster to use VCF Storage vSAN Cluster
Hello William,
if I understand correctly, if cluster A and B are licensed under VVF, and C under VCF, to be able to consume the VSAN license I would need to buy additional VSAN licenses, is this right? And in which amount?
Thanks
The scenario above is all VCF, you can't mix/match VCF/VVF licenses within a vCenter Server
Interesting, I was told by sales that as long SDDC was not involved that (mixing licenses) was possible. Thanks for the clarification.
Hi William,
is it supported to mix existing perpetual licenses with the new subscription licenses?
Hi William,
Thanks for this information, really insightful.
We are a CSP that have typically been running of a traditional VCenter/ESXi stack with centralized SAN storage, using VMFS over iSCSI.
We are looking at VCF for CSP, and looking at the requirements for the management domain, we are weighing up whether we are best to buy in the necessary extras for our shared cluster to meet the requirements for a consolidated architecture model.
From what I can see, there's nothing stopping us from installing the components separately (esxi/vcenter/VCD/NSX/Aria) and running on top of the cluster on VMFS over iSCSI.
Looking at the changes to licensing recently, it seems that Broadcom/VMWare are pushing for the deployment to be via VCF.
Would the deployment model we are thinking about be a supported solution? And if it is, how likely do you think that is to change further down the line?
This is best answered by your local account team who can speak to the specifics of the CSP program and what can or can't work from an entitlement standpoint
Hello is some difference with VVF deployment comparing VCF? Both deployments using cloud builder? or is differens?
Cloud Builder is only for VCF
Hi William, would you please define RAW capacity for VSAN add-On licensing? Should I look at the disk's capacity reported by the manufacturer, i.e. 3.84TB or 3.49 TB reported at VSAN Capacity consoles? There is a small difference. but still important for licensing.
if VMware only moved DSR to Standard, they might not be losing us and others as customers and making my employment a living hell.
Thanks¡.. Very clarifier article for us
Thank you for this William, it is very helpful.
I have customers using vSphere Enterprise Plus who feel they have no choice but to upgrade to VCF. I am curious what specific features are included in Standard. Nothing I can find really explains the feature set.
Does standard include DRS, HA, and DVS?
See https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/docs/vmw-datasheet-vsphere-product-line-comparison.pdf for edition comparisons
Hi William, can you please tell me what is going to happen with VDI licensing?. Now we have VDI with Citrix over VMWare licensed with vSphere 7 for Desktop (100 VM Pack) with Production SnS. Is this included in the new VCF or any bundle?. Thanks
Rick - I’m not familiar w/VDI aspects but I know your account team will be able to help get that answered for you, so best to work with them
Thanks for your answer, I'll contact them.
Hi William,
As usual, your posts are very useful to me and provide me with lots of insights.
I however have a question. I don't use Tanzu, but I deploy my own Kubernetes clusters. The only useful feature I use is vSphere CSI and container storage APIs. Will I need vSphere Foundation, or can I stay on vSphere Standard ?
Is there any information VVF for VDI? I understand this is how VMware EUC is going to replace vSphere for Desktop and this will be available from their new company (Onmnissa?).
I'm not aware of anything specific but I also don't do much in the EUC space, best to reach out to your account team and they can bring in folks to answer any specific questions or options
Thanks for this great info. I am planning to re-deploy my environment, since we are getting VVF. Do you know if Terraform can be used for VVF?
Yup, no changes to 2nd/3rd party integrations. I assume you mean the Terraform Provider for vSphere, if so, yup
Hi William, the maximum for vSphere Essentials Plus is 192 cores = 3 host x2 socket x32 core or 3 host x 1 socket x 64 core not "(Maximum of 3 host w/up to 96 Cores)". For reference see VMware product guide from April 2024
96 Cores was trying to articulate the Essentials Plus Starter packer, yes the upper bound is 3 hosts and up to 192 Cores. I've updated the text to make that a bit more clearer
Hi William, I want to ask you one question.
I used to use VMware essential Plus, but I am currently considering using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).
Is there a difference between how Vmware Essential Plus is installed and how the new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is installed in a subscription format?
If there's a difference, what's the difference?
I would really appreciate it if you could respond
Hi,
vSphere Replication is still part of VMware vSphere Standard and Ent Plus right or do we have the only option of SRM now.
Hi,
what is the difference between Aria Automation Orchestrator (Basic) included in VVF and the Aria Automation Orchestrator included in VCF?
Thank you.
Jan
Hi William,
I've been alerted by our cloud provider that we will not be able to rent bare metal machines with them and install VVF licenses.
I've looked through Broadcom documentation about VVF and I've found this :
"Restrictions on Use with Public Cloud Services. Customer must not (and must not allow Customer's Third-Party Agents to) use or deploy the Software on any Cloud Services."
This is clearly not emphasized enough, perhaps you should make a blog note about it.
Is vMSC still no extra license? Previously this feature can be used without license. Since the license models have change, vMSC is still available regardless of what license that we go with?
Thanks for this blog, William! It’s been incredibly helpful! I’m looking at the differences between VVS and VVEP, but apart from the title, there don’t seem to be any. Could you clarify if there are any additional differences? Thanks, Mike.
See the feature comparison doc https://www.vmware.com/docs/vmw-datasheet-vsphere-product-line-comparison
Thank you William!
Hi William. Will SRM work with Enterprise Plus (since it supports vSphere replication) ? I would hate to have to drop it and move to Zerto to keep costs down. We don't need the extra fluff from VVF or VCF
According to the latest price list (Nov 2024), you will need to have VVF or VCF, in order to have Live Recovery.
Hi William. It appears that VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit (VVEP) is deemed EOL and is no longer available in the vSphere Product Line Comparison. We are unable to order VVEP as of the last update. However, I cant seem to find any documentation form Broadcom stating that VVEP is EOL