Vmware Vsan Licensing Guide
Vmware Vsan Licensing Guide
Vmware Vsan Licensing Guide
VMware vSAN
Licensing, pricing and packaging
VMware vSAN
Table of contents
Introduction ............................................................................................. 3
Packaging overview.................................................................................. 4
Upgrades .................................................................................................8
Summary ............................................................................................... 15
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VMware vSAN
Introduction
Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) converges compute and storage
resources on industry-standard x86 servers, and uses software to abstract and
pool cluster resources with unified management software. HCI transforms data
centers by simplifying operations through automation, and lowering TCO by
leveraging industry standard servers and scaling incrementally.
VMware vSAN enables customers to prime their business for growth through
seamless evolution, leading flexibility, and hybrid cloud capabilities. vSAN
is integrated with vSphere and requires no new tools. The industry-leading
ecosystem of vSAN empowers customers to run HCI on certified solutions
with their preferred vendor, and hybrid cloud capabilities provide customers
consistent operations from edge to core to cloud, with intrinsic security
throughout.
Licensing overview
VMware vSAN can be licensed on per CPU, per concurrent user in 10 or
100 license packs for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and per virtual
machine (VM) in 25-VM license packs for remote office/branch office (ROBO)
implementations. All editions can be licensed on these three metrics except
for vSAN Enterprise Plus, which is only available on a per-CPU license. For
more details, see the Virtual desktop infrastructure section and the Remote
office/branch office section of this white paper.
For any software offering that VMware licenses on a per-CPU basis, VMware
requires one license for up to 32 physical cores. If a CPU has more than 32 cores,
additional CPU licenses will be required. For more details, read this FAQ.
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VMware vSAN
Packaging overview
vSAN license editions include Standard, Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise
Plus. Table 1 shows the features included with each edition.
Enterprise
Edition Standard Advanced Enterprise
Plus
vSAN 7 U3
Storage • • • •
policy-based
management
Virtual • • • •
distributed
switch
Rack • • • •
awareness
Software • • • •
checksum
All-flash • • • •
hardware
iSCSI target • • • •
service
Quality of • • • •
service (QoS)
– IOPS limit
Cloud native • • • •
storage (CNS)
control plane
vSphere • • • •
container
storage
interface
(CSI) driver
Shared • • • •
witness
Deduplication • • •
and
compression
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VMware vSAN
Enterprise
Edition Standard Advanced Enterprise
Plus
RAID-5/6 • • •
erasure
coding
VMware • • •
vRealize
Operations™
within
vCenter
Data-at-rest • •
and data-
in-transit
encryption
Stretched •1 •1 • •
cluster with
local failure
protection
File services • •
VMware HCI • •
Mesh™2
Data • •
Persistence
platform
for modern
stateful
services
vRealize •
Operations 8
Advanced3
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VMware vSAN
Notes:
• vSAN Standard, Advanced and Enterprise are licensed per CPU (socket), per
VDI, or per VM. vSAN Enterprise Plus is licensed per CPU only. These four
vSAN editions are available as standalone licenses and are not included with
vSphere. Mixed workloads (server and desktop) should be run on a vSAN
cluster with per-CPU vSAN licensing.
• A vSphere host that is not contributing local storage to a vSAN datastore can
be a member of the vSAN cluster and utilize the vSAN datastore. Even though
a host is not contributing storage, the host must be licensed for vSAN.
• Customers can upgrade or downgrade license key versions in the VMware
CustomerConnect™ portal by following the instructions in this VMware
knowledge base article. Edition downgrades are not supported.
• The complete list of features contained in a vSAN version is located on the
Cloud Platform Tech Zone.
• VMware HCI Mesh now allows vSAN clusters to share storage capacity with
compute clusters, or non-HCI vSphere clusters. Customers can now adopt
HCI without needing to replace existing servers, scale compute and storage
independently and precisely to meet application needs, and optimize resource
utilization across clusters, all while maintaining the operational simplicity
of HCI.
