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How to check if your vCenter Server is using vSphere+ / vSAN+ Subscription?

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Once a vCenter Server has been converted to a vSphere+ and/or vSAN+ subscription, entitlements and usage for both vCenter Server and their respective ESXi hosts is all managed through the use of VMware Cloud Console as shared in this recent blog post.

If you are logged into your vCenter Server, how do you check whether it is using a vSphere+ / vSAN+ subscription or not?


Using the vSphere UI, you will see a new Subscription entry on the left hand side when selecting the vCenter Server inventory under Configure->Settings->Subscription which will indicate that this vCenter Server is using vSphere+ / vSAN+ subscription. You will also find a similiar UI entry for each ESXi host that is managed by that vCenter Server, but this is actually irrelevant because all ESXi hosts are automatically subscribed once you have converted your vCenter Server to subscription.

How about checking whether a vCenter Server is using a subscription via Automation?

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Automating subscription and usage retrieval for vSphere+ and vSAN+ Cloud Service

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As a follow-up from my earlier blog post which helps customers inventory their current on-premises vSphere/vSAN CPU usage for use with vSphere+, vSAN+ and VCF+ Cloud Services, this post will focus on how customers can easily inventory their vSphere+ and vSAN+ subscription usage, both manually and through some automation.


Once your on-premises vCenter Server has been converted into a subscription, all usage and billing information is now managed through the VMware Cloud Console (vmc.vmware.com), rather than the License section of the vSphere UI. In fact, you will find that the vSphere UI will be updated to include a new Subscriptions tab which provides a direct link to both the vSphere+ and vSAN+ Cloud Service.

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Quick Tip - Inventory core count for vSphere+, vSAN+ & VCF+ Cloud Service

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vSphere+ and vSAN+ was launched last year as a new cloud service and the unit of consumption are CPU cores, which needs to be determined prior to purchasing a subscription for either cloud services. To help customers inventory their existing vSphere and vSAN CPU core usage, especially useful for general visibility and planning purposes, I had developed a simple PowerCLI function that was published last year as a VMware KB article (89116).

In recent weeks, I had noticed an increased number of inquiries from our field and customers on how to assess their existing vSphere and vSAN environment for transition to vSphere+ and vSAN+ and I realized that many folks may not have been aware of the scripts and the KB article that was available.

Once you have downloaded the PowerCLI script, imported the function and connect to an existing vCenter Server environment, you can then use the Get-vSpherePlusCPUSocketToCoreUsage function which will automatically retrieve all ESXi hosts within your vCenter Server and display the current CPU core usage, vSphere+ Cores and vSAN+ Cores required as shown in the example screenshot below.

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