VMware Subscription

[dmj]

There are other free options if you don't want to go the full boatware hyper-v method:

we used to use KVM as a hypervisor, it meets all the requirements for being lightweight and stable (it's the same hypervisor GCP and AWS use) and there are some good gui tools available (virt-manager, cockpit, proxmox). There are supported options if you are desperate to pay someone (RedHat Enterprise Virualisation, Proxmox etc)

[Chclark]

These are the prices we have been given:

 

vSphere Essentials Plus Kit

1 year (1 kit, up to 96 cores) = £3,920

3 year (1 kit, up to 96 cores) = £8,230

 

vSphere Standard

1 year prepaid commit, per core = £57.15

3 year prepaid commit, per core = £122

 

vSphere Foundation

1 year prepaid commit, per core = £154

3 year prepaid commit, per core = £331

 

VMWare Cloud Foundation

1 year prepaid commit, per core = £400

3 year prepaid commit, per core = £857

 

Although not clear what is included in each, we currently have vSphere 8 Essentials Plus on esxi 8.0.2, so get vmotion and HA, our support agreement is until November and so i think i am ok until then although doubt i would be able to upgrade to v9 if it were to come out prior to that.

 

A conundrum for sure pay up or move to hyper V or a less well known hypervisor...

 

I've been doing a bit of digging around to see how i could move to hyper v and v2v via a free solarwinds tool looks viable. We have a two server/Host setup so should be to migrate the compute to one and flatten the other to install windows server but the storage will present an issue as of course all the current vms are on vmdatastores VMFS on our SAN, so will need to find some temp storage until everything is migrated and i can flatten them and re-present to the hyper V cluster.

 

Its been years since i've touched hyper V is it a standalone product now or do you still install the latest O/S (MS 2022) and install the hyper V feature?

 

We have been quoted £30.95 per core per year for vsphere standard with phoenix.

[CinelliFella]

We received our VMWare renewal yesterday and it's prompted me to write my first post on EduGeek. After waiting a couple of months to get a quote, it's increased from around £10K p/a to £34K.

 

So needless to say, after trying to reduce it through thinning of servers etc in the last few weeks. we're not best pleased. I've used VMWare since version 3 and it's the first time I've thought about using something else other than for development or 'playing'. Not Happy.

 

If you have a larger setup, might be best to start planning well before quote time.

[Andycat]

Luckily we're OK til Sept 25, but a reseller we use has just spoken to us and said it's a bit chaotic for them too currently

[PotNoodleTech]

34k!!! For a secondary school???

[pablo007]

Unsure i was only sent the above, sorry

 

Was sent this really useful doc, gives a break down of what each new subscription has within it. I was suprised to see vswitch only included in the vsphere foundation subscriiption.

[CinelliFella]

A small family of schools from Nursery to Year 13, around 1100 students. We've been quoted Foundation, but I think we can go for Standard.

 

I do have a spare server that is 5 years old though which may be enjoying a resurrection with Hyper-V or KVM soon...

[DrCheese]

My renewal is direct with VMware & I did query my account manager recently - She said they're not able to quote for people who's renewal is further away (Ours is July) which is mildly worrying.

[pablo007]

A small family of schools from Nursery to Year 13, around 1100 students. We've been quoted Foundation, but I think we can go for Standard.

 

I do have a spare server that is 5 years old though which may be enjoying a resurrection with Hyper-V or KVM soon...

 

I'm still trying to do the maths around the 10k you were spending on VMware licences and cannot get that to add up. Presumably you were on a perpetual licence and paying for support but you would need a massive core count to get it to 10k let alone 34k on the new subscription model..

[CinelliFella]

I'm still trying to do the maths around the 10k you were spending on VMware licences and cannot get that to add up. Presumably you were on a perpetual licence and paying for support but you would need a massive core count to get it to 10k let alone 34k on the new subscription model..

 

We have 6 hosts (down from 8 last year) with a total of 208 cores. Since most hosts were on Enterprise last year, we have been quoted £136.90+vat for Foundation. I think we can go to Standard, we don't need the bells and whistles.

 

I have a feeling we may try Hyper-V for some less important VMs going forward. We use Veeam so it would be good to integrate with that.

[pablo007]

We have 6 hosts (down from 8 last year) with a total of 208 cores. Since most hosts were on Enterprise last year, we have been quoted £136.90+vat for Foundation. I think we can go to Standard, we don't need the bells and whistles.

 

I have a feeling we may try Hyper-V for some less important VMs going forward. We use Veeam so it would be good to integrate with that.

 

 

 

Seems a sensible option as standard is per core so 208 x 57.15 £11887.2 (as a rough guide from the prices i were quoted) or even less probably over a 3 year deal..

[PotNoodleTech]

Maybe get your host/core count down too - does anyone really need more than 3 servers if your in a cluster?

 

3 datacentre licences will be pennies compared to what you have been paying!

[CinelliFella]

Maybe get your host/core count down too - does anyone really need more than 3 servers if your in a cluster?

 

3 datacentre licences will be pennies compared to what you have been paying!

