VMware ESX Manual

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ESX Server 3 and VirtualCenter Installation Guide

32 VMware, Inc.

Whenahostrequiresaparticularlicensedfunctionality,thelicenseforthatentitlement

ischeckedoutfromthelicensepool.Licensekeysarereleasedbacktothepoolwhen

theyarenolongerbeingusedandareavailableagaintoanyhost.

Theadvantagesofcentralizedlicensinginclude:

 Youadministeralllicensingfromasinglelocation.

 NewlicensesareallocatedandreallocatedusinganycombinationofESX Server

formfactors.For example,youcanusethesame32‐processorlicenseforsixteen

2‐processorhosts,eight4‐processorhosts,four8‐processorhosts,two16‐processor

hosts,oranycombinationtotaling32processors.

 Ongoinglicensemanagementissimplifiedbyallowinglicensestobeassignedand

reassignedasneeded.Assignmentchangesastheneedsofanenvironment

change,suchaswhenhostsareaddedorremoved,orpremiumfeatureslike

VMotion,DRS,orHAaretransferredamonghosts.

 Duringperiodsoflicenseserverunavailability,althoughnewlicensescannotbe

issued,existingVirtualCenter Serverlicensedfunctionalitycontinuestooperate

indefinitelyandexistingESX Serverlicensedfunctionalitycontinuestooperate

withina14‐daygraceperiod.See “LicenseServerAvailability”onpage 35.

VMwarerecommendsusingthecentralizedlicensetypeforlarge,changing

environments.

Single-Host Licensing

Withsingle‐hostlicensing,yourtotalentitlementforpurchasedfeaturesisdivided

amongseparatelicensefilesresidingonESX ServerhostsandtheVirtualCenter Server.

Withsingle‐hostlicensing,whensomeoneactivatesalicensedfeature,thefeaturefor

thatentitlementmustresideinthelicensefileonthathost.Withsingle‐hostlicensing,

youmaintainseparatelicensefilesoneachESX Serverhost.Distributionofunused

licensesisnotautomatic,andthereisnodependenceonanexternalconnectionfor

licensing.Single‐hostlicensefilesareplaceddirectlyonindividualESX Serverhosts

andreplacetheserialnumbersusedbypreviousversionsofESX Serverversion 2.x.

The

advantagesofsingle‐hostlicensinginclude:

 Single‐hostfilesrequirenolicenseservertobeinstalledforESX Serverhost‐only

environments.

 InaVirtualCenterandlicenseserverenvironment,single‐hostlicensingallows

ESX Serverhostlicensestobemodifiedduringperiodsoflicenseserver

unavailability.