VMware VMUG Advantage EVALExperience - Experience

[Entz]

I wonder when and how they will start deploying the vSphere 6 products they just announced today to the EVALExperience customers. I am trying to hold off till they figure that out, I don't want to be stuck with 5.5 for a year.

Not sure how that will work TBH. Might be worth sending them an email (advantage@vmug.com).

Regarding the serial numbers for those of us with the original 2 socket licenses, our orders have been updated with a new serial number. Just log into your account, get the new serial number and apply it and your off to the races. The old ones are still fine, so we technically get 8 sockets instead of 6

 

[Brian Kirsch]

Just for everyone asking about vSphere 6, when it is released the Advantage site will be updated with all of the new software. It may lag behind by a few days to a week to get the uploads done but EVALExperience will always contain the latest major release. Sorry for the delay on the CPU licenses, that was a launch hiccup but we got it fixed. Brian Kirsch - VMUG Global Board of Directors

 

[Emulsifide]

Just for everyone asking about vSphere 6, when it is released the Advantage site will be updated with all of the new software. It may lag behind by a few days to a week to get the uploads done but EVALExperience will always contain the latest major release. Sorry for the delay on the CPU licenses, that was a launch hiccup but we got it fixed. Brian Kirsch - VMUG Global Board of Directors

Brian, I've got another hiccup to report. The VMWare vSAN licensing is in need of a revision as well. I was issued 4 x 2CPU licenses by Kivuto. Hardware wise, I have 3 nodes with one CPU each. In the Licensing Manager, the vSAN cluster appears as a 3CPU combination of all three nodes. Because of this, the 2CPU licenses cannot be assigned to the cluster. If EVALExperience's intention is to provide 8CPUs total for the vSAN license, it needs to be a single license for 8CPUs because vSAN takes the total count of CPUs and throws it into a single license-able object.

The VMWare documentation states this as well on the following page:

vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center

"When you assign a Virtual SAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity that is used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts that participate in the cluster. For example, if you have a Virtual SAN cluster that contains 4 hosts with 8 CPUs each, you need to assign the cluster a Virtual SAN license with a minimum capacity of 32 CPUs."

Thank you for chiming in on here. It's great to have a direct conduit to the people in charge of this FANTASTIC program!

 

[Hank C]

do we get a discount though?? =)

 

[vmw]

Are the vSphere license keys provided separately? I was given a vCenter server key, but no vSphere keys, so can't add a host to the vCenter.

 

[artbird309]

Are the vSphere license keys provided separately? I was given a vCenter server key, but no vSphere keys, so can't add a host to the vCenter.

You are needing the one called "vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus" for the hosts.

 

[vmw]

You are needing the one called "vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus" for the hosts.

These are all I have in the downloads:

VMware vCenter Server 5.5.0b Appliance
VMware vCenter Operations Manager 5.8.3 in Virtual Appliance
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b and modules
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b Appliance - Data Disk
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b Appliance - System Disk

I set up the vCenter appliance, and applied the vCenter license key. I don't seem to have a "vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus". Do I need to stand up the Operations Manager appliance to get to this? That seems odd.

 

[MiniKnight]

Hardware wise, I have 3 nodes with one CPU each. In the Licensing Manager, the vSAN cluster appears as a 3CPU combination of all three nodes. Because of this, the 2CPU licenses cannot be assigned to the cluster. If EVALExperience's intention is to provide 8CPUs total for the vSAN license, it needs to be a single license for 8CPUs because vSAN takes the total count of CPUs and throws it into a single license-able object.

I had to read that a few times but it makes total sense. +Like for you.

 

[NetWise]

These are all I have in the downloads:

VMware vCenter Server 5.5.0b Appliance
VMware vCenter Operations Manager 5.8.3 in Virtual Appliance
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b and modules
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b Appliance - Data Disk
VMware vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2b Appliance - System Disk

I set up the vCenter appliance, and applied the vCenter license key. I don't seem to have a "vSphere with Operations Management Enterprise Plus". Do I need to stand up the Operations Manager appliance to get to this? That seems odd.

Yes you stand up the appliance. It's not an integrated product in the installer, the licence activates features beyond that of OpsMgr Foundation.

 

[T_Minus]

I signed up today, apparently missing the ebay coupon Wish i would have seen this thread first or read about the coupon elsewhere. Oh-Well $200/year isn't too bad, I'm looking forward to getting my VMWARE on Up until now I've just been a Workstation owner.

 

[badskater]

I signed up today, apparently missing the ebay coupon Wish i would have seen this thread first or read about the coupon elsewhere. Oh-Well $200/year isn't too bad, I'm looking forward to getting my VMWARE on Up until now I've just been a Workstation owner.

The eBay coupon was rejected for anybody. So it wasn't a deal. $200/year for 6 CPUs Enterprise Plus Licenses are clearly worth it. (Just, not enough for me, so gonna continue using the NFR licenses we got at work. I was a VMUG Advantage member before, so that won't change for me.

 

[T_Minus]

Good to know!

 

[Brian Kirsch]

Brian, I've got another hiccup to report. The VMWare vSAN licensing is in need of a revision as well. I was issued 4 x 2CPU licenses by Kivuto. Hardware wise, I have 3 nodes with one CPU each. In the Licensing Manager, the vSAN cluster appears as a 3CPU combination of all three nodes. Because of this, the 2CPU licenses cannot be assigned to the cluster. If EVALExperience's intention is to provide 8CPUs total for the vSAN license, it needs to be a single license for 8CPUs because vSAN takes the total count of CPUs and throws it into a single license-able object.

The VMWare documentation states this as well on the following page:

vSphere 5.5 Documentation Center

"When you assign a Virtual SAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity that is used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts that participate in the cluster. For example, if you have a Virtual SAN cluster that contains 4 hosts with 8 CPUs each, you need to assign the cluster a Virtual SAN license with a minimum capacity of 32 CPUs."

Thank you for chiming in on here. It's great to have a direct conduit to the people in charge of this FANTASTIC program!

Hi All - we did correct that issue with the vSAN and new keys are coming!

 

[frogtech]

Don't mean to necro an old thread but are the licenses still heavily core/node/CPU limited?

 

[cheezehead]

Don't mean to necro an old thread but are the licenses still heavily core/node/CPU limited?

They are not limited on the hardware, they are term limited (ie licenses auto-expire), and are for non-prod workloads.

 

[frogtech]

That's fine, it's definitely for home/non-prod use.

 

[IamSpartacus]

They are not limited on the hardware but you can't use more than 6 CPU for vSphere licensing. That can be split up for say 3 dual CPU hosts, 6 single CPU hosts, or a combo of the two.

 

[frogtech]

They are not limited on the hardware but you can't use more than 6 CPU for vSphere licensing. That can be split up for say 3 dual CPU hosts, 6 single CPU hosts, or a combo of the two.

What is the significance of this, isn't vSphere just a management client?

 

[IamSpartacus]

What is the significance of this, isn't vSphere just a management client?

No, vCenter is the management client. vSphere is the hypervisor (ESXi). So you get 6 CPU vSphere licenses meaning you can use 6 hosts with single CPUs or 3 with dual, etc., etc.