 

It's spread over three sites, although will be two in September. So at the moment it's 4,1,1 hosts across the three sites, going to 4,2 in September. We may well have to reduce to one site/server room now. perhaps with 2 VMWare hosts and two or three Hyper-V / KVM.

 

I still want a couple of VMWare hosts for important servers, but perhaps that's for nostalgia, dunno...

[old_n07]

I had a call with Pugh Computers this afternoon and we spoke about VMWare pricing amongst other things, I was told they had just done a renewal for a customer and the vSphere price was £154 per core for the Foundation version which matches the prices posted by pablo007 above, he also thought that there wasn't currently a three year option but he was going to check on that. I've reached out to Phoenix regarding pricing info and I think we'll be able to use standard from the PDF linked earlier.

[gpashe]

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus - 1-Year Prepaid Commit - Per 96 Core Pack - €5,010.61

 

Typically paid around €500 annually for support prior to now.

 

This is for 3 host max.

[pablo007]

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus - 1-Year Prepaid Commit - Per 96 Core Pack - €5,010.61

 

Typically paid around €500 annually for support prior to now.

 

This is for 3 host max.

 

You can get that cheaper as per my post, if you need the company details let me know.

[flyinghaggis]

Is anyone using VMware with HPE Simplivity nodes? We have 2 ESXi hosts (72 cores in total) running vSphere Standard. I'm not sure if the standard licence will work or we need to contact HP directly for a specific one?

 

I'm not familiar with the process as they came with a 5 years licence/subscription included which is due to expire this year!

Edited February 29, 2024 by flyinghaggis

[gpashe]

I got a quote for Standard based on core count - 2 host / 2 CPUs / 12 cores each = 48 core.

Brings it down to €3,500 from €5,000 quoted for Essentials.

Reseller didn't go out of their way to offer this option!

 

I will probably run with this for 12 months and use that time to decide the long term way forward.

Edited March 5, 2024 by gpashe

[pablo007]

I got a quote for Standard based on core count - 2 host / 2 CPUs / 12 cores each = 48 core.

Brings it down to €3,500 from €5,000 quoted for Essentials.

Reseller didn't go out of their way to offer this option!

 

I will probably run with this for 12 months and use that time to decide the long term way forward.

 

I am being told that there is a minimum core count of 16 per cpu so in your case it would be 64 in total (2 hosts 2 host / 2 CPUs / 12 cores each but require 16 per core).

[gpashe]

Interesting - my reseller made no mention of that (yet)!!

 

Was that perhaps for vSphere Foundation - as per https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/95927

 

[h=1][/h]

Edited March 5, 2024 by gpashe

[gjefferies]

Yes its a minimum of 16 core licences per CPU and then you can buy single core licences to make up what is needed. Some of our hosts only have 8 cores, so it has got very expensive for us. We renewed just before the broadcom takeover but were forced down the vsphere plus subscription route. Worth looking at this page, there is a powershell script which works out how many licences you need https://williamlam.com/2024/02/updated-inventory-calculator-scripts-for-counting-cores-tibs-for-vmware-cloud-foundation-vcf-and-vmware-vsphere-foundation-vvf.html Edited March 7, 2024 by gjefferies

[gpashe]

This is from VMWare - updated Jan 2024.

 

Does anyone know how the per CPU costs compare to the per Core costs for a small installation (2 hosts / 4 CPUs each 12 cores)??

 

There are four main licensing models for vSphere:

• Per core licensing with a minimum of 16 cores licensed per CPU.
  
• Per virtual machine licensing.
  
• vSphere+ subscription capacity based licensing.
  
• Per CPU licensing that covers one CPU with up to 32 cores.
  

[gpashe]

Given that it is working out slightly cheaper to license vSphere Standard for small 2 host config - than to stick with Essentials Plus. What are the main advantages of Standard over Essentials Plus? Is there any reason to stick with Essentials Plus if hardware is not going to change for 3+ years.

[Cw2k]

Given that it is working out slightly cheaper to license vSphere Standard for small 2 host config - than to stick with Essentials Plus. What are the main advantages of Standard over Essentials Plus? Is there any reason to stick with Essentials Plus if hardware is not going to change for 3+ years.

 

Standard has some more features like storage vmotion.

 

They have also taken virtualisation based security away from essentials plus and standard, that now requires foundation

[CHiLL]

Given that it is working out slightly cheaper to license vSphere Standard for small 2 host config - than to stick with Essentials Plus. What are the main advantages of Standard over Essentials Plus? Is there any reason to stick with Essentials Plus if hardware is not going to change for 3+ years.

From what I can gather, Standard is only licensed for 1 server with 1 CPU. If you have more than that, you'll need Essentials or Essentials Plus, which is up to 6 CPUs/3 hosts I believe. https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-Upgrade-Install/Standard-vs-Essentials/td-p/2897248. I don't think Standard or Essentials does vMotion, High Availability,

vShield Endpoint, vSphere or Replication: https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/vsphere/vmw-flyr-vspherecomparekits-uslet.pdf. For any of those, you'd need Essentials Plus.