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VMWare vSphere 5 Licensing

VMWare vSphere consists of the two components "vCenter Server" and "vSphere". Both components can be purchased with either 1 or 3 years of Support & Service (SnS)...

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VMWare vSphere consists of the two components “vCenter Server” and “vSphere”. Both components can be purchased with either 1 or 3 years of Support & Service (SnS).

VMWare vCenter Server

Serves as the central management server for the individual VMWare hosts. You need at least one vCenter Server to manage the hosts. There are two editions: “vCenter Server Foundation” for managing a maximum of 3 VMWare hosts and “vCenter Server Standard” with no limit:

SKUs Foundation Standard
License (per management server) VCS5-FND-C VCS5-STD-C
1 year “Production” service VCS5-FND-P-SSS-C VCS5-STD-P-SSS-C
1 year “Basic” service VCS5-FND-G-SSS-C VCS5-STD-G-SSS-C
3 years “Production” service VCS5-FND-3P-SSS-C VCS5-STD-3P-SSS-C
3 years “Basic” service VCS5-FND-3G-SSS-C VCS5-STD-3G-SSS-C

VMWare vSphere

Each VMWare host needs one vSphere license per physical processor. Up to ESXi 5.1, vSphere licenses are additionally subject to a limit on how much RAM a host may use at most (“vRAM entitlement”). This limit no longer applies as of ESXi 5.5.

SKUs Standard Enterprise Enterprise Plus
vRAM entitlement 32 GB 64 GB 96 GB
License (per processor) VS5-STD-C VS5-ENT-C VS5-ENT-PL-C
1 year “Production” service VS5-STD-P-SSS-C VS5-ENT-P-SSS-C VS5-ENT-PL-P-SSS-C
1 year “Basic” service VS5-STD-G-SSS-C VS5-ENT-G-SSS-C VS5-ENT-PL-G-SSS-C
3 years “Production” service VS5-STD-3P-SSS-C VS5-ENT-3P-SSS-C VS5-ENT-PL-3P-SSS-C
3 years “Basic” service VS5-STD-3G-SSS-C VS5-ENT-3G-SSS-C VS5-ENT-PL-3G-SSS-C

Upgrade licenses

vSphere licenses can also be upgraded to higher editions:

from edition… to edition… SKU
Standard Enterprise VS5-STD-ENT-UG-C
Standard Enterprise Plus VS5-STD-EPL-UG-C
Enterprise Enterprise Plus VS5-ENT-EPL-UG-C

Source