• To license a VMware HCI Mesh deployment for just vSAN clusters or for
vSAN clusters sharing storage capacity with compute clusters, vSAN
Enterprise or Enterprise Plus licenses and any edition of vSphere licenses
are required for the vSAN cluster. vSphere licenses are required on the
vSAN cluster to maintain a unified HCI management control plane. Note
that the compute clusters require vSphere licenses but do not require
vSAN licenses.
• File services now simplify backup of file shares with an API that will allow
backup and recovery software vendors to integrate with vSAN file services.
This API will make the backup software aware of vSAN file shares, enabling
them to track the new data created and only backup the incremental data
created since the last backup. In addition, VMware has added scalability
enhancements to files: customers can now enable file shares on two-node
vSAN deployments, making it a great option to replace low-end network-
attached storage (NAS) filers in ROBO settings.
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VMware vSAN
• File services now support the SMB protocols in addition to NFS protocols.
vSAN file services also add critical capabilities that make it enterprise ready,
with Active Directory integration and Kerberos support. File services are only
available in vSAN Enterprise and Enterprise Plus.
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VMware vSAN
vSAN 7.0 introduced file services. A file service is a layer that sits on top
of vSAN to provide file shares. It currently supports NFSv3 and NFSv4.1 file
shares. A vSAN file service comprises of the vSAN Distributed File System,
which provides the underlying scalable file system by aggregating vSAN objects,
a storage services platform that provides resilient file server endpoints, and
a control plane for deployment, management and monitoring. File shares are
integrated into the existing vSAN storage policy-based management and
on a per-share basis. vSAN file service brings in the capability to host NFS file
shares directly on the vSAN cluster.
vSAN 6.7 U3 included two major changes in vSAN licensing model. vSAN
added a fourth edition, vSAN Enterprise Plus, which is a bundle of vSAN
Enterprise and vRealize Operations Advanced features. This release also
added the CNS control plane and the vSphere CSI driver features, which
are included in all the vSAN editions.
Upgrades
Customers who would like to upgrade an existing vSAN license edition to
a higher edition to enable additional functionality can purchase upgrades.
For example, an organization that utilizes vSAN Advanced can purchase
an upgrade to vSAN Enterprise to enable a stretched cluster architecture.
Consult with your preferred reseller to get the current list of available
upgrades and pricing.
Note: Availability, pricing and packaging can change at any time without
warning. It is always best to consult with your preferred reseller to get
current pricing and packaging options for any VMware solution.
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VMware vSAN
vSAN Advanced CCU licenses are now included in the following Horizon
bundles: Horizon Advanced Term, Horizon Enterprise Term, and Horizon
Universal Subscription. Note that vSAN Advanced CCU licenses are not
included in any of the Horizon perpetual bundles. More information on
Horizon bundles can be found in the Horizon Subscription feature comparison
matrix and Horizon Perpetual and Term feature comparison matrix.
Each remote office is limited to a maximum of 25 VMs under the vSAN for
ROBO licensing model. If more than 25 VMs are running at a remote office,
vSAN Standard, Advanced or Enterprise per CPU licensing must be used.
Any number of hosts can be licensed with vSAN for ROBO Standard,
Advanced or Enterprise as long as the number of VMs running on a vSAN
cluster at a single location is 25 or less.
It is possible to start with vSAN for ROBO licenses and then switch to vSAN
Standard, Advanced or Enterprise per CPU licenses without disruption
when a remote office grows beyond 25 VMs. The definition of a remote office
or branch office is any remote physical location other than a primary data
center. It is important to note there is no upgrade/conversion path from
vSAN for ROBO per-VM licenses to vSAN Standard, Advanced, Enterprise
and Enterprise Plus per-CPU licenses.
