vSphere 8.0 Update 2b was just released last week and with this release, customers can now take advantage of the new included 100 GiB trial vSAN storage capacity for each deployed VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) core for use with vSAN!
Note: If you would like to understand how much vSAN storage you are entitled to (100GiB for VVF and 1TiB for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)), check out the new inventory and calculator script in KB 95927 (brownfield) and KB 96426 (greenfield) for more details.
In addition to installing and/or updating your vCenter Server to vSphere 8.0 Update 2b, you will also need to login to Customer Connect to download your new VVF and/or VCF license keys that will activate your vSAN entitlement.
I have already received questions on how to determine whether an ESXi host has been licensed with the new VVF and/or VCF license keys and which you can do so by using the vSphere UI by navigating to Administration->Licensing->Licenses->Assets->Hosts or vSAN Clusters and using the various filters, but this can be time consuming when you have a large environment with various license editions.
This is where automation and vSphere API can help!
I have created a simple PowerCLI function called Get-vSphereLicensingDetails which makes it easy for anyone to retrieve all licensing information for either an ESXi and/or vSphere Cluster depending on your desired use case.
To check whether a vSphere license key is entitled for VVF or VCF, we need to look at the editionKey property for either the esx.vvf or esx.vcf string using the LicenseManager API on vCenter Server.
Here is a quick PowerCLI snippet retrieving all VVF/VCF licenses that have been added to your vCenter server:
$lm = Get-View $global:DefaultVIServer.ExtensionData.Content.LicenseManager
# VCF keys
$lm.Licenses | where {$_.EditionKey -match "esx.vvf"}
# VCF license keys
$lm.Licenses | where {$_.EditionKey -match "esx.vcf"}
With that background, we are ready to use our function.
Step 1 - Download the Get-vSphereLicensingDetails.ps1 script and "dot" source the file, so we can access the function by running the following:
. ./Get-vSphereLicensingDetails.ps1
Step 2 - Connect to your vCenter Server using the Connect-VIServer cmdlet
I have made the function flexible in retrieving licensing information for both ESXi hosts as well as vSphere Clusters (which is how vSAN is licensed).
To retrieve licensing information for just ESXi hosts, run the following command:
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeHost
To retrieve licensing information for just vSphere Clusters, run the following command:
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeCluster
To retrieve licensing information for both ESXi hosts and vSphere Clusters, run the following command:
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeHost -IncludeCluster
Lastly, if you ONLY want to filter by VVF and/or VCF licensing, you can append the following when using the -IncludeHost argument.
To retrieve only VVF licensing information for all ESXi hosts, then you can run
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeHost -OnlyVVF
To retrieve only VCF licensing information for all ESXi hosts, then you can run
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeHost -OnlyVCF
If you want both VVF and VCF licensing information for all ESXi hosts
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeHost -OnlyVVF -OnlyVCF
Which version of Powershell are you using to make this work? I have Windows 11 with latest PS vers 7.4.1 and this script won't work. Errors on the question mark on the LicenseName = line.
Nevermind, must have been an execution bypass error. Seems to be working if if I create my own with same code.
Might the file has been blocked from running as it was downloaded from the internet? If so, you need to unblock it from file properties in the General tab: "This file came from another computer and might be blcoked to help protect this computer" [Unblock button]
First illustration I found online: https://static1.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/image10.png
when use this cli give me an error message,
Get-vSphereLicensingDetails -IncludeHost (the term is not reconized as the anme of a cmdlet function
Looks like you didn't follow Step 1 to source the script which will give you access to the function
Im getting this same error.
Errors on the question mark on the LicenseName = line.
My unserstanding is that a single VVF/VCF license key will activate both vSphere hosts and the "built-in" VSAN entitlement for the cluster. Is that correct? On your screenshot vSAN-01 is running with vSAN Eval license and Supermicro-cluster uses the "legacy" vSAN Enterprise Plus (per CPU socket) license. None of them seems to be capacity-based. Any of these clusters running with the VVF/VCF built-int vSAN capacity entitlement? Could you please help me to understand how the new licenses will work? I mean, if I oder for example 96 cores of VVF subscription, what will I get? A single license key which will be assigned to vCenter Server (up-to 96 instances), ESXi hosts (up-to 96 cores) and vSAN cluster as well (allowing to claim up-to 9600 GiB of raw capacity)? Or two keys, one for vCenter and ESXi hosts and another one for the vSAN cluster?
That's correct, however it would still show vSAN Eval License. The goal of the blog post was to help identify VVF/VCF usage and the vSAN view was purely to provide details at cluster level but for the "capacity trial", it'll either show eval OR a license key
The process of run a tool to measure the volume (TiB) the cluster it´s nice but it´s bad. Imaging a customer would like to buy a new solution, and don't have the environment to run a script... how exact Lics the customer needs to buy? I already run the script in some "friends customer" and the numbers report didn't match. In a CPU case (cores metering) it´s easy. I think, to be clear and crystal, Broadcom_VM needs to publish a table, no cache count, just data disks, with market disks and size in report, like, market 1.92TB, vSAN 1.71TiB... market 3.84TB, vSAN 3.45TiB and so on... I think will turn the process better.
There’s two scripts, one brownfield and one greenfield. See the latter for your scenario
Sorry my friend... In most of cases I agree with you, but in this case is difficult... how we can run a script in a environment that not exist??? I read the both KBs and the mystery continue to me. A lot of hypothetical situation, but we need to be clear, and to me, unfortunately is not clear. An example, if you plan to sell a cluster with six nodes with two 5416s CPUs and, on each node, four 800GB SAS cache and 20x 2.4TB SAS HDD... How many TiBs of vSAN will be necessary?
You need to actually read what I’ve referenced. It’s clear you didn’t … If your issue is w/vSAN Sizing, there are tools like vSAN Sizer https://vsansizer.esp.vmware.com/
This may be the wrong forum to ask, but our VMware reseller is saying VMware vSphere Foundation may not be available and that VCF is the only bundle now?
Is this true?