Counting Cores for VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation and TiBs for vSAN

Products

• VMware Cloud Foundation
• VMware vSAN
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The objective of this KB article is to help identify the number of Core and TiB licenses that are required to properly license VMware vSphere Foundation, VMware Cloud Foundation, and VMware vSAN Add-on.

If your running version 8.0U3 see KB 400416 for an updated script to run.

• Determining the Required Subscription Capacity for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 
• Determining the Required Subscription Capacity for vSAN 
• General Licensing Notes:  
• VCF with vSAN Capacity Table 
• VVF with vSAN Capacity Table  

Determining the Required Subscription Capacity for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 

• VCF and VVF core licensing is based on the total number of physical CPU cores across all ESXi hosts you intend to license.
  
  

  Key Licensing Rule: The 16-Core Minimum You must license a minimum of 16 physical cores for each CPU (physical processor) in your ESXi hosts, even if a CPU has fewer than 16 cores.

  
  To determine your required core licenses, follow these steps:

1. 1. Count Physical Cores per Host: For each ESXi host, identify the total count of physical cores across all its CPUs.
      
      
   2. Count Physical CPUs per Host: For each ESXi host, identify the total count of physical CPUs (sockets).
      
      
   3. For Each Host, Calculate Total Actual Cores Including The 16-Core Minimum Licensing Rule To Determine Licensing:
       - Sum the physical cores from all CPUs on each ESXi hosts you plan to license. For CPUs with less than 16 cores, count 16 cores to comply with 16-Core Minimum Licensing Rule
       - Example:
            Host A (2 CPUs x 8 cores) + Host B (2 CPUs x 24 cores) converts to Host A (2 CPUs x 16 cores) + Host B (2 CPUs x 24 cores) = 80 cores to license.

 

 Determining the Required Subscription Capacity for vSAN 

• vSAN capacity licensing is based on the total raw physical storage (in TiBs) that is contributed by all ESXi hosts to your vSAN clusters.

• To determine your required vSAN TiB licenses, follow these steps:

  • Identify Raw Storage per Host: For each ESXi host in your vSAN clusters, determine the total raw physical storage capacity (in TiBs) it contributes to vSAN.

  • Calculate Total vSAN Raw Storage (Across All Hosts in all vSAN Clusters):

    • Sum the raw physical storage from all ESXi hosts contributing to vSAN in every cluster.
      
      Example:
      Cluster A: Host 1 (10 TiB) + Host 2 (10 TiB) + Host 3 (10 TiB) = 30 vSAN TiB 
      Cluster B: Host 1 (15 TiB) + Host 2 (15 TiB) + Host 3 (15 TiB) = 45 vSAN TiB
      Total = 30 TiB + 45 TiB = 75 vSAN TiB licenses required 

 

Example Scenarios 

Use the examples in the following tables show the required subscription capacity for VCF, vSphere Foundation, and vSAN in several situations.   

VCF with vSAN Capacity Table 

VCF with vSAN Capacity Licensing Considerations 

• VCF provides 1 TiB of vSAN entitlement for each VCF core purchased.  

• vSAN TiBs can be distributed (assigned) in different ratios then the VCF cores license.

• Customers can purchase an additional quantity of vSAN capacity for the incremental storage they may require for their VCF environment.  

# of Hosts	CPUs / Host	Cores / CPU	TiBs / Host	TiBs / Cluster	Entitled TiBs from Foundation	Subscription Capacity Required for VCF (Core)	Subscription Capacity Required for vSAN (TiB)	Calculation
3	1	8	3.840	11.520	48	48	-36	VCF: Though the number of cores is 8 on each CPU, customers must purchase 48 because the minimum subscription capacity is 16 cores per CPU and there is 1 CPU on each of the 3 ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 48 TiBs of vSAN, which is greater than the capacity required in the cluster. There are 36TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed.
3	2	16	1.840	5.520	96	96	-90	VCF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 96 TiBs of vSAN, which exceeds their desired amount of capacity and there will be 90 TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed.
3	2	16	49.920	149.760	96	96	54	VCF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 96 TiBs of vSAN and need to purchase an additional 54 TiBs of vSAN capacity.
3	2	24	61.440	184.320	144	144	41	VCF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 144 TiBs of vSAN and need to purchase an additional 41 TiBs of vSAN capacity.
3	1	6	8.393	25.178	48	48	-22	VCF: Though the number of cores is 6 on each CPU, customers must purchase 48 because the minimum subscription capacity is 16 cores per CPU and there is 1 CPU on each of the 3 ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 48 TiBs of vSAN, which exceeds their desired amount of capacity and there will be 22 TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed.
4	2	20	4.473	17.893	160	160	-142	VCF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 160 TiBs of vSAN, which exceeds their desired amount of capacity and there will be 142 TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed.