Two-node architecture
Another important item to discuss is the deployment of a two-host
architecture, which is supported and common in remote office
implementations. A two-host, or two-node, architecture consists of two physical
vSphere hosts in a cluster running vSAN. More details on two-node vSAN
architecture can be found on the Cloud Platform Tech Zone. The example in
Figure 1 shows a main data center and three remote offices. Each remote
office has a two-node vSAN cluster, and a witness host for each cluster runs
at the main data center.
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VMware vSAN
The vSAN witness appliance is deployed from an OVA file and includes
an embedded license. There is no need to purchase a vSphere license for the
vSAN witness host when a vSAN witness appliance is used. If the vSAN witness
host is a physical machine, a vSphere license for this host is required. Figure 2
shows the selection of the vSphere license for the witness host virtual appliance.
• When using a physical host as the vSAN witness host, it is considered a host
by the Essentials licensing bundle.
• When using the vSAN witness appliance as the vSAN witness host, it is
not considered a host by the Essentials licensing bundle. This is because
VM workloads are not supported nor allowed to run on the vSAN
witness appliance.
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VMware vSAN
Note: The order of operation is important; vCenter does not recognize the
vSAN witness appliance as a virtual host until after it is added to vCenter.
The vSAN stretched cluster feature in vSAN Enterprise for ROBO is allowed
for the following configurations:
• A stretched cluster within a ROBO site may be used when no more than
25 total powered-on VMs are running on the vSAN stretched cluster.
• A stretched cluster across two ROBO sites may be used when no more than
25 total powered-on VMs are running across the two ROBO sites and ensure
that, in case of a site failure, the surviving ROBO site will have no more than
25 total powered-on VMs.
The vSAN stretched cluster feature in vSAN Enterprise for ROBO is not allowed
for a stretched cluster configuration between a ROBO site and a site such as
a primary data center. This scenario would require a traditional vSAN Enterprise
license. Mixing ROBO and per-CPU traditional licensing is not possible because:
• A ROBO license may not be used in a site that is not categorized as ROBO.
Stretching a vSAN cluster using a ROBO license might lead to ROBO-licensed
VMs migrating to a non-ROBO site that is not compliant.
• A vSAN cluster may not use mixed licensing because a single vSAN license
is applied to each vSAN cluster. Stretching between a data center and
a ROBO site would require mixing per-CPU licenses in the data center
with per-VM licenses in the ROBO site.
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VMware vSAN
• VMware HCI Kit Advanced (per CPU) includes vSphere Enterprise Plus
and vSAN Advanced.
• VMware HCI Kit Enterprise (per CPU) includes vSphere Enterprise Plus
and vSAN Enterprise.
• VMware HCI Kit with Operations Management™ (per CPU) includes vSphere
Enterprise Plus, vSAN Enterprise, and vRealize Operations Advanced.
• VMware HCI Kit ROBO Standard (per 25 VMs) includes vSphere ROBO
Enterprise and vSAN ROBO Standard.
• VMware HCI Kit ROBO Advanced (per 25 VMs) includes vSphere ROBO
Enterprise and vSAN ROBO Advanced.
Note: A maximum of one ROBO pack can be deployed per remote office site.
A ROBO license pack can be split across sites; for example, five remote office
sites with five VMs each would require only one ROBO license pack. VMware
HCI Kit Essentials is the only bundle that comes with vCenter Server for
Essentials (vSphere Essentials Plus Kit contains vCenter Server for Essentials).
Licensing scenarios
This section contains several example vSAN implementation scenarios and
vSAN licensing for these scenarios. All scenarios utilize hosts that have two
populated CPU sockets and CPUs with less than 32 physical cores unless
otherwise noted.
vSAN for Desktop Advanced or Enterprise licenses (two CCU 100 packs) would
likely be the best choice, although it is possible to license this cluster with vSAN
for Desktop Standard licenses. Standard license editions also support the use
of all-flash hardware. However, Advanced and Enterprise licenses enable the
use of deduplication, compression and erasure coding. These vSAN space
efficiency features typically provide a considerable reduction in the cost per
usable gigabyte of capacity.
