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:
The following tables describe how to determine the required subscription capacity for VCF, vSphere Foundation, and vSAN.
VCF with vSAN Capacity Table
VCF with vSAN Capacity Licensing Notes:
# 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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
VVF with vSAN Capacity Table
VVF with vSAN Capacity Licensing Notes:
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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
The number of core licenses (with a minimum of 16 cores per physical CPU) required for VCF and VVF and TiB licenses required for vSAN can be identified in the methods below:
License Counting PowerCLI tool
Prerequisites:
Use:
Here 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 in the Compute Usage and vSAN Usage sections. At the bottom of the output shows the total quantity of VCF or VVF cores and vSAN TiB licenses required.
Column Name |
Description |
Compute Usage 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 Usage Information |
|
CLUSTER |
This column displays the name of the cluster. |
NUM_HOSTS |
This column displays the quantity of hosts in the cluster. |
NUM_CPU_SOCKETS |
This column displays the quantity of CPU sockets in the cluster. |
NUM_CPU_CORES |
This column displays the quantity of cores in the cluster. |
FOUNDATION_LICENSE_CORE_COUNT |
This column displays the quantity of core licenses from the Foundation offer in the cluster. |
ENTITLED_VSAN_LICENSE_TIB_COUNT |
This column displays the quantity of TiB licenses received from the Foundation offer in the cluster. |
REQUIRED_VSAN_TIB_CAPACITY |
This column displays the required TiB capacity for the cluster. |
VSAN_LICENSE_TIB_COUNT |
This column displays the number of TiB licenses required for the cluster after taking into account any TiB entitlement received from the Foundation offer.
|
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
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
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.