  

VVF with vSAN Capacity Table  

VVF with vSAN Capacity Licensing Considerations: 

• VVF provides 0.25 TiB of vSAN entitlement for each VVF core purchased (rounded up to the next TiB). 

• vSAN TiBs can be distributed (assigned) in different ratios then the VVF cores license.

• Customers can purchase an additional quantity of vSAN capacity for the incremental storage they may require for their VVF environment. 

ESXi Hosts (in vSAN cluster)	CPUs per ESXi Host	Cores per CPU	TiBs per ESXi Host	TiBs per Cluster	Entitled TiBs from Foundation	Subscription Capacity Required for vSphere Foundation (Core)	Subscription Capacity Required for vSAN (TiB)	Calculation
3	1	8	3.840	11.520	12	48	0	VVF: Though the number of cores is 8 on each CPU, customers must purchase 48 cores because the minimum subscription capacity is 16 cores per CPU and there is 1 CPU on each of the 3 ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 12 TiBs of vSAN from VVF, which is greater than the capacity required in the cluster. There are 0 TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed
3	2	16	1.840	5.520	24	96	-18	VVF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 24 TiBs of vSAN from VVF, which is greater than the capacity required in the cluster. There are 18 TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed
3	2	16	49.920	149.760	24	96	126	VVF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 24 TiBs of vSAN from VVF and needs to purchase an additional 126 TiBs of vSAN capacity
3	2	24	61.440	184.320	36	144	149	VVF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 36 TiBs of vSAN from VVF and needs to purchase an additional 149 TiBs of vSAN capacity
3	1	6	8.393	25.178	12	48	14	VVF: Though the number of cores is 6 on each CPU, customers must purchase 48 because the minimum subscription capacity is 16 cores per CPU and there is 1 CPU on each of the 3 ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 12 TiBs of vSAN from VVF and needs to purchase an additional 14 TiBs of vSAN capacity
4	2	20	4.473	17.893	40	160	-22	VVF: Subscription capacity is the total number of cores × number of CPUs × number of ESXi hosts.    vSAN: Customers will receive 40 TiBs of vSAN from VVF, which is greater than the capacity required in the cluster. There are 22 TiBs left over. No additional capacity is needed

 

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5
• VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 
• VMware vSAN 6.0.x 
• VMware vSAN 7.0.x 
• VMware vSAN 8.0.x 
• VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0 
• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0 

 

Resolution

Identifying Hardware Core Counts and Raw Storage in ESXi

For identifying license requirements associated with cpu core counts and raw VSAN storage usage, VMware by Broadcom provides manual methods (for smaller environments), and an automated PowerCLI tool (for larger, vCenter-managed environments).

 

Small Deployments or Environments without a vCenter

• For small deployments and ESXi hosts not connected to a vCenter Server:  

• • Cores licensing for VCF and/or VVF: Navigate to Host > Hardware > CPU Processors and check the value of Cores per socket to determine how many cores your host has per CPU and calculate as described in the Determining the Required Subscription Capacity section above.

  • TiB licensing for vSAN: There is no option to view the total raw physical storage capacity claimed by the vSAN cluster in the product UI. The storage capacity displayed in the Capacity Overview tab represents the available vSAN datastore capacity, not raw physical storage capacity. You will need to run the license counting PowerCLI script to determine accurate TiB license counts.
    
    

    NOTE: When upgrading to VCF or VVF V9, you must have a VCF Operations instance and vCenter instance to license your ESXi hosts and vSAN clusters

Large Deployments with vCenter

• For larger deployments: VMware has developed the attached License Counting PowerCLI Tool that collects and consolidates information on the quantity of core licenses (with a minimum of 16 cores per physical CPU) and TiB licenses required for each host connected to a vCenter instance. 

• VCF and VVF require core licenses for all physical CPU cores on each CPU running the software. In the event users disable physical CPU cores in the BIOS settings or other means, the script may produce inaccurate results. As such, all physical CPU cores should be activated on each CPU when running the script to get accurate results. 

• vSAN TiB Counts: Manual calculation for vSAN TiB is NOT recommended or accurate using the UI. The vSphere Client's vSAN Capacity Overview displays available datastore capacity, not the total raw physical storage required for licensing. For accurate vSAN TiB counts, you should use the VMware Licensing PowerCLI Tool described below.