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VMware vSAN
There are less than 25 VMs running at this office, which means vSAN for
ROBO Standard licenses can be used. vSAN for ROBO Advanced licenses
would enable deduplication, compression and erasure coding features.
vSAN for ROBO Enterprise licenses would enable data-at-rest encryption
and stretched cluster with local failure protection features.
vSAN for ROBO licenses cannot be used in this scenario because the number
of VMs is more than 25. Six vSAN Standard per-CPU licenses are needed
as there are three hosts each with two CPUs. vSAN Advanced licenses would
enable deduplication, compression and erasure coding as this is an all-flash
configuration. However, a minimum of four hosts are required for
erasure coding.
Scenario 6: Three remote offices each with a two-host hybrid vSAN cluster.
The first remote office is running 10 VMs. The second remote office is running
12 VMs. The third remote office is running 28 VMs.
A 25 pack of vSAN for ROBO Standard licenses would cover the first and
second remote offices. The third remote office would require four vSAN
Standard licenses as there are more than 25 VMs running at this location.
Scenario 7: Remote office licensed with vSAN for ROBO Standard (per-VM
25 pack) originally running 20 server VMs on three physical hosts. The number
of VMs has grown to 30.
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VMware vSAN
Scenario 8: 12-host vSAN stretched cluster with six hosts at a primary location
and six hosts at a secondary location. A vSAN witness host (virtual appliance)
is deployed at a third location.
Scenario 9: 1 host plus 1 host plus a witness (two-node cluster) across three
rooms in the same building with a maximum of 25 VMs.
This scenario requires either one vSAN Standard for ROBO (per-VM 25 pack)
license or four vSAN Standard per-CPU licenses.
Scenario 10: 1 host plus 1 host plus a witness (two-node cluster) across physical
sites with a maximum of 25 VMs.
This scenario requires either one vSAN Standard for ROBO (per-VM 25 pack)
license or four vSAN Standard per-CPU licenses. The customer does not require
Enterprise licenses for a two-node cluster stretched across two physical sites.
Scenario 11: 3 hosts plus 3 hosts plus a witness (stretched cluster) across three
rooms in the same building with a maximum of 25 VMs.
This scenario requires either one vSAN Enterprise for ROBO (per-VM 25 pack)
license or 12 vSAN Enterprise per-CPU licenses. The stretched cluster feature
is only available in vSAN Enterprise. Learn more about the vSAN stretched
cluster feature in vSAN Enterprise for ROBO in the Stretched cluster with local
failure protection section.
Scenario 12: 3 hosts plus 3 hosts plus a witness (stretched cluster) across
physical sites with a maximum of 25 VMs.
This scenario requires either one vSAN Enterprise for ROBO (per-VM 25 pack)
license or 12 vSAN Enterprise per-CPU licenses. The stretched cluster feature
is only available in vSAN Enterprise. Learn more about the vSAN stretched
cluster feature in vSAN Enterprise for ROBO in the Stretched cluster with local
failure protection section.
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VMware vSAN
Summary
• vSAN works with any edition of vSphere (main editions, Acceleration Kit
bundles, Essentials Kit bundles, vSphere Scale-Out™, ROBO, Desktop).
• vSAN Standard, Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus licenses are
per-CPU (socket) licenses. All hosts in the cluster must be licensed.
• A two-host vSAN cluster with a witness host can be deployed with any
license edition, whether the physical hosts are at the same site or
different sites.
• Stretched clusters with three or more physical hosts plus a witness host require
vSAN Enterprise or Enterprise Plus licensing.
• vSphere and vSphere with Operations Management™ licenses do not
include vSAN.
• vSAN for ROBO licenses can be spread across multiple remote offices.
• Only one vSAN for ROBO Standard, Advanced or Enterprise license (25 pack)
can be used at a remote office. Running more than 25 VMs at a single remote
office location disqualifies the use of vSAN for ROBO licensing at that location.
• vSAN for Desktop licenses can only be used to run virtual desktop workloads.
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