 

 

License Counting PowerCLI tool 

Prerequisites: 

• VMware PowerCLI 13.3 or greater installed 
• Windows PowerShell 7.4.6 or greater installed
• Download and extract the attached script 

Use: 

1. Connect to vCenter Server:
   
   Connect-VIServer -Server vCenter_Server 
   
   
2. Import PowerCLI function: 
   
   Import-Module .\FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage.psm1 
   
   
3. Run Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage function and specify deployment type to retrieve results. By default, the script will iterate through all vSphere Clusters.
   
   Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage -DeploymentType VCF
Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage -DeploymentType VVF 

 

This is an example output after running the PowerCLI tool. 

VCF with vSAN Example 

VVF with vSAN Example 

 

The table below describes each of the columns or rows in the Host Information, Cluster Information, and Total Required Licenses sections.

Name	Description
Host Information
CLUSTER	This column displays the name of the cluster. If there is no value in this column, this means the host is not part of the cluster.
VMHOST	This column displays the host IP address.
NUM_CPU_SOCKETS	This column displays the quantity of CPU sockets in the host.
NUM_CPU_CORES_PER_SOCKET	This column displays the quantity of cores in each CPU socket in the host.
FOUNDATION_LICENSE_CORE_COUNT	This column displays the quantity of core licenses required for VCF or VVF licensing in the cluster.
vSAN_LICENSE_TIB_COUNT	This column displays the quantity of TiB licenses received from the Foundation offer based on the quantity in FOUNDATION_LICENSE_CORE_COU
Cluster Information
CLUSTER	This column displays the name of the cluster.
REQUIRED_VSAN_TIB_CAPACITY	This column displays the required TiB capacity for the cluster
Total Required Licenses	This figure displays the total number of VCF or VVF core licenses required and is calculated by taking the sum of FOUNDATION_LICENSE_CORE_COUNT
Total Required vSAN Add-on Licenses	This figure displays the number of TiB licenses required for the cluster (REQUIRED_VSAN_TIB_CAPACITY) after taking into account any TiB entitlement received from the Foundation offer (VSAN_LICENSE_TIB_COUNT). • If the figure is negative or 0, this represents that the quantity of TiBs received from the Foundation offer is greater than or equal to the quantity of TiBs that require licenses. No additional licensing is required and excess capacity can be aggregated. • If the figure is positive, this represents that the quantity of TiBs that require licenses is greater than the quantity of TiBs received from the Foundation offer. Additional licensing is required.

To specify a specific vSphere Cluster, you can use the -ClusterName option: 

Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage -ClusterName “Cluster_Name” –DeploymentType VCF 

To output the results into a CSV file, you can use the -Csv option: 

Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage -ClusterName Cluster_Name –DeploymentType VCF -CSV 

To name the CSV file, you can use the -Filename option: 

Get-FoundationCoreAndTiBUsage -ClusterName Cluster_Name –DeploymentType VCF -CSV -Filename “name.csv” 

*Note that you will receive two files. The one with -vsan appended includes the TiB count information, while the other file includes the core count information. 

 

Troubleshooting 

The user may encounter error messages when using the license counting PowerCLI tool. The error is due to an identified issue (ESX servers disconnected from vCenter, PDL devices in cluster, etc.) in the environment, which may impact the number TiB licenses required. In these cases, the output from the tool will provide an error message with the description and information to resolve the error before rerunning the tool.  

Below is an example of the output with an error message. 

 

Related Information 

Figure #1 – Core Count 

Additional Information

Note: If, when attempting to run this script, you receive an error similar to: "cannot be loaded. The file xxxx.psm1 is not digitally signed. You cannot run this script on the current system. For more information abut running scripts and setting execution policy, see about_Execution_Policies 

Run the following command to bypass the execution policy, then run the script again:  

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

Note: Potential issues that can occur while running the script and the respective KB for resolving.

• VMware Licensing script fails, indicating failed Storage -- Error: "The vSAN capacity for cluster cannot be determined because of the stale PDL devices in this cluster"
• Issue: Assigning license for VSAN shows 0TB usage
• vSAN license not able to be applied due to incorrect storage size

Disclaimer: Broadcom reserves the right to periodically update licensing enablement tools, which are provided for informational purposes only. Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the licensing enablement tools, Broadcom does not accept any legal responsibility for any actions taken based on the information contained herein and Broadcom makes no representations or warranties of